FW: health update from Mark Fischer

Sue Overby

Mt Hood Meadows

Ski and Snowboard School Supervisor

sue.overby@skihood.com

503 337 2222 ext 1276

Most of you have probably heard by now that I have been away from work with some health issues.  Wanted to send a note to help fill in the gaps.

I had been struggling with a cough and pain in my right chest for well over a week. Tuesday night the pain began to ramp up and by 3am the pain was so bad I couldn’t breathe. Rhonda took me into the Emergency Dept. where they did a chest CT and discovered a 3.5cm mass in my right lung. 

Thursday morning we met with a lung specialist who confirmed that the most likely diagnosis was lung cancer.  He scheduled a CT guided lung biopsy for Thursday afternoon. When they went to do the biopsy, they discovered that the mass had changed DRAMATICALLY.  The lung was full of fluid and infection and the mass was now looking more like a pneumonia rather than cancer.  Good news!

However, by Thursday afternoon i had also spiked a high temperature and was becoming more ill. So instead of coming home after the CT, I was admitted at Providence Portland Medical Center. Unfortunately, I became sicker and sicker in spite of the IV antibiotics they were giving me. Subsequent chest X-ray revealed lung was filling up again with fluid and infection. So yesterday afternoon they took me to surgery where they pulled out 600ml of infected fluid and cleaned out multiple abscesses. They had to put in a chest tube to keep the lung draining.

The bad news: I needed to stay in the hospital for the chest tube and big gun IV antibiotics.  

The good news: when the surgeon cleaned out the lung, she confirmed that nothing looked like cancer – just infection. 

Current status: I am feeling much better today.  However, the surgeon just came by and told me that the chest tube needs to stay in for a minimum of 3 days and up to 5 more days which means I am not going home any time soon. =( We are also still waiting for culture results to know for sure which antibiotics I need to be on from here.

THANKS for all the support and concern! Will keep you all updated as I can.