CAT Scan Reveals Dog

(Chooch's real name turned out to be Baby)

My race reports are almost caught up since I only did 1 race in the month of May (more on that below), but today’s post is a brief divergence from race reporting. After Bennington Race Weekend’s coughing episodes, I thought I could just rest a little and kick the apparent cold I had acquired. Things got worse. I missed Jefferson Cup, then Poolesville, then I had to add unscheduled rest days into my training plan, but I continued to think I could fix it. Finally my coworkers told me to take my disgusting cough home. Wasting time is one of the few things I hate more than unnecessary doctor visits (I have enough of them already with the insulin issues), so I decided to make myself useful and get this cough checked out. A chest X-ray showed a mass in my right lung, so my doctor ordered a CT scan. At this point everyone was freaking out: my parents about cancer, my teammates about recovering in time for Liberty Classic, my coworkers about who’s gonna pick up my slack on the construction documents, and me…well I was just freaking out about getting an IV in my arm. I hate needles. Even more than I hate wasting time actually. I tried to convince everyone that there was just an adorable puppy in my lung, and to leave me alone.

The day of the CT scan and needle doom arrived. I was in a drug-induced haze, so my teammate Alaina Gurski schlepped me to and from the hospital. Before the Gursk and I even got back in the house, the doctor called with mostly good news: no cancer, no TB, but oh yeah, now there are masses in both lungs, and they still don’t know what they are! The next thing I knew, an unattended dog wandered up to the front steps.  I had told everyone they would find a puppy when they scanned me! I named him Chooch after my favorite Phillies player, and he moved in with me for a week until we located his owner. Chooch is now home, I’m cancer-free, and I'm cleared to ride until they can do more tests.