In a nutshell........

"They're admitting me for the night. Apparently I have mestases in my lungs and one is bleeding. There's no concern that my lungs will fill up, but they are going to talk to [oncologist] in the morning about possibly seeing a pulminologist."

This is the text that I received from C at 12:24am Tuesday morning.  We had debated then decided he should go to the ER Monday night following the "coughing up" of marble-sized blood clots.  Most would ask why there was a question in the first place, after all, that isn't normal. The reason was twofold, first it had happened a few weeks prior though shorter in duration then went away, and second, when we asked the doctor, they felt it was an ENT issue.  There wasn't any pain associated with it, it felt as though it was coming from his throat not his lungs.  However, that night they sent him for a CT Scan and discovered many "little marshmallow sized spots" peppering his lungs.  Being that C has metastatic prostate cancer, the immediate assumption is that the cancer had spread further into his lungs.

Following the initial diagnosis from Monday night, he has undergone further tests including a bronchial scope and biopsy to pin down what is going on.  Unfortunately, the results have been mixed.  The initial scan shows pneumonia, yet C has had no symptoms.  The scope didn't find any tumors, and was able to see that the bleeding had stopped..... yet still didn't find a reason for the initial bleeding. The biopsy will take awhile to come back.  Our next steps on the cancer front hinge on those results, and we'll deal with that when/if it comes.  Our frustration now is not knowing why these clots are coming up in the first place.  He continues to cough up clots, though they are infrequent and smaller in quantity.  They are still determining when they will feel comfortable letting him leave, we are hopeful for the weekend, the doctors can't seem to agree on what the criteria will be.  So we are in limbo.

This information feels like yet another sledge hammer hitting us in the gut.  C has had no new pains, in fact he has felt good enough to finally commit to traveling to TX for Thanksgiving, which we have had to postpone.  And even throughout his stay in the hospital, he hasn't had any pains aside from the typical ones he has had all along.   

Hopefully we will get answers soon and C home sooner.