In September 2018, the pain in my ribs and back erupted almost overnight. I ignored it at first, sure that I had done too many abdominal exercises at the gym. When the pain persisted for a few weeks, I went to my doctor. She was a bit concerned, but all my blood and urine tests came back normal.
Two months later, the pain intensified and started waking me at night. I made an appointment with a physical therapist. Within 10 minutes of examining me, a shadow came over the therapist’s face. “I don’t want to alarm you, but this pain is not muscular-skeletal,” she told me. “You need to get a CT scan. Today.”
Later that day—the Wednesday before Thanksgiving—my husband Greg and I sat in our local hospital’s emergency department, waiting for scan results. When the ED doctor returned to my room, her tone was serious.