In Dec. 2009 I went for my annual physical, all went well. I had a new doctor as mine had retired. By chance he gave me a chest x-ray. Not standard procedure, but as my new primary he wanted to be thorough I suppose. I went home and soon received a call to go to the hospital right now, I had a spot on my lung. I got a biopsy and indeed I had a tumor the size of a baseball in my right lung. I had no symptoms. I was playing softball three times a week and running with no problem. After diagnosis I felt like a walking dead man. They told me it is not necessarily a death sentence anymore. I went for chemo for about eight weeks. On March tenth, after playing a double header on the ninth, I went for surgery and lost 40 percent of my right lung. They said most of the tumor was dead and my prognosis was good. They removed 37 lymph nodes and none had cancer. After a brief rest I went back for two or three more chemo visits. I was done, and it is now over three years later. I feel good being back playing softball. I get CT and PET scans to monitor my lung, which I suppose will be true the rest of my life. I must admit, when I get a scan I am nervous until I get results. So far so good. It went exactly as my doctors said, the only doctor I see now is lung doctor. I was lucky. Keep the faith.
