I smoked for 20 some years, quit in 2000, and found out I have cancer in 2007. It started with a dry cough. They treated me for pneumonia. I kept coming back with chest pains. They finally did a CT Scan. A tumor about the size of a grapefruit was on my lower left lung. They staged it at stage IV and incurable. I began chemo treatments and finished after 8 sessions. The tumor shrunk to the size of a walnut. Although it was so close to my heart they couldn't use radiation. They decided to remove my left lung. That was the worst recovery time I've ever experienced. But I'm alive, it is June of 2008, and I am beginning to have hair again. The cough is coming back, I'm having chest pain, and I was told there are 2 enlarged lympth nodes in my right lung. They are right by my pulmonary artery. The next step is to see a pulmonologist Monday. They think I have relapsed. I'm so sad.
