Day Zero is what I’m calling the day you get a call from the doctor, who normally never calls you about test results, and the news is not good.
May 10th is the day I get that call, and it’s cancer. Some form of cancer in my chest which has shown up on an x-ray. 74 days earlier the same chest x-ray showed no problems, today there is a problem.
I’d been seeing my doctor since about mid February with a shoulder pain issue and some shortness of breath and coughing that seemed to be hanging on for a long time. At that time the shortness of breath and cough had been chalked up to a cold/flu that was going around and had similar symptoms that took a long time to resolve. On a May 8th visit I had another chest x-ray to follow up on my symptoms. This is the one that started the whole ball rolling.
My doctor arranged for a CT scan and a thoracic surgeon consult. The CT to gather more information on the cancer tumor and the surgeon to do the biopsy to get a definitive diagnosis on the exact type of cancer.
We sit on the news for a few days until the CT scan results are in and then we break the news to our family, a tough conversation for sure when there are still many unknowns. The suspicion is Lymphoma, but the biopsy is needed to confirm. Things seem to be moving very fast now.