An Unexpected Journey and a PSA - 7/27/2025

For those who have known me more than 30 years, you know that I was a heavy smoker (a pack day from age 15 to age 40) but I stopped 30 years ago before my daughter Caitlin was born. The old policy was that if you stopped smoking more than 15 years ago, then your risk level for cancer was the same as for non-smokers. Last year, the policy changed and anyone who smoked a pack a day for 20 or more years is advised to get an annual low-dose lung cancer CT scan.

If you smoked heavily for 20 or more years, I *strongly* encourage you to get an annual low-dose lung cancer CT scan. It is inexpensive and can literally save your life! When caught early, lung cancer can be cured with radiation and/or lung surgery quickly and easily, with no need for chemo-therapy!

I had such a scan in April and it detected a nodule in the right upper lobe of my lung. A robotic bronchoscopy (so cool!) got a biopsy sample which was confirmed to be cancer (adenocarcinoma). A PET scan (also amazingly cool) indicated that it might have spread to one of my vertebra, and an MRI (another incredible test) provided more evidence that the lung cancer was in one of the little wings of my vertebra (the right transverse process of T7).

So over the next few months and years, I will be going on a medical journey as we apply all of the modern medical tools to cure this disease. I will include posts about my journey along the way, in addition to my usual posts!

I'm lucky to live within walking distance of several top hospitals in the world for treating cancer, and I am in excellent health (except for the cancer, of course) and I have a phenomenal medical team. I have no symptoms at all and I am, if anything, even more excited about living and appreciating life and my loved ones, than before the diagnosis.

On Wednesday 7/30, I will have the first step of my treatment where a neurosurgeon will remove that part of my T7 vertebra containing the cancer (while avoiding the spinal cord). They will send it to the lab for analysis. After recovering for 3 weeks, I'll probably have robotic lung surgery (another incredible medical advance) to remove the right upper lobe containing the nodule in my lung, and after 3 weeks of recovery, I'll probably start on immuno-therapy and/or chemo-therapy to kill every last one of those cancer cells! They've done a genetic analysis of my tumor (another amazing medical advance) and they know all of the major genes in my cancer that have mutated. This will help them pick the most effective drugs to fight it.

I'm not worried about the process and I'm 100% committed to beating this disease, but even if I don't, I have no regrets. I've lived a deeply satisfying life, having a job I love, meeting and marrying my soulmate over 30 years ago, becoming a father (or step-father) to three amazing children and getting to know thousands of wonderful and thoughtful people along the way, and that includes all of my Facebook friends and many, many more. I hope and plan to beat this disease and live another 20+ years, and I'm lucky to have a very supportive family and network of friends to help me make it!

I don't believe there is any life after death, but I do believe that each of us makes an eternal impact on our loved ones and on life in general and that, at the spirit level, we are all the same. My spirit lives in you as your spirit lives in me, literally! Namaste!

Wish me luck on this incredible journey I'm about to start! I'll keep you posted! If you don't want to follow me on this journey (and it might touch too close to home for you as cancer has touched many lives), then feel free to unfollow me, it won't hurt my feelings!