On March 9, 2017, I had a cough and some wheezing in my upper chest I passed it up, but that evening I got such an excruciating pain on my right upper side around the shoulder blade I thought I sprained.
I went to urgent care, because my doctor had already left his office. The doctor at urgent care told me it was bronchitis, and he gave me a prescription for antibiotics. I wasn't satisfied so the next day, I called my primary and he sent me for a chest x-ray, it showed a mass on my upper right lung. Then he sent me for a ct-scan, and he told me the devastating news. I was in denial. Because I am a very healthy 76-year-old woman.
I made an appointment with a pulminologist at Weill Cornell Hospital, and he told me the news but he also told me that I am a candidate for surgery. He recommended one of the best surgeon at the hospital and I went to see him and I had my surgery done on April 6, 2017. I came out of it very good. He went through the side, I wasn't cut from the front.
After the surgery, I waited six weeks to have treatments. 28 radiation every day, weekends off, and four chemo every four weeks. I had ct-scans after that and also had a pet scan.
On January 25, 2018, my surgeon and told me the good news that I was cancer free. I still worry about it, that it doesn't come back. Nothing hit the lymph nodes and there was no metatasizize. I am thankful that I got that pain, otherwise I wouldn't have gone to the doctor.
I worked two blocks away from the WTC on 9/11. I breathe all that dust everyday going to work. I retired in 2004 and there was still that odor there. I feel that I got the lung cancer from that area.
