When Pope Leo told the crowd in St.Peter's Square on Sunday that doctors had found "a small, localized nodule" in his lung, the reassurances came fast.
Most nodules are benign, media medical experts quickly said.Probably nothing to worry about.I heard the same reassurances about my own lung not long ago.
They were wrong then, and on Tuesday the Vatican confirmed they were wrong now.The nodule was adenocarcinoma, lung cancer.
Surgeons removed the lower lobe of the Holy Father's right lung through a few small incisions, guided by a camera rather than an open chest, and he was back in his room the same afternoon.POPE LEO DIAGNOSED WITH LUNG CANCER AFTER SURGEONS REMOVE PART OF RIGHT LUNG, VATICAN SAYSThat is almost exactly what happened to me.Half of my right lung was removed just 12 months ago, and I was running just four weeks after that.
So, my first reaction when I heard the pope's diagnosis was not dread.It was hope. I was 43, a mother of four, a daily runner, and the daughter of a lung doctor.
The morning I learned I had lung cancer, I had already completed a six-mile run without a hint that anything was wrong.I had no symptoms.
Under current guidelines, I was not supposed to be at risk, and I did not qualify for screening.POPE LEO UNDERGOES BLOOD TESTS, X-RAY FOLLOWING CANCER SURGERY, VATICAN SAYSMy diagnosis came from a scan I chose, not from a symptom.My husband and I have always leaned toward proactive testing, and at his urging I scheduled what I assumed would be a baseline full-body scan, paid for out of pocket.
It showed a 3.8-centimeter nodule on my right lung.Initial advice from the reading radiologist recommended to follow-up if symptoms occurred.
But with a father as a lung doctor and a friend as a lung radiologist, they pushed me to follow up sooner.The new low dose CT of my chest showed the mass had grown in just two months. But that scan led to a diagnosis of stage 1B lung cancer and, like the pope, to surgery to remove it.
Still, no symp...