Reciprocity

That could be what it was @Cbdave. It was in the Bahamas so likely they would have been on a septic system rather than an actual sewer system.

Yeah, Thanks much @BKP for your input from inside in industry, so to speak. This is what I'm sensing as well that early detection is key and that treatment results then are more often than not very good and your words only confirm my thoughts! As you say, it's really critical for people like all of us who smoked for many years to get those low-dose CT Scans annually if possible because when cancer is in it's early stages, there's no symptoms at all so you will never feel it coming on like you would with a cold. By the time there are noticable symptoms, it will be much more difficult to treat and likely poorer treatment results.

Nope! My parents used to rent a house in the bahamas for a couple of months in winter and one year there was a flooding rain and when my mother went to use the toilet the next morning, there was a big black snake right there in the toilet 😱 It got in there somehow from outside due to the rain. Can't remember where she said she went until someone got there to pull it out but, OMG, an you imagine seeing that?

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Thank you all for your well wishes ... it's a little overwhelming actually as I didn't expect that sort of support. I've been posting a detailed account of what's happening to me in case others find themselves in a similar situation at some point. It's of course all new to me so I thought it might be of interest to others as well? I received a call this morning actually with the time & date of the "Mapping" process. I will receive my radiation appointment times as well when I go to that appointment so it's all moving along at good speed. I'll probably get someone to drive me to the first radiation appointment in case there's any immediate negative effects then I'll perhaps know better for future appointments what to expect. I'll keep y'all posted!

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Good job @Kdad! Keep working at it and you'll soon be a free man. Free of that nasty addiction to nicotine that takes so much from us and gives nothing back except a need for another smoke 🙁

Looks yummy! Now you've made me hungry .......

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My appointment yesterday with the Oncology team that will be handling my case went well. It was longer than I had anticipated as they really dig deep into your medical history. They also gave me information of how to access the online communication tool called MyChart. It's a way both patient & medical team can communicate between visits and for the administrators to communicate upcoming appointment details. Most of the time was spent with the nurse detailing my entire medical history then I had to wait awhile for the Doctor. He came in and basically said he agreed with the pulmonogist at the lung clinic that radiation treatment would be the best route for my situation and would have the least impact in terms of side effects etc. He then explained the process and reviewed possible side effects I might experience as a result of the treatment; the most common one being acute exhaustion. There were a number of others as well, just like there are when we quit smoking. There's plenty of possible symptoms we may experience when we quit but we don't experience them all normally. The next steps are; I will be contacted with an appointment date for what they call a "mapping session". This is a process where they will map on my chest exactly where the cancerous nodule is in my upper left lung that they want to zap with eacch radiation session. They will apparently use a number of precise measurements that will be fed into the radiation gizmo so it knows where to zap me. It will result in a series of three tatoos on me. One on each side and one in the center of my chest. After that's done they will schedule 10 sessions of radiation for me over roughly a month's time. They schedule each session a few days apart so the patient has time to recover before the next session in case they're experiencing negative effects. Each session will be about 30 mins. but only about 10 mins of that time will be actually getting zapped. I guess the balance of the time is ensuring they're zapping the correct spot? The Doc said he's pretty confident these sessions will do the trick in ridding me of this issue (75-80% was his guess). He also said he wanted to schedule a brain MIR for me at some point. That surprised me so I asked the reason for that. He said just a precaution and to establish a base starting point in case anything changed in future. He explained that often people with lung cancer find that it spreads to the brain. He said it would not at all be likely in my case but they want to just make sure of that and have that as part of my future medical file. So, now waiting to hear when my "mapping" appointment will be. All the appointments will be in this same town that's about a 45 minute drive from where I live. No big deal I just hope they schedule my appointments around rush hour times because there's only 1 main highway that goes there and it will be jammed at rush hour times.

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Congrats on being quit and smoke free for 11 years! Hope you do something nice for yourself to celebrate the milestone @Paula B.

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Nope!

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Have an initial appointment next Tuesday with the Oncology Dr. that will be handling my case. Unfortuanly it will be at a Cancer Centre in another town instead of at the hospital where I live so that means more travel time there and back for each visit. I suppose beggars can't be choosers though so I will just be happy that I'm getting timely treatment. I'll see what the plan is Tuesday.

-16 Pesky chicks ☹️

Congrats @Charmaine H 🥳 Isn't it amazing how our perception of smoking changes so dramatically once we've been quit for a number of years? When we smoked, we couldn't imaging not smoking. It seemed so important to us then yet once we've quit for some time we wonder why we ever wasted so much time & money doing something that was so unhealthy for us and commanded all out time & attention. Glad you're FREE now!!!

We can't say for sure but one reason you've been able to enjoy some of those things you mentioned doing in retirement was likely due in part at least to quitting. I know I've spent $$ travelling since I retired that otherwise would have been spent of cigs. That's just one of many things that makes quitting such a great idea!