Hard to Find Answers Until It Was Too Late
I had a routine CT scan in January 2020 and they noted a ground-glass nodule in my right upper lobe and said it was possibly adenocarcinoma in situ. Because I was a former smoker, my lung doctor ordered another CT scan in 12 months. This went on for five years.
Watching the nodule change over five years
Each scan showed changes and slow growth in the nodule. By year three, there was a solid portion, and the nodule was called a subsolid nodule. Every year, the nodule grew slowly, but the solid portion grew.
This spring, the scan showed that the nodule was 18 mm x 14 mm and there were enlarged lymph nodes. The doctor said not to worry that the nodule was small and slow-growing. He also ordered a needle biopsy. It came back as adenocarcinoma.
A stage 4 diagnosis
Today I had a PET scan and it came back as stage 4 non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). I am 78 years old and will meet with an oncologist this September. The survival rate doesn't look good.
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