Laurie,

Welcome to our group of survivors.

I belong to a few support groups and the standard welcome is "...sorry
that you are here..." Heck! You are a survivor and it's good to be here.

The internet is full of support groups with thousands of Cancer
Survivors asking the same question, "Why didn't my doctor diagnose me
properly?"

My wife was misdiagnosed for more than 20 years before her Cancer got
to the point that her tumor was obvious and her PCP went behind the
back of her ENT who still claimed there was nothing wrong with her.

My first Cancer was overlooked by an emergency room doctor and only
was found by my PCP after he noticed an error in the ER notes.

My second Cancer was misdiagnosed by the pathologists for years until
it had grown outside the capsule and I had to have major surgery
instead of a simple endoscopic snip.

OK. The surgeries, radiation, and chemo were probably a bit worse than
the injuries I got playing high school football. So what? They are
behind me now. My life is a lot different than it was before, but in
many ways it is a whole lot better.

And, yes, I had a lot of anger at various times during my 9 years of
being a survivor. I am likely to get angry in the future.

Yesterday was my mother's 92nd birthday. It was a beautiful sunny day.
We went for a ride on the back roads of Massachusetts peeping at all
the colorful leaves that we are so lucky to have in New England every
fall. My mother was thrilled and that made my wife and me very happy.

Among the three of us (my mother, my wife, and me) we don't know which
one will be the first, second, or last to go. It doesn't matter
because we are going to squeeze what we can out of our lives.

Shalom,
Chuck