Some background to my journey - how and why I'm here.....

There's much to know about me, and I'm sure I'll have time to expand on that as this blog moves on, but I'll start by talking a bit about my health, and how I found myself here, about to have pretty major surgery for what may well be lung cancer.

I'm not sick.....yet.  I'm told that there is either some scar tissue, a nodule, or some sort of growth in my left lung.  It's very small - about 12mm at last scan.  It's at the top of my lung, which often is benign, but if malignant, could be something 'very nasty'.

There is only one way to find out for sure, and that's to have this operation where they will remove the lump from my lung.  They will get it tested while i'm asleep, and if positive they will remove the offending lobe of my lung(!).

I guess I'm quite lucky really, as this lump was found on routine scans I have of my spine.  When the doctors met to compare my scan with previous scans, they noticed something had appeared in my lung, and set in motion the process of finding out what it is.  I found this out in January.

It was so small back then that they ordered more scans a few months later to see if anything was happening with it.  Satisfied that this needed more investigation, I was referred to the Sussex Cancer Centre, and ended up having a PET scan at the end of August.  A week later I had the result which showed them the growth is 'hot' meaning it may well be cancer.

So, here I am now - I've had more tests, met the surgeon, discussed delaying for a while and seeing what happens, or just getting rid of it - which is what we're going to do!

My next appointment is at Guy's Hospital in London in November for pre-op then the operation is a week later.

Primarily this blog is for me - to express how I'm feeling, and to record the things I go through.  Who knows, it might be enough to convince one or two of you to stop smoking as well, which would be an added bonus.  It means I don't have to be posting too regularly on FaceBook (I never do), nor responding to too many messages if I'm not up to it.

I'm going into this with just a few, true friends (you know who you are) around me, who are coming to appointments with me and plan to stay with me or visit me all the time when in hospital.  Even my brother, who I don't even remember the last time I saw him, will be popping in and has offered to put me up should I need it....which is nice :)