A [[Very!) Brief Dionne Story

[StuBass1]

So sorry to learn about your cancer scare, Stu. That's the worst part of smoking -- it's enjoyable! Few things made me happier than going under my headphones with my music, my Scotch, and my cigarettes. I was off in my own private little world where I bothered no one and no one bothered me. Having smoked cigs from the time I attended Business School at age 18 in Fall 1969 until Spring 2017 when the overwhelmingly sick feeling came over me that something had to give, I had felt no real desire to quit. I'm grateful that I finally got the message to do something about it. Everybody who has quit successfully did it in their own way, which the only way it can be done. I wish you the best with your health and a long, happy life.

Thank you Gary... Yup, cancer is a very frightening diagnosis. I was so fortunate that it got caught fairly early quite by accident as I was getting my injured rotator cuff MRI'd and they discovered my cancer in Stage 1 and sent me for further CT scans where they confirmed the diagnosis on the two suspicious nodules ... Other than normal smokers syndrome, occasional cough, minor chest tweaks, and manageable COPD diagnosis nothing gave me the idea that I had cancer... Within 6 weeks I was at City Of Hope having robotic surgery leaving a significant portion of my right lung behind... The 6 hour surgery, while pretty invasive was the easy part... My lung did not seal properly following the surgery and they were about to do another procedure a week later when my lung miraculously sealed the day before my next scheduled surgery and they discharged me the next day, but my issues weren't over... After being home for a couple of days, I sent my nephew [[whose a heart surgeon back in Detroit) a cellphone picture of the camera entry site and he told me I have an infection... Sure enough I did, but when I called the NP, she prescribed an oral antibiotic and told me to cme in if it didn't get better... I kept feeling worse and two days later on a Friday night I was pretty much becoming incoherent and my temperature hit 104, so I called a buddy to come drive me back to City of Hope... Long story short...I developed two lung infections, one of which has about 25% mortality rate as my organs had begun shutting down... For the next two weeks, they would come shoot a huge syringe of antibiotic into my lung, clamp it, and come back 4 hours later and drain it... When I finally went home, I had to have a nurse come to my house every day for a month to infuse me with more antibiotics and had a whole hospital apparatus set up for the IV bags...I also developed hallucinations in the hospital from all the narcotics they were shooting into me and made them stop with that stuff... So the moral of the story...if you don't smoke, you've got a much better chance of avoiding all those problems. Fortunately, I go every 6 months for follow up and my scans are all good at this point... Other than a little shortness of breath if I'm walking uphill, my lungs have compensated pretty well and I am able to participate in normal activities like golf, and walk 2 1/2/ miles every day... Thanks for your good wishes...