Thanks for sharing your story. My friend was not so lucky. She had an odd bump on the back of her head and was planning to see a dermatologist soon. As it turned out, that lump was brain cancer spreading outside her skull which was a metastisization of a cancer in one of her lungs. Cancer was also spreading to her bones and lymph nodes so by the time it was discovered, it was too late. I lost her only about 2-1/2 months after the discovery.
There's a bizarre story behind the discovery: I was taking her for blood work for an unrelated issue and her rollator toppled over in the parking lot, striking the back of her head and she was taken to ER. A cat scan then revealed the mass in her brain....and here we are. She had already survived breast cancer and open heart surgery and was only 74 when she passed.
Following old southern tradition from back in the 50s and 60s, she and I both were smokers for many years. Chest x-rays were common in family doctor's offices for a long time, but now they're farming it all out so you have to go to a hospital for that. As a result, neither of us had a chest x-ray for many years. Needless to say, I plan on getting one very soon (or whatever test they're using these days for lung scan).
I hope you can have periodic precautionary tests done to be sure everything is still OK, if nothing else for emotional and mental relief. Perhaps someday there will be a simple doctor's office test developed that will indicate a warning flag of possible cancer activity in our body.
Best of luck!.......
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