It was late January in 2004 and my wife and I were celebrating her 50th birthday in my new oncologist’s office. During a routine physical myprimary care physician discovered that my WBC’s (white blood cell) were elevated. So off to the oncologist where I learned that I had leukemia, more specifically, chronic lymphocytic leukemia. As scary as it was, I supposethat if you’re diagnosed with leukemia, “CLL” is the best one to have, if I may say that. It took about six months for me to get a handle on it.

Then in February 2010 on the advice of both my primary care physician and my oncologist, I was having an endoscopy because of difficulty swallowing. Not to worry I was told he’ll scope you and dilate your esophagus and you’ll be better than new. Well so much for that procedure. When I woke up and asked how everything went there was silence. My wife was called and we were to meet with the doctor in his office. He entered the office, greeted us, and began to explain that he found a tumor. “Well why didn’t you cut it out while you were down there?” I asked him. Try now to understand that I was a man who thought that leukemia was like a bad caseof the flu six years ago. So just like that, I thought that tumors were just removed with a scalpel, laser beam, whatever. Now I’m hearing, “I’m sorry, it’s cancer.” Cancer……oh no, not me, no way!