Member-only story
“It was the best of times; it was the worst of times…”
- A TALE OF TWO CITIES, by Charles Dickens (1812–1870), English writer
About 14 years ago, I had a fortunate encounter with a preoperative chest x-ray (CXR) of a man on whose tennis court I then played with some regularity. I say ‘fortunate’ because, whether I was having a good day, or for some other reason, I detected a small abnormality in one lung which turned out to be highly consequential.
It was unrelated to the reason he had the CXR. He was to undergo some type of elective foot surgery.
As a consequence of having the abnormality detected, and this not evident on a prior CXR, he had a chest CT scan, which confirmed the abnormality. Needle biopsy subsequently revealed a malignancy, for which he underwent partial lung resection surgery with curative intent.
He is still alive to this day and, not too long ago, retired. Unfortunately, his condition was not cured, but he yet lives.
I wrote about him in a short essay:
