When Pope Leo told the crowd in St. Peter's Square on Sunday that doctors had found "a small, localized nodule" in his lung, the reassurances came fast.
asserted
reassurances → tell → lung
Most nodules are benign, media medical experts quickly said.
asserted
experts → say → ?
I heard the same reassurances about my own lung not long ago.
asserted
I → hear → lung
They were wrong then, and on Tuesday the Vatican confirmed they were wrong now.
asserted
they → confirm → Tuesday
Surgeons removed the lower lobe of the Holy Father's right lung through a few small incisions, guided by a camera rather than an open chest, and he was back in his room the same afternoon.
asserted
he → remove → room
That is almost exactly what happened to me.
asserted
what → happen → me
Half of my right lung was removed just 12 months ago, and I was running just four weeks after that.
asserted
I → remove → that
So, my first reaction when I heard the pope's diagnosis was not dread.
asserted
I → hear → diagnosis
The morning I learned I had lung cancer, I had already completed a six-mile run without a hint that anything was wrong.
asserted
anything → learn → hint
I had no symptoms.
asserted
I → have → symptoms
Under current guidelines, I was not supposed to be at risk, and I did not qualify for screening.
asserted
I → suppose → screening
My diagnosis came from a scan I chose, not from a symptom.
asserted
I → come → symptom
My husband and I have always leaned toward proactive testing, and at his urging I scheduled what I assumed would be a baseline full-body scan, paid for out of pocket.
asserted
I → lean → pocket
It showed a 3.8-centimeter nodule on my right lung.
asserted
It → show → lung
Initial advice from the reading radiologist recommended to follow-up if symptoms occurred.
asserted
symptoms → recommend → radiologist
But with a father as a lung doctor and a friend as a lung radiologist, they pushed me to follow up sooner.
asserted
they → push → me
The new low dose CT of my chest showed the mass had grown in just two months.
asserted
mass → show → months
But that scan led to a diagnosis of stage 1B lung cancer and, like the pope, to surgery to remove it.
asserted
scan → lead → it
Still, no symptoms ever appeared.
asserted
symptoms → appear → ?
I was running again within weeks.
asserted
I → run → weeks
Caught early and handled by a skilled medical team and a surgeon who does this every day, lung cancer is not a death sentence.
asserted
cancer → catch → this
If the pope keeps his November trip to South America, he will board that plane about as far out from surgery as I was.
asserted
I → keep → surgery
So the gloom I see in my text threads with Catholic friends this week is misplaced.
asserted
I → see → friends
What should worry Americans is something else entirely.
asserted
worry → worry → Americans
The pope's cancer was found during a routine checkup.
asserted
cancer → find → checkup
Mine was found because I paid for a scan no one recommended.
asserted
one → find → scan
Most Americans get neither.
asserted
Americans → get → neither
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States and one of the most expensive cancers to treat, because it is usually found late.
asserted
it → lead → cancers
Current guidelines recommend screening only for adults ages 50 to 80 with a heavy smoking history.
asserted
guidelines → recommend → history
Fewer than one in five people who qualify ever get the scan.
asserted
who → qualify → scan
And nearly two-thirds of people diagnosed with lung cancer would not have qualified at all.
asserted
thirds → diagnose → cancer
Found at stage I, five-year survival can exceed 90%.
asserted
survival → find → %
Yet most cases are still found after the disease has spread, when curative treatment becomes unlikely.
asserted
treatment → find → ?
The Saving Health by Identifying Risk for Americans (SHIRA) Act, a draft bill now circulating in the White House, HHS and Congress, would make lung cancer screening free to the patient under Medicare — no copay, no deductible.
asserted
screening → circulate → Medicare
It would cover veterans exposed to burn pits, guarantee a first scan to cancer survivors and those with a family history, and require Medicare to modernize who counts as "high risk" so that never-smokers, like me, stop being invisible.
asserted
smokers → cover → me
It builds a path toward age-based screening after 40, the way we already screen for breast and colorectal cancer.
asserted
we → build → cancer
A preventive scan, a persistent friend and father, and an early diagnosis gave me a future I might not otherwise have had.
uncertain
I → give → future
The pope was fortunate too: a routine check found his cancer before he felt a thing.
asserted
he → find → thing
Luck should not decide who survives lung cancer.
asserted
who → decide → cancer
I am praying for the pope this week, and I am confident.
asserted
I → pray → pope
…and 1 more, not listed.
The Aporia
