by Gary Lewis

Created on: January 03, 2009

Here I sit at the computer, my breathing has much improved after a Stanford surgeon removed the upper lobe of my right lung, performed a resection on the second lobe (resection: She removed part of that lobe too) and re-sleeved the Bronchus (part of my Trachea). The remaining lung parts have expanded to fill the thoracic cavity.

The lungs are resilient to a degree. I was told by one of the people at the hospital in Palo Alto, California where the six plus hour operation took place that if the lungs would be stretched out flat, they would cover a football field. Amazing stuff, those lungs. I'm about at the forty yard line in lung capacity, I do not ride the bicycle yet or take long walks yet. Sometimes God has to kick a person really good in the slats (ribs) to get their attention. Looking forward to summer of 2009 when I hope to be able to get the bike off the rack, pump up the tires and get back into pedaling around the block. It has been a long haul.

I have a new lease on the old life now, I really wasn't sure just how long I had left in August of 2007 when I went under the knife. Questions flooded my mine then. I didn't know if I would even wake up from the surgery or what my wife was going to do without me. What my chances were or what my quality of life would be after. Was I going to have to drag that heavy oxygen bottle around wherever I went or have the plastic tubing laying all over the house for everybody to be tripping over. Scary stuff... If I hadn't put it in the hands of the Almighty, I'd have been a blubbering mess.

The operating room staff had put me to sleep, stretched out my right arm with me lying on my side. they had to cut through a lot of muscle, actually break a rib, and dislocate my shoulder for the surgeon to get her hands into my chest to perform all the different things she had to do. I actually watched a video of it being done to someone else and it brought the question to my mind at the time, "did he really live through that? I can say now:

I have! I've been there, bought the tapes and the tee shirt..... I hate it when someone kicks a habit and then tries to make everyone else they meet quit just because they did. Writing that, I am still compelled to tell you that what I went through would not have been necessary had I not smoked. I want to walk up to people, grab them by the shoulders and shake them and tell my story over and over. You don't have to go through what I did. I can't do that, they'd lock me up as being a 5150 (people who are considered to be a danger to themselves or others). You will have to live through it yourself.

I was lucky, they got all the cancer and I have gone over a year without anything showing up in the lungs that would signal a recurrence. Lucky that the lymph nodes are clear, Lucky again that there has been no requirement for Chemotherapy or Radiation treatments.

That eight inch pink scar that I sport under my right arm is a reminder to me every time I take my shirt off that the time I have left is precious. God has a plan for my life and it hasn't been completed yet.

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