Procrastination is not a good thing.

Back in mid-december of 2000, I noticed a little bump on the right side of my neck. I was seeing a chiropractor on a regular basis at the time cause I was having a stiff neck. The chiropractor figured it was just a knot in one of the many muscles in my neck and said it would loosen up as my neck got better.

The lump gradually got bigger. It never hurt. Being a good german-raised kid, I knew better than to go to the doctor when I felt fine. Besides, going to the doctor is scary. They rarely have good news for you. So I waited.

In early July of 2001, I had my wife make an appointment for me with the family doctor. By this time, I was pretty sure this wouldn't just magically get better on it's own. And the lump looked really weird. On July 11th, I met with my doctor. He felt the lump a little, and asked some questions. He figured the lump was due to one of the following. Tuberculosis, a cyst, or lymphoma. He was leaning towards a cyst. I've had several cysts removed in the past so this seemed like a logical explanation to me. In order to know for sure he had a "manto" test done, a blood test done, and a chest x-ray taken. The "manto" test came back clean, no TB! The blood test came back normal, more good news. But there was a questionable cloudiness on the right side of my chest (the same side as the lump). So, he scheduled me for a CT scan the very next day. And scheduled an appointment with a Head & Neck specialist for July 16th.

The CT scan verified that there is a growth in my chest and in my neck.

On July 16, I met with the Head & Neck specialist. He quickly decided that we need to do a biopsy and determine the nature of the tumor. Yep, tumor. That was the first time any of the medical staff had used that word. Tumor. Isn't it amazing how one word can cause so much fear and dread? He scheduled a surgery date for July 19th. I'll spend most of the day in Duluth getting cut open and prodded and poked. And he said I should plan on taking the next day off from work.

And in the middle of this whole ordeal we are moving our house 18 miles, to some land we recently bought, and building a garage.