Wow!

I am sooooooooo lucky.

To explain this, I have to go back to a sad thing that happened some months ago.

You see, I had a friend from book club and she developed breast cancer several years after I did.

That's right, after.

But, in her case, the disease kind of jumped from her breast to her lungs. And, quite soon, she died.

Now we fast forward to my visit with the big brain doctor in Owen Sound. I admitted that I sometimes smoke and right away he ordered a cat scan of my chest.

To say I was worried is putting it mildly. Heck, I was even planning my funeral.    

(I thought I would wear my painted outfit and one of my many hats and videotape my own final remarks. Then I would have all my books and paintings on site, and invite people to choose something they liked and take it home. My last gift, so to speak.)

I'm sorry if this sounds morbid, but I really did dodge a bullet when I survived breast cancer.

Now, I treasure every day, but in these circumstances, it's easy to panic.

So I had the test done. Then I went home to wait and worry. I was sitting at my own desk stewing about all this, when I suddenly realized that I was being ridiculous.

I should do something positive. Something proactive. I was acting like a pathetic little scaredy-cat. And that is not me.

(Not even close.)

So I set out on a mission to discover the results of that test.

That may sound easier than it really is. The problem was that only a doctor could give me the results. And my return visit to the Owen Sound doctor was being delayed by some complicated blood tests I needed.

(Really complicated. These tests have to be booked in advance, so a refrigerator truck can pick the blood up within an hour. Many labs don't even offer the tests.) So, it looked as if I just had to wait.

But I have not been a journalist all my life for nothing. And a phone is a journalist's best friend.
I remember one time in Stratford our retired MP died. He had represented the riding for many years. I had just three hours to do a bang-up story on his whole career, not just his death. But first I had all the research to do. I started to dial numbers, getting quotes. But I also asked everyone for another useful phone number.

In the end, I actually got the phone number of Robert Stanfield, the party leader when our MP was in Ottawa. So I called it and he answered the phone himself. I ended up getting a great story.

Doctors, especially specialists, are like party leaders, hard to reach by phone. But, again, I just started dialing numbers, inching my way up the ladder.

And I got absolutely terrific news! My lungs are clear and I am entirely cancer-free.

Now, that is lucky.