Biography

I am a 60 year old, married, father of 4.  I was a smoker for the better part of 40 years and I worked as a welder for almost 35 years.   My wife and I have been married for 24 years during which time we have renovated 6 houses.  All of these things have been contributing factors to my diagnosis; I couldn’t be bothered to wear proper dust masks/respirators, as I found they would just “get in the way”.  My diagnosis came to light completely by accident, I had fallen in my driveway and thought I broke a rib, so I went to the hospital to get an x-ray.  The Dr. on duty in the emerg noticed some shading in my left lung and sent me to get a CT scan the following week and my diagnosis was confirmed 9 months later after many more tests.  Without Dr. Colby sending me to get the CT scan, I probably would not have gotten the diagnosis for a couple years.