As a lifetime smoker I resolved that from the age of 50 I would have an annual chest X-ray, and so I did - year after year after year and the results came back year after year: no change, no change, no change.
Last August I developed a chest infection, my GP suggested a chest X-ray - and discovered, to my horror, that the last one I had had was three years earlier.
Silly me.
The vicious, evil disease that turns the body against itself had its chance - and took it.
The X-ray revealed a shadow on the lung; a CAT scan revealed a tumour; a biopsy showed it was cancerous; and a PET scan in Hamilton revealed two nearby secondary growths but, thank God, no evidence of cancer anywhere else in my body.
The oncology specialists at Waikato Hospital ruled out surgery, and at that stage radiation, and thus began my treatment - chemotherapy. I am in the middle of my second course of that, and it isn't easy.
I am fortunate not to suffer vomiting and diarrhoea or loss of appetite but am weekly afflicted by an enervation the like of which I have never suffered in my life - lack of energy, tiredness and shortness of breath - which sometimes confines me to my easy chair for days at a time.
Take my word for it, chemotherapy is not nice, but it is all that there is for me at this stage so I'm taking it on the chin and praying that it works.
It won't cure, but it may give me more time.
However, the whole sad business is ameliorated by the public hospital system which, for all that it is so often criticised, has been treating me royally and I am enormously impressed with the standard of care I receive at Rotorua and Waikato hospitals.
The chief chemotherapy oncologist at Waikato serves Rotorua Hospital, too - Dr Lawrence Nagle, a down-to-earth, no-nonsense American who doesn't mince words - and I appreciate him for that.
The chief radiation oncologist, Opotiki-born Leanne Tyrie, is another who doesn't dissemble. I note that she has been appointed clinical director of the new radiation unit at Tauranga Hospital. The Bay is fortunate.
But it is the staff of the chemotherapy day stay unit at Rotorua Hospital, and the hospital's special cancer care team, who make my weekly treatments bearable.
What great teams they are.
Since last August I have had more X-rays, more scans and more needles stuck into various parts of my body than I have had in all my 73 years.
And in every department of both Rotorua and Waikato Hospitals - X-ray, CAT and MRI scanning, emergency department, outpatients, blood testing and chemotherapy - I have had the benefit of committed, concerned, competent and compassionate nurses, doctors, technicians and administrators.
By now you will understand that column writing is not anywhere near the top of my priority list. I am in self-defence mode.
Where all this will end up, I have no idea - and at this stage no one can give me an idea - but, with God's help I will see it through to the end, whenever that might be.
Meanwhile, for those of you who are in the habit, prayers on my behalf are more than welcome.
garth.george@hotmail.com
Garth George is a veteran newspaper journalist, retired and living in Rotorua.
