On this April 25th I'm supposed to be fairly-well recovered from lung surgery and approaching my outpatient cataract surgery via laser but the Covid-19 virus has turned the world upside down.

NYU/Langone Winthrop (on my VA referral) and the VA Hospital at Northport, Long Island are overwhelmed with virus patients and not doing surgeries unless it's out of the ERs. Cancer patients such as myself have been set aside.

I understand the deal and am OK with it, especially since my last two CT scans from October and February show me to be cancer free. The surgery to remove the lower lobe of my left lung and some lymph nodes was recommended to me by several physicians after almost two years of immunotherapy and I agreed so as to have a declaration of "cancer cured". Followup was easy CT scans every three months and that was a better deal to me than having a 70-mile drive every three weeks to have a bayonet shoved into an arm vein to catch my "immunotherapy" drip. It's not chemo poison - it boosts the immune system to kill cancer cells and in rare cases can cure cancer. Mine had not spread from the left lung and the MDs were amazed that two consecutive scans showed no cancer.

Now what? Well, the VA has me scheduled for a CT scan on May 13th but on the phone one of my oncologists told me to get the surgery if available at NYU/Winthrop before then. The oncologists at the VA hospital are taking care of my fellow veterans with the virus, many of them elderly and dying in great numbers.

I'm feeling well and am still upright. The wife is not sick and we're not broke or in debt with the paid-off home. I'll just have to wait my turn for necessary treatment while people in way worse shape than me take precedence. I get the deal and am OK with it.