Katester, glad you found us! Welcome. We all know this first few weeks are very stressful. I was lucky , was one of the few that had pain and the tumor was touching nerves, if that is lucky! You are correct most early diagnosis is done by chance because by the time symptoms appear you have had lung cancer a long time. I was 50 when diagnosed , you are still young in my opinion at 53. It is great that you quit smoking because already your lungs are in better shape than a few months ago. I hope that your nodule is benign. If not I hope it is reasuring to know that I had to have chemo and radiation before they could do surgery ( to shrink it away from the nerve) When they did surgery they said that all that was left was dead scar tissue. I am still glad they removed it! Please keep us posted on how the test goes. If possitive most of us had a slew more tests as pulmonary function, bone scans, brain scans etc then a plan is put in place. Again welcome Donna G