Please don't waste time or energy on feeling guilty because you smoke/smoked. Use that energy to fight and stay positive. I had a small nodule in my right lung since2014 and it was followed with frequent CT scans and had remained stable for years. After retirement in 2014, we moved to a small, rural, mountain town in southwest North Carolina. In 2019 I started coughing a lot and was told by my PCP, urgent care and a physician's assistant who ran the ENT office I was going to for allergy shots, that my cough was due to post nasal drip caused by my allergies. In December 2019, the PA at the ENT sent me for a chest xray that showed the nodule was unchanged, however, it showed I had plural effusion and she failed to connect the dots and dropped the ball. In early 2020 I saw a pulmonologist in Atlanta who scheduled me for a PET scan to see what was happening with that nodule but then the pandemic happened and things were cancelled. I continued coughing, continued seeing doctors in the town we lived, and continued getting the same story - post nasal drip. In August 2021 I felt like I was going to die, the coughing was worse, I had a lot of phlegm and no energy. I saw the PA at the ENT and she asked me if I felt like I was drowning, told her yes, she sent me to the hospital right away for an x-ray and they said it was pneumonia. Did antibiotics and felt no better. Went to see another PA somewhere else in town, she was smart and sent me for a CT scan and that's when we found out it was not post nasal drip. Had a PET scan that showed innumerable nodules in both lungs and a large mass in the right lower lobe. God has helped me forgive all those who failed me over and over by misdiagnosing me. So now I advocate for myself and encourage others to do the same. You got this - stay strong and fight.