I was sitting alone in my room at St. Joseph's Hospital in Reading, around 9:00 P.M. All of the visitors had left for the day. The Urologist that had been assigned to me by the hospital comes into the room and tells me that the mass they had seen on my kidney was actually a very large tumor. One that he felt had a 98% chance of being malignant. In other words, he was telling me " You Have Cancer". The first decision I had to make was how to tell my wife. She should have been with me when the doctor told me this news so we could support each other. I decided to wait to tell her until I saw her the next day. It wasn't easy! The next decision was what to do about it. I really didn't have much confidence in the local doctors removing such a large tumor. This was my life they were dealing with. My rather large family did a lot of research and told me I should go to Fox Chase Cancer Center, in Philadelphia. It was rated one of the best in the country. After finding out that they were a participating member of the AETNA network, my wife and I decided to go there. Fox Chase treated me very well. After an 8 hour surgery to remove my kidney and adrenal gland I'm now trying to recuperate. Although I still have to go back to the hospital and be treated medicially (i.e. chemo) to make absolutely sure the cancer is completely gone, my progosis is very good. I can't even begin to imagine how much something like this is going to cost, or even if our health plan wouldn't have let me go to Fox Chase. It's times like this that you truly begin to relaize how valuable the benefits package we have at Pyle is. When you include all of the cards, letters, phone calls and e-mails of support that I have received from Pyle employees and retirees, and you'll understand why I strongly feel that we work for a great, great company. One last word of warning, I was a healthy 43 year old who exercised regularly, didn't drink and never smoked. I never expected anything bad to happen to me heath-wise. The doctors couldn't believe that I would let a tumor grow inside me that reached 22 centimeters. I was so over-confident in my own health that I figured nothing bad would happen to me. Please don't let the same kind of thing happen to you. Get an annual physical and do your age appropriate tests and screenings. Don't wait until it's too late like I did.