"Hmmm, looks like there's some stuff there," my doctor said as he read the report of my chest x-ray.

That "stuff," I figured, might be residue from too many years of heavy smoking. After smoking for years, I'd expected that one day an x-ray would reveal cancer.

As it turned out, the "stuff" wasn't cancer. But, that same x-ray and others confirmed a nodule in my right thyroid.

Turning...