ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) – Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan didn’t feel sick at all last month when he found a golf ball-like lump in his neck while shaving. He thought it might just be a cyst.
But when Hogan told his primary physician about it after returning early this month from a trade mission to Asia, his doctor referred him to a specialist who ordered an MRI and CT scan. Twelve more tumors turned up in his neck and chest. After a full MRI, 20 to 30 more were found.
Hogan had cancer.
“It was like peeling an onion,” he said, discussing his diagnoses of B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma during a news conference Monday. “It was: ‘Let’s send you for this test … that’s bad. Let’s send you for this test, that doesn’t look so good. Let’s send you for this test, it’s even worse than we thought.’ But I didn’t really have any symptoms.”
The Republican governor spoke with the candor that often characterized his campaign leading up to a stunning upset victory last November in a heavily Democratic state. He choked up at times while also managing to puncture the somber air of a hastily called news conference with humor.