In short

If you're hungry for quick answers, here's my story in short:

What kind of symptoms did your tumor have?
- high fever without feeling ill, pain in my back, shoulders, neck and sternum

How did they diagnose it to be a thymoma?
- the tumor was visible in an X-ray, and it was confirmed by tomography. Needle biopsy was done to rule out lymfoma. Blood tests were also done, but I don't know what those were specifically.

What was the treatment?
- the tumor was resected by sternotomy, where they split the sternum in half. Some chemotherapy may also be necessary.

How has this effected your life?
- I had back pains for a few days (less than 5). The fever went on for weeks, but didn't bother me much. Recovering from surgery took 5-6 weeks (back to normal by that time), but really only the first 2 days are nothing to worry about. It's surprising how little a broken sternum affects your life. Really the worst part in all of this has been the emotional anxiety. I was dead scared that I had cancer, but luckily I was every time reassured that the news are not that bad. And during this ordeal, my take on cancer has changed. The word has a bad echo, but it's not necessarily a death sentence. Many cancers can be cured nowadays (I know several survivors myself), and that is especially the case with thymomas, which are usually benign and slow growing.

Was the surgery totally horrible?
- no, it's not. For a couple of days you might have some pain, but they have medicine for that. And you'll sleep through those days anyway. By day 4, you are back on your feet.