When both the nurse and the doctor broke down in tears as they delivered the news, Chris Gosline knew that something difficult lay ahead.

It was 5 a.m., after a long night in the emergency department at Beverly Hospital, where he’d gone for help with severe pain in his shoulder. A scan had detected tumors on his liver. Turns out, there’s a nerve connection that makes shoulder pain a possible sign of liver disease.

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Further testing over the next couple of weeks clarified the cause: Gosline had stage 4 colorectal cancer, which had spread to his liver.

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