Rick Shuck was a healthy, active man who’d never taken medications, been in a hospital, or had an operation — until he was diagnosed with breast cancer.

A physical education teacher at Bon Air Elementary and Middle School, Shuck loves his job. He goes out onto the gym floor with his students and does what they do: exercise as they play and learn about sports. Physical education class means dodge ball and other sports in which it’s common to get a bruise or bump here or there.

So in March 2009 when Shuck noticed a sore spot on his chest, he ignored it. He figured he’d been hit by a dodge ball or something. He figured it’d go away in a few days.

It didn’t go away in a few days.

Still, Shuck didn’t worry. He thought back to the 1970s when he was a guard on the Tennessee Tech University basketball team. After being elbowed in the chest, a lump formed. He was examined and told it’d go away, and it did. It just took a few weeks.

But by May 2009, the lump in Shuck’s breast was still there. His wife was adamant that he see a doctor. He grinned talking about that. Like many men, Shuck doesn’t like going to a doctor. Since it’d been two months, though, he agreed that he at least needed to have a doctor check out the lump.

His doctor ordered a biopsy and CT scan. On the Tuesday after Memorial Day, Shuck was sitting in his office off the Bon Air gym when he got a telephone call.

Shuck had breast cancer.

Shock. That’s the only word to describe how he felt.

“Come to find out, 1 percent of men get this,” he said. “It is on the rise in men.”

Shuck didn’t know which surgeon to go to or which oncologist to trust. He was 57 and had never been sick. This was a new game and he didn’t know the players or the rules. So he talked to his friends who had cancer or knew someone who had.

Go to Howard Regional Health System, friends told him. The oncologists there are top-notch, they said. One friend had been treated by Dr. Annette Moore, so he chose her. He called the oncologist that day, a Tuesday. He immediately got an appointment for the next day.

Shuck had heard that Dr. Thomas Schmidt of The Breast Care Center of Indiana in Indianapolis was a great surgeon. So good, in fact, it’s difficult to get in right way. Dr. Moore called Dr. Schmidt. Shuck got his appointment.

“This is how God works,” said Shuck. “He opens doors.”

“Dr. Schmidt examined me and then sat down on the table with me and drew a picture of my breast and explained what he was going to do,” Shuck said.

The PE teacher had an ultrasound, an MRI, and a mammogram. He smiled and threw up his hands. “I now have a whole new appreciation for women,” he said, comparing a mammogram to a vise.

All the tests were good. It was time to operate. Within four weeks of being told he had breast cancer, he had a mastectomy.

“I said just take the whole thing,” Shuck said. “I don’t want it coming back.”

In addition to removing the breast tissue, a few lymph nodes were removed, to see if the cancer had spread. The original screening showed the lymph nodes were clear, but as is procedure, they were sent to a pathologist for further testing. The results were positive. There was cancer in the lymph nodes.

“That kind of set me back,” Shuck said.

Dr. Moore ordered a CT scan, a bone scan, and a PET scan.

“Waiting for the results of those tests were the longest four or five days of my life,” he said.

“When Dr. Moore came into the exam room, she had a smile on her face,” Shuck said, tearing up. “It was unbelievable relief.”

He’s now taking chemotherapy and will have radiation. He’s had few side effects from the chemo, basically a couple of days of feeling tired and hair loss.

“I can’t say enough about the care I’ve been at Dr. Schmidt’s office and here at Howard,” Shuck said, crying. “The people are wonderful and treat you like family.”

Shuck is a Christian and said faith has gotten him and his family through everything.

“If God brings you to it, he’ll get you through it,” is his philosophy.

“God said, ‘You’re going to have a story to tell people, especially men.’

“God uses you in different ways to help people out,” Shuck said. Teaching other men about breast cancer is one way Shuck will be helping others form now on. “It can happen to anyone,” he said.