Editor's note: Imagine being a father and finding out you were going to die. Who would be there for your kids? Hear from one man who thought only of his daughters when he was faced with the news. Watch "Dads for My Daughters," a special Dr. Sanjay Gupta documentary to air June 19 and 20 at 8 p.m. ET on CNN
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Bruce Feiler remembers how he felt in May 2008. "I was a healthy person," and he was on the top of the world. Happily married, father to twin girls and a best-selling author. His book "Walking the Bible" was celebrated, and it gave him the nickname, "The Walking Guy". He made a living exploring the world, literally walking in other people's shoes.
But on that day in May, he was stopped in his tracks by a routine blood test. "My doctor says your alk phosphatase number is high," Feiler recalls. "She explains that alk phosphatase vaguely suggesting that there is something wrong with your liver or your bones. Another test, my liver is cleared and she says almost like on a whim, why don't you get a full-body bone scan?"
That test revealed a growth on his left femur, or thighbone. Feiler remembers his doctor was not concerned. "She says. It looks like nothing, don't worry, it's not like you have cancer. I repeated that a lot. 'Don't worry,' I say to my parents. 'Don't worry,' I say to my wife. 'Don't worry,' I say to myself. I don't have cancer".
But Feiler's wife, Linda, had a hunch that something was wrong: "You know as a wife, as a spouse. You know as a parent when something's just off. And he just didn't look himself".
A follow-up X-ray and MRI of his left leg revealed an 8-inch cancerous tumor. The official diagnosis was an osteosarcoma. Osteosarcomas strike just 900 Americans a year. Two-thirds of them are younger than 40. Feiler was 43.
