He was surrounded by reporters in the media room, steps from the broadcast booth where he says he’ll return to by the end of the season. They were asking if he understood how much Red Sox fans miss him.

But he wanted to start from the start.

“Since last season, it was kind of weighing on my mind. I didn’t know what it was,’’ said Remy. “They did a CAT scan and Dr. [Larry] Ronan saw a spot on my lung.’’

Remy said he went to Massachusetts General Hospital the week before Thanksgiving and the tumor was removed. There was no follow-up treatment.

“That couldn’t have gone better,’’ he said.

Then he came down with an infection at the end of January that put him back in the hospital for 10 days. He was loaded up with antibiotics. He wanted to be back for spring training.

“That was probably worse for me. It all started crashing down on me,’’ said Remy.

He had lost 25 pounds, but he went to spring training anyway. It’s a decision he regrets.

“So, I started to crash,’’ he said. “Probably in Cleveland [at the end of April]. [NESN broadcast partner] Don [Orsillo] saw the crash firsthand. It wasn’t fair to Don. It wasn’t fair to the company.

“On that road trip at the beginning of the season, I didn’t realize how weak I was. We go out to Anaheim. I went to bed. The next morning, I wake up, I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck. And I knew right then and there I had tricked myself into thinking I could try to do this.’’

Since then, he has been fighting depression. He received therapy, and his doctors are trying to get his medications squared away. He’s spent the last two months in a gym and he’s regained the 25 pounds.

“Physically, I’m back. Mentally, I think I’m on the right path,’’ said Remy. “The doctors told me to expect that sort of thing. They’re kind of surprised I didn’t crash before I did.’’

The turning point came last week, he said. He went to the Paul McCartney concert at Fenway. He started to feel better.

“When I got back to the ballpark, I thought, ‘Hey, this is home,’ ’’ said Remy.

That’s why he was back last night. He wanted to see Red Sox manager Terry Francona, talk to some players, go to a news conference. He wanted to see what it was like in the booth again. He called it a “simulated game,’’ a step toward returning.

“The better I started to feel, there would have to be a day where I had to come here,’’ said Remy. “I looked at it today and I thought, ‘What are you doing? Get in there.’ ’’

He doesn’t have a date for his return. He’s already set a couple of deadlines for himself and missed them. He said it’s more pressure he doesn’t need.

He says he can’t watch NESN telecasts. It makes him sad he’s not on the air. And he’s received so much support from fans, he can’t help but feel guilty for not coming back sooner.

“I have boxes and boxes of cards, letters, prayers, kindergarten schools’ letters, tweets, e-mails. In a way, at first, it worked against me because it felt like I was letting people down,’’ said Remy. “But I was crying reading them. My wife was reading them - I couldn’t read them - while I was on the couch. She’d read them all to me.

“In a way, you feel like you’ve done something right for these people. And there’s no way I can get back to them.’’

He received a standing ovation when he was shown on the big screen between innings last night. He was back with Orsillo in the broadcast booth, waving to the fans, but he knows that’s not enough.

He’s cancer-free now. In time, with therapy and the right medication, he thinks the depression will fade. He hopes when he returns, that will be his way of responding to all the well-wishes.

“If I get back on the air,’’ he said, “that’s the way I thank them.’’