The First Day of Lung Cancer Awareness Month

I periodically participate in medical research surveys that focus on the type of lung cancer that has invaded me.   Last Tuesday I was involved in a 90 minute survey where I was asked to do a little visualization of the day that I received my diagnosis.

I was asked to relax and make my mind a blank slate (often an easy feat!).   Then I was invited to search my memory for a snapshot of the surroundings and the people that had been involved in giving me the diagnosis. 

Here is how it went.

“I was sitting in a doctor’s office with my son-he was being reassuring.”  “Then the doctor walked in, who appeared to be approximately 12 years old.”   He had a big grin on his face as he told me I had Stage IV lung cancer.   He then went on to say the following words, “There is nothing I can do for you, it is inoperable.”

He then walked out of the room.    My son had broken down into tears.  I was numb with shock and anger.

Then the doctor (?) came walking back in and said he would be able to offer me chemo (Carboplatin and Alimta) and that I was to get a B12 shot and some folic acid on my way out.

I asked him what my prognosis was.  He said, again with the big grin, “I am not the Good News Doctor- but I would say in about a year you will begin to have shortness of breath.”  “But, then, again, some people hang on for five to seven years- you just don’t know.”  He offered another grin, asked me to hop up on the table so he could listen to my chest (it was clear- it always has been) - and I was on my way to a world that no one could ever imagine existed.  

#changelc

   Lung Cancer Facts

1 in every 14 Americans will be diagnosed with lung cancer

Less than 6% of federal dollars spent on cancer research are spent on lung cancer research