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Found 12 results

  1. Baseball is a game that requires patient players and fans. Like lung cancer treatment, there is a lot of waiting for something to happen. Also like lung cancer, the game is unpredictable. A single pitch can change the outcome of a game like a single cell can change the outcome of treatment. And like lung cancer, baseball has many uncertainties and these are defined by odds. The best hitters succeed a little better than one in three times; the best teams winning about six in ten games. Baseball players need to persevere against low odds of success to achieve victory. So do lung cancer patients. A lung cancer diagnosis is devastating. Recurrence after treatment is common and traumatizing. We ought to prepare for the distress of recurrence. Treatment, even for those diagnosed at early stage, is not likely to be a walk-off home run. I was not prepared for treatment failure. How common is recurrence? A National Cancer Institute study suggests about 33 percent of stage IA and IB patients experience a reoccurrence. Up to 66 percent of stage IIA, IIB, or IIIA experience a reoccurrence. Interestingly, these percentages are virtually identical for both adenocarcinoma and squamous cell lung cancers. What about stage IIIB or IV disease? The study reports recurrence about half that of lower stages but suggests this is due to competing risk of mortality. Including surgery, my treatment success average was a dismal 1 for 5. That translates to a baseball batting average of .200, yielding a quick trip to the minor leagues. I had four recurrences after no evidence of disease (NED) treatments. We didn’t know perseverance was a requirement and we were not prepared. How should we prepare? Here is what I didn’t do. Have a frank conversation with my oncologist seeking information on recurrence likelihood. Share this information with my family to ensure they were prepared for bad news. Finally, celebrate my NED state by fully engaging in life. NED is that extra life treatment buys and we did not take maximum advantage of it. A sidebar benefit of surviving is accumulating lessons learned. I now completely understand that lung cancer is a persistent malady that is difficult to eradicate with unpredictable treatment outcomes. Like the best baseball players, we need to take our turn at each new treatment with a fresh perspective, forgetting our last experience and striving only to put the ball in play and arrest our disease. Stay the course.
  2. I continue the tradition of anointing my toes with paint for each year I survive this horrid disease. Till year 14, I applied red paint; now it is Lungevity blue. The tradition of painting a toes was started by Dr. Phil Berman, a never smoker radiologist diagnosed with Stage IV, NSCLC. He started RedToeNail.com, an early online cancer survivor blog and painted 5 toes of life before lung cancer claimed him. My tenure of life is a message of hope. If I can live, so can you. Stay the course.
  3. Meet Charlett Emilyrose Wilson, my first grandchild. Her parents, daughter Melissa and son-in-law Bill, are overjoyed. I am ecstatic! Proud would be a vast understatement! Charlett was born 12-years, 8-months, and 13-days after my diagnosis with NSCLC. I celebrate this joyful milestone in my life for but one reason. If I can live, so can you. Stay the course.
  4. I'm the guy who paints a toenail for every year I live beyond my February 4, 2004 diagnosis day. This year our toes are LUNGevity Blue to honor the foundation that is dedicated to changing outcomes for people with lung cancer through research, education and support. There are many people who've been instrumental in my survival and making a life after; none are more important than my loving wife -- Martha Galli. If I can live, so can you! Stay the course. Tom Galli
  5. Almost every lung cancer survivor has a positron emission tomography (PET) scan these days. Now, a PET is often given with a computerized axial tomography (CT) scan. The diagnostician is a radiologist; a discipline that does not write in lingua franca. What do the report words mean? Here is a summary of my August PET-CT to interpret radiology speak. INDICATION: (Why am I getting this scan) “The patient…with non-small cell lung cancer of the right main bronchus diagnosed in 2003 status post pneumonectomy….He has undergone previous surgery for bronchopleural fistula repair…Chemotherapy last administered May 2006…Cyberknife therapy for recurrent disease in March 2007…He more recently has cough and chest discomfort.” That’s me, no doubt, but this summary is important. Radiologists see many scans and sometimes results are misreported. TECHNIQUE: (Test scope and method) Note details about the accuracy of the CT. “These images do not constitute a diagnostic-quality CT….” The CT results help to precisely map or locate the PET results but cannot generate a diagnostic grade image. COMPARISON: (Other scans reviewed while looking at this one). “Report only (no image reviewed) from PET-CT 3/8/2013. CT of chest and abdomen 8/22/17 (looked at image).” A CT scan is normally performed first. PETs follow and accuracy is enhanced if the radiologist has access to prior images. To improve access, have all your scans done at the same medical facility. FINDINGS: (The result) “…showed no convincing PET evidence of FDG-avid (fluorodeoxyglucose — radioactive tagged glucose seeking) recurrent or metastatic disease.” This is what we want to see in the first sentence. Then, the radiologist peels back the onion with detail. “There is mild heterogeneous hypermetabolism (diverse increased rate of metabolic activity)…with a few small superimposed foci (above the hypermetabolic area that is of particular interest)…more intense activity showing a maximum SUV of 3.5 (SUV — standardized uptake value)….When compared to [past reports] uptake…showed SUVs ranging from 2.6 to 2.9. This is strongly favored to be inflammatory.” Relief —this is my chronic pain site caused by 3 thoracic surgeries in the same location! “A somewhat retractile appearing mass (drawn back into lung tissue)…in the left upper lobe is stable in size…This shows minimal uptake…and is most compatible with the site of treated tumor.” My CyeberKnife-fried tumor scar. I do love precision radiation! What are concern ranges for SUV uptake? First, consider what is measured — cellular metabolic rate; more simply is demand for glucose, the fuel of metabolism. Cells with high metabolism ingest more tagged glucose. The PET shows differences in consumption (uptake). SUVs below 2.0 are normal. SUVs above 2.0 are suspect but between 2.0 and 4.0, uptake could be from injury or inflammation. Readings above 4.0 tend to be cancer but there can be other explanations. Higher than 4.0 is likely cancer, especially when paired with a CT find. Cancer demands glucose to fuel mitosis or growth by cellular division. Get and keep copies of all your diagnostic imaging. Keep track of the findings. I use a spreadsheet to record date, location and indications. Dr. Google is a great source for medical definitions. The best possible outcome for any scan is NED (no evidence of disease). May NED be with you. Stay the course.
  6. Red, in white shirt and loose thin-black tie and sweating in Maine’s summer heat, is leaning on a rock-wall fence. He’s just opened Andy’s letter found under the black obsidian rock. In the background we hear Andy reading his evocative description of hope: “Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things and no good thing ever dies.” The movie Shawshank Redemption is a powerful story about hope and life with a message that should resonate with every lung cancer survivor. I watched the movie the other day and made the connection. Andy was imprisoned for two life sentences with no possibility of parole. He was wrongly convicted of murder and throughout the story of his day-to-day life in prison, everyone tells him “hope is a dangerous thing.” On escaping, Andy proclaims that hope is “maybe the best of things.” The movie story line is exactly parallel to the plight of the late-stage diagnosed lung cancer patient ⎯- an unforgiving disease with hope as the most effective means of avoiding consequences. For lung cancer, hope is not a medical remedy. While new lung cancer treatments are emerging more frequently now, basic research funding to diagnose and treat lung cancer lags other cancers. Perhaps the pace may pick up, one hopes. Perhaps a treatment may emerge just in time to save a life, one hopes. Perhaps a miracle remission occurs, one hopes. Hope may not be a medical remedy but, for many of us, it is our only effective medicament. And, in my case, hope is “maybe the best of things.” Recall the story line of Shawshank. Andy’s future is confinement in a mind numbing institution, but he makes a choice to live in a different reality and works diligently, every day, on a novel escape plan. He makes a conscious decision to live. He embraces the hope of escape against all odds. Andy’s poignant characterization about life reveals his reasoning: “I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really. Get busy living or get busy dying.” Exactly! Sometimes in the heat of lung cancer treatment, we forget its purpose ⎯- extended life. No one knows how long but life for most is extended. So what do we do with the extension? Re-read Andy’s characterization. We long for a period of life extending into satisfying old age. But most without lung cancer do not dwell on the amount remaining on account. Lung cancer patients take careful measure of the balance. But, measure for what end? I believe, if one chooses treatment, then one chooses life. Rather than dwell on the remaining balance, focus on doing something you enjoy everyday. I suggest a survivor forget the past, declare the future irrelevant, and live in the day. “Get busy living or get busy dying.” Stay the course.
  7. This is my fourteenth anniversary surviving a lung cancer diagnosis. Granddaughter Charlett's decorated toes join mine to keep our right feet forward! I paint my toes every year as a celebration of the joy life brings. In early treatment, there was no joy. There was fear, frustration, pain, uncertainty and scanziety. I'd not yet discovered Dr. Phillip Bearman who taught me the reason for lung cancer treatment -- achieving extended life. Phil decided he would live every moment to the fullest despite the rigors of treatment, and he'd celebrate every year of survival with a painted red toenail. He couldn't control his lung cancer, but he could control the way he felt about his lung cancer. I started living when I internalized his message. My first paint job was at my third anniversary and I'll never miss another. I am a lung cancer survivor. My message for those in treatment is twofold: enjoy the life extension treatment provides and if I can live, so can you. Stay the course.
  8. Tom Galli

    Scanziety

    Amazon Kindle Royalties Donated to LUNGevity.org During November:"I am not a doctor; indeed, I possess little medical knowledge. I am, however, a very experienced and long-tenured lung cancer patient. That gives me a unique perspective on the disease that kills more people­­—many times more—than any other type of cancer. I do not intend to fill this story with statistics. They are readily available from any number of reputable resources. I have a firm belief, however, that lung cancer research is poorly funded because lung cancer is considered a self-induced disease. We speak of those who suffer from or succumb to cancer as having engaged in battle; but in battle, one can choose to retreat. When diagnosed with cancer, the only choices are treatment or death. Statistically for lung cancer patients, the battle for life through treatment more often than not is lost. Treatment borders on barbaric torture that is endured repetitively, with uncertain outcomes and with death looming closely. I claim no medals for bravery. I was, and still am to some degree, overwhelmed by fear. While in active chemotherapy, the time between a diagnostic scan and results was a nightmare to endure; thus, my name for this experience: Scanziety. Several times, my treatment nearly killed me. I survived, not knowing how or why. My survival provides hope for those who suffer, particularly for the 230,000 Americans who will receive a lung cancer diagnosis this year. If I can survive, so can you." Stay the course. Get your copy of Scanziety here https://www.amazon.com/Scanziety-Retrospection-Lung-Cancer-Survivor-ebook/dp/B01JMTX0LU
  9. Today, on our Thanksgiving holiday, I am thankful that all in this photo, taken in November 2015, still survive. Stay the course.
  10. How does one find joy in lung cancer? I find some of mine by celebrating survival, and there is no better way than to attend a LUNGevity sponsored Breathe Deep event. Our's was a pleasant but breezy fall Texas day and about a hundred of us showed up to the celebratory walk-jog-run event. Our pleasant jaunt around the Arlington Texas park also raised thousands of dollars to undertake LUNGevity focused research for new diagnostic and treatment methods for lung cancer. But, while fund raising is vital, celebrating survival is even more important. When we meet and walk together, we become a powerful symbol of hope. We become energized. We find a moment of joy. Forum moderator Susan Cornett and I met each other for the first time at today's event. We've been internet connected for nearly 2 years but our in person meeting was a wonderful experience. We talked about vacations taken and planned, survivor memories, and shared life experiences. I took this photo of Susan with her mom and dad who turned out to help Susan celebrate life after lung cancer. We had a grand time. Stay the course. Tom
  11. I will donate all Scanziety Amazon Kindle Store sale royalties for the Month of November to LUNGevity.org to support much needed research. I wrote for the book for three reasons. First among them is “to raise a call to arms for funding lung cancer research.” Help me raise the call to arms! Read a book about surviving lung cancer and donate to sponsor research to find, fix and finish lung cancer. Stay the course. Get your copy of Scanziety here https://www.amazon.com/Scanziety-Retrospection-Lung-Cancer-Survivor-ebook/dp/B01JMTX0LU
  12. Surviving lung cancer is like running a marathon in a hurricane. To survive one needs to become resilient. How? Here is an approach. 1. Develop firm beliefs 2. Find meaning in the mayhem of your survivor experience 3. Acquire a positive attitude 4. Learn from the resilient among us 5. Face things that scare you 6. Get support when trouble calls 7. Be open to new ideas; be a learner 8. Exercise your mind and body 9. Don't worry about the past 10. Recognize and rely on your unique strengths Recall while in treatment, despite the many adverse side effects, the primary effect of treatment is extended life. Do something meaningful with your gift of life. Stay the course. Tom
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