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Scanxiety and ‘Do you remember when we….?’

“You look really good.” “Thank you. I make an effort never to leave the house looking like a potential “people of Walmart meme.”  It’s important to me to put my best face forward these days. Besides, not working in an office, I have no real reason to dress up on weekdays. And, I do love funky clothes. I do feel good these days. Gardening seems to agree with me. Since my diagnosis in 2023, the few months I spend in the garden each year are the healthiest and happiest. That being

Sue BB

Sue BB in Scanxiety

Winter is coming

In the words of the Stark family from the Game of Thrones, “Winter is coming.”  We shouldn’t be surprised as we approach certain birthdays in our lives significant of the changing of the four seasons of life. And, yet, I wasn’t ready for it.  Here I am. About a year ago I was recovering from cancer treatment and getting stronger every day. I felt so much like myself I did a weekly farmers market. My gardens were all planted and producing and I was baking bread like crazy. My grand

I Don't Want to Know

After receiving some good news on my brain and liver MRIs (no met), I started treatment a couple of weeks ago.  While I am not a candidate for surgery or radiation at this point, I remain at Stage III C, NSCLC. They have started me with four cycles of weekly chemotherapy, as well as immunotherapy every 3 weeks. I will complete my first three-week cycle this coming week. So far, I am feeling pretty good. Just tired. I decided pretty much from the get-go that I did not want to know my prognos

Twenty Years of Life

Twenty years ago, on this date, I was handed a surprise diagnosis of lung cancer in an emergency room. The X-ray showed a very large tumor in my right lung that perfectly explained hemoptysis, the reason for my ER visit. My GP admitted me for a diagnostic work-up, and I spent 4-days inhaling albuterol while being scanned, poked, and prodded. In the hospital, I met my medical oncologist and pulmonologist who told me I had about a 7 x 2.5 cm tumor filling the main stem bronchus of my right lu

Waiting in Limbo

January 26, 2024 I never thought I would be quoting the late singer/songwriter, Tom Petty, but here it is. “The waiting is the hardest part.” Every part of my mind and body screamed, “Don’t look at the test results in “My Chart.” Reason dictated that I wait for the doctor’s appointment and let him explain the results of my bronchoscopy /biopsy. My appointment wasn’t for another week, and the suspense was killing me. So I took the plunge. My biopsy included three lymph nodes. As I

Going forward

I was diagnosed with 4th stage cancer metastisized at size 7 with 2 blood clots all in my left lung and lymph nodes. I was loaded with fluid at time of diagnosing believing I had pneumonia and learning my real diagnosis. I went into emergency surgury for a perichondrial window to keep the fluid building up around my heart and had over 4 cups of liquid drained out of my back that was surrounding my lungs. This was a little over 2 years ago. My oncologist refused t give me a time that my life may

laurie2020

laurie2020 in stage 4

The woman in the (NOT IRON) mask

I think I can, I think I can — I can do anything for 15 minutes. Nothing could have prepared me for the hijacking of my body the way cancer did. How long had those mutating cells been slowly taking over my lung? Had I been feeling healthy for a year, or two, or three, on the outside while inside my chest a mass began to build and then spread. It has taken me weeks to absorb the diagnosis. It could have been better. What could I have done to find this sooner? Why did I think it was poss

Sue BB

Sue BB in Living with lung cancer

Everything you need to know about lung cancer but were afraid to ask, I think

Two weeks. That's 14 days x 24 hours before my next doctor’s appointment. Actually, not with Dr. Rocket, but once again with “Irrational” radiology. In case you haven’t figured it out, the words in quote markets in the middle of a sentence could be something I made up. Just saying. Waiting to see what’s happening to your body isn’t easy when you can’t see inside. I was anxious to begin treatment and get it over with, but I was gently reminded that treatment plans take time and preparation. 

Sue BB

Sue BB in Living with lung cancer

My oh my, why an MRI?

Well, this was it — the beginning of what would be several months of “dis-ease.” It began with that phone call from Dr. Russell. I never met Dr. Russell. He was the doctor that my primary care physician called right after the first suspicious x-ray. He called Feb. 23 and said there was nothing he could do for me. It was cancer. “Call an oncologist.” “I don’t know any oncologists,” I said. “I will ask my nurse to schedule an appointment for you. “Thanks,” I think. Ne

Sue BB

Sue BB in Living with lung cancer

My first PET Scan March 2023

PET scan day. Another day, entering the unknown. The weather was awful, so we left for Bismarck early. My desire to get these exams over and done outweighed my impatience at sitting in hospital and clinic chairs for hours at a time, staring at the walls, watching solemn faces entering and exiting. Although arriving early to appointments, we never had to wait long to enter the inner sanctum of the hospital, those closed doors to the great unknown led by people much younger than myself who always

Sue BB

Sue BB in Living with lung cancer

Identifying my tumor

We will soon know what’s inside my chest. My friend Shelley met us at the hospital at 7 a.m. on a bitter below-zero Wednesday, Feb. 22. The sun had not yet met the horizon, and the city was beginning to wake up. The hospital light looked dim in the surrounding dark, one of the only fully lit buildings downtown. Today’s patients and staff were trickling in by ones and by twos. There were three of us. It was biopsy day. After checking in, I stared at the woman behind the counter for

Sue BB

Sue BB in Living with lung cancer

I have lung cancer?

Without opening my eyes, my first conscious thought was, “I have lung cancer.” Somehow, my life began to blur and my mind moved to going over every detail of the past two months. At this point the word cancer didn’t seem etched in stone, but I knew something was not right. I didn’t have any idea of what, or how much, or what happens next. I did feel the numbness of shock at the news. During the warm weeks of December, before I caught my husband’s cold, I walked two miles everyday

Sue BB

Sue BB in Living with lung cancer

February 2023 - the truth revealed

As Peter Marshall said, “God will not permit any troubles to come upon us, unless he has a specific plan by which great blessing can come out of the difficulty.”  January’s weather was temperate, and the trip from Huron to Mandan was uneventful. It’s becoming a shorter drive every time I travel the same road to Jamestown, then down Highway 281 to Aberdeen, SD, and onward to Redfield, and then Huron, SD. Of course, it’s way more fun with my granddaughter riding shotgun, but I hoped to m

Sue BB

Sue BB in Living with lung cancer

What was that cough?

The year began like every other year. Winter in North Dakota. A few nice days providing a taste of spring. A new found love of exercise, memories of my mom and the upcoming birth of a grand daughter. The end of December became the beginning of an unexpected journey. As with most stories it begins with a single step. My mother walked everywhere. Living in a small town about a block from Main Street meant we could walk to work, to school and to the grocery store. The exception, of course, was

Sue BB

Sue BB in Living with lung cancer

Backing up to begin the story of 2023

The year I became my mother This post is the beginning of the year 2023 with roots in 2022. Some of you may have read this post as I planned on using it for my Christmas letter. Be warned, it's rather long. Christmas 2022, I became my mother. It wasn’t planned. I’m not sure it was supposed to happen, but it did. It’s the way of the world. Eventually, one generation replaces the other. It’s begins slowly. You go about your day with confidence forgetting to check the mirror before y

Sue BB

Sue BB in 2023 death and disease

A New Chapter

Perhaps you've noticed. My activity on this treasured Forum has declined. Folks have inquired. I've been hesitant to respond; perhaps my faith and hope that things might be different caused a lack of candor. I'm nearing 20 years of surviving Stage IIIB diagnosed, Stage IV progressed squamous cell non-small cell lung cancer. Longevity after diagnosis in my day is a miracle. Thankfully it is much more commonplace today. No, I don't have a lung cancer recurrence. I'm cancer-free as far as I kn

LexieCat, Esquire Rests Her Case

LexieCat joined us on June 29, 2017 after taking advantage of low-dose CT screening for folks at risk for lung cancer. That test revealed a small highly suspicious single nodule that was surgically removed. She had a successful lobectomy; we all hoped she was one and done. Lexie, a screen name for Teri Garvey, was a district attorney in Camden, NJ. In my younger years, Camden, across the Delaware River from Philly, where I lived, was an industrious town bustling with shipbuilding, soup maki

Tom Galli

Tom Galli in Stay The Course Blog

The Stigma

"You have lung cancer. You don't belong here. You gave the disease to yourself!" Those words represent an admonishment bordering on scorn that greeted my first and only in-person cancer support group session. It was fortunately small, populated by ladies, all who had breast cancer.  I smoked; my entire family smoked. I also served as a career US Army officer. I spent months breathing oil fire smoke during the First Gulf War; have instant olfactory recognition of "burn barrel smoke" so preva

Tom Galli

Tom Galli in Stay The Course Blog

Hospice For Sale

I’ve been raging against scam cancer cures for almost 2 decades. Now I learn there is an expanding for-profit hospice industry that is transforming hospice care into a world of fraud and incompetent “care”. Please read this November 28, 2022 expose in The New Yorker Magazine titled For-Profit Hustle. This forum exists to provide information and comfort to those diagnosed with lung cancer. When facing slim odds at the end of my treatment rope, I was comforted knowing a reputable and car

Tom Galli

Tom Galli in Stay The Course Blog

I wish the world was a better place

The home phone suddenly rings startling me and causing quite a bit of alarm; we never use our land line, I don’t even remember our home phone number! My husband answers and the caller asks for me. I nervously pick up the almost archaic wired phone intrigued. Hi, the caller says, this is Astra Zeneca! My heart races and I ask, how can I help? The nice agent tells me that my Canadian province does not cover my (already approved!) targeted adjuvant therapy so far and thus I have to apply for their

LilyMir

LilyMir in Survival

Contributors to cure

From February 2004 to March 2021 I was a lung cancer patient. That is 17 years to reach the pinnacle outcome for our disease--cure! When I think of the people who did the heavy lifting but three rise to the top: wife Martha, oncology nurse Heather Belle, and oncologist Victor Horadam. Only these 3 were with me through every twist of my wild treatment ride. These are my contributors to cure. Long suffering wife is a wholly inadequate term for describing Martha's burden. I'm not an easy going

Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are pliable

This is a blog about lung cancer survival statistics One of the first instincts that kicks in for almost all of us who have been devastated with a (lung) cancer diagnosis is to ask how long have we left to live. Any web search for survival rates returns dismal statistics and it is hard not to panic or at least get quite demoralized. When I told friends about my recent incidental diagnosis, one of them responded with utter shock but added “oh listen, my sister was given 3 months but lived 4

LilyMir

LilyMir in Statistics

6 years

Today marks 6 years since my diagnosis. In 6 years, I've had surgery, chemo, more surgery, thyroid cancer, more chemo, radiation and SBRT. But I have survived and (mostly) thrived. The path hasn't been easy and I have a number of side effects that are trying, but I'm here. At the end of the day, that's all that matters.  Looking forward to next year's cancerversary!

Susan Cornett

Susan Cornett in cancerversary

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