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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

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

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

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

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

Managing Health Insurance Mayhem

Blog Entry is the Teamwork of both Michelle and Tom Gali:    After receiving a lung cancer diagnosis, the last issue, one would expect is problems with health insurance.    While it’s unusual to have a claim fully denied, delays that effect diagnostics or treatment are quite common. Here are my 10 tips for dealing with health insurance problems.   1. Get your companies Human Resources staff engaged. Find out who has responsibility for claim payment. If it’s the employer, then they

Rower Michelle

Rower Michelle

Ron Singleton

This story is about my encounter with cancer, which happened in 2014. I had a near-death experience, and was rushed to Kaiser Zion medical facility in San Diego, CA. My doctor, Dr. Tomssi met me in the ICU and let me know that my body was struggling with issues regarding the bowel. I was excreting dark colors, almost purplish in color, which indicated blood. I had lost about four pints of blood and it would have led to death. I think God saved me from that near-death experience. In February of 2

LaurenH

LaurenH

Diane Milley

My story begins in May of 2013. I am a high school special education teacher and for weeks I had a nagging but dry cough, I wasn't worried about it at all as I was running 3 miles a day, just completed a 5k road race and was very rarely sick. I finally saw my primary care physician who put me on a Z-pack and I went back to my normal life. A few weeks later since the cough had not gone away, I went back to my doctor who gave me a prescription chest x-ray, which I immediately threw on the passenge

LaurenH

LaurenH

Jim Pitts

In 2013 started with pneumonia but wasn't getting over it, Dr. wouldn't give up something just not right he kept saying. Sent me to a pulmonary specialist who found a spot on my right lung. Immediately set up oncologist, surgeon & hospital within 7 days I was laying in the recovery room with minus -one lung. Come through with flying colors, home within 3 days, thought to myself piece of cake! Yeah wrong answer, started chemo 3 weeks later and within 24 hrs I was back in hospital dehydrated &

LaurenH

LaurenH

The Long Road Ahead: Garth Atchley (Part 2 of 2)

Facing a lung cancer diagnosis changes a person’s perspective about what matters in life and what doesn’t. Being diagnosed with cancer makes you put absolutely everything else to the side, or totally out of mind.  You have the chance to let back in only the things that really matter back into your conscious mind. If you can do that, and spend more time focusing on things that really matter in the present moment, you will have completely changed and improved your mind and your life. I still get c

LaurenH

LaurenH

First Steps: Garth Atchley (Part 1 of 2)

I learned about my lung cancer in a roundabout way in the summer of 2017. I started having headaches and experiencing vertigo. I also noticed some slurred speech and trouble with fine motor skills like writing. I went to a series of doctors to try to determine the cause, including my PCP, an ophthalmologist, a massage therapist, and an ENT. Eventually, a neurologist ordered an MRI. I went in for the MRI and afterward the radiologist wanted to see me to “look at something.” From then on, it was l

LaurenH

LaurenH

Ashley Rickles

“I’m sorry, sweetheart these are tumors in your lungs and a form of lung cancer”. These were the words spoken to a vibrant, healthy 36-year-old female on October 19, 2017, by the thoracic surgeon. I knew that things were probably not good when he came in and asked if I was alone. Unfortunately, I was alone. Looking back, that day seems like a blur. I remember the ladies at the checkout desk asking how I was doing as they ask so many patients all day long. It’s mere customer service, right?

LaurenH

LaurenH

Amy Richard's Story

For the past 11 years, I’ve helped treat lung cancer patients as an RN in a cardiothoracic practice. Then last October, I developed a bad cough that lasted over a month. It was cold season, and my co-workers and I thought it might be pneumonia or even bronchitis. No one suspected it could be lung cancer, since I’m a nonsmoker and haven’t been exposed to common risk factors like asbestos, radon, or pollution. I had a chest ray taken, which showed fluid around my right lung. The tests of the

LaurenH

LaurenH

Carole Baker's Story

My lung cancer diagnosis came as quite a shock to my family, my doctors, and me as I’ve always maintained a healthy lifestyle. I exercised regularly, ate healthily, never smoked, and enjoyed a variety of outdoor sports and other activities with my husband and our three children. I worked as a learning specialist for children ages K-8 and loved my job. Everyone I was close to commented that I was “the healthiest person they know.” But in March 2011, after worsening back pain, I visited my ph

LaurenH

LaurenH

Kateri Langseth's Story

October 30, 2015 will forever be the day my world changed. That day I heard those words that no person wants to hear: “You have cancer.” I kept questioning how this could happen to me. I was a healthy, 35 year old nonsmoker, and a mom of two great children. I came to learn that you don’t have to be a smoker to get lung cancer. Honestly even if one was a smoker, would it matter? No one should have to go through this terrible journey. Soon after my diagnosis I saw a surgeon and was told

LaurenH

LaurenH

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