I am terrified and feeling guilty!

[wondermom]

Does anyone else who cares for a parent with LC feel absolutely terrified of getting it themselves? I was always kind of a hypochondriac but ever since my mom's diagnosis, I am extra scared. What is even scarier is that there is no screening! I would pay out of pocket for a CT scan every 3 years but then they say there is a risk of cancer from the scans themselves. I feel terrible even worrying about myself and my siblings at all. I should be totally focused on my mom. I am incredibly worried about her and hate to see everything she has to go through. I love her so much. But I am terrified of getting this disease with 2 small children to think about. I am just a ball of emotions right now. Too much going through my head all the time. I feel like I am afraid to be happy because I feel like everything could be taken away. I know in my head that I can't think that way, but my heart is just overwhelmed with emotion for what my mom is going through and I fear it happening to anyone else in my family.

[lc46]

Hi-yes I am afraid also. I was a smoker from 15-29-quit 10 years ago when I was pregnant with my first child. When my Mom was diagnosed I was so afraid that first month that I went and got a chest x-ray just to feel a little bit better.

I think many people on here feel the same way we do.

Try not to worry and concentrate on your Mom. My Mom is doing really well and has come full circle since taking Antidepressants-she is more independant now than she was before she had cancer. Her Cancer is almost gone and we are learning to live one day @ a time.

Take Care

Dar

[wendyr]

While I'm not actually afraid of 'catching it', I no longer drink out of the same glass as I used to do with my husband. Still kiss him though so I'm probably being paranoid about the glass but I quit smoking in 2001 after smoking for 43 years & having cared for my mother with nslc & now my husband I know I damn sure don't want this disease & will do anything to prevent it.

[ztweb]

Oh, you will find that you are absolutely NOT alone. I found myself doing things a little differently, like not tanning and such, as they were things I could control...but I personally was never very scared. However...I have been part of many, many threads here in which people were very, very scared.

Stay strong. I think what you are feeling is so very normal. Keep us posted.

Blessings,

Jen

[Treebywater]

Yep, it is a worry of mine too. Especially because Mom had a family history and she was the 4th fo 7 children to have cancer.

[Ann]

I think that all of us are more aware and concerned about lung cancer after having it directly affect our lives. Before Dennis was diagnosed, the only cancer I used to really think about was breast cancer. I used to check for lumps and was always relieved after a mammogram. Now, I look for different symptoms and always remember that lung cancer so often goes undetected, as there are no signs that reach out and grab you. And, yes, I think about cancer all the time and fear it.

[Nick C]

I understand your fear.

Mine is kind of LC related. I was never a smoker, mom was, but I grew up in the house and the house had radon, so I suppose I have a chance (and fact is it touches people out of the blue anyway).

My fear is more just around I am going to get SOMETHING. Mom was seemingly healthy. And then...she wasn't.

So yes, I think the fear is natural.

[janehill]

Call me crazy - but no, I don't even think about it. And that's a strong statement coming from someone like me (I'm a bit of a hypocondriac too). My mom never smoked and all 4 of my grandparents have died from cancer and my uncle has cancer. So I already know there is a genetic predisposition to cancer in my DNA and I believe that my mother developing lung cancer as a non-smoker only highlights the genetic component.

Yet, I don't really fear it. I figure I'm 32 years younger than my mom is and that advances come every day in treatment modalities and prevention. I think that even if I am faced with a cancer diagnosis, I will fight like the dickens and take what comes.

Ultimately, the only pre-requisite for death is life. And knowing I won't be here in another 100 years no matter how lucky I am in all areas of my life, I just don't think too much about what may or may not happen in 30 years or what may or may not be available to combat it.

Please do your best not to worry about it either - especially not for your children who are in even better positions than we are in terms of medical advances.

[Froggiegirl62]

I do worry about getting lung cancer. Although I have never smoked, I have a 30-year history of exposure to second-hand smoke. Right after my mom was diagnosed, I had to beg my PCP to order a chest x-ray which was normal. I know that a spiral CT is the best way to screen for lung cancer but insurance does not cover it unless you have a suspicious chest x-ray. It is my hope that in time, a spiral CT will be as routine as mammograms and colonoscopies for screening purposes, especially for those of us at high risk.

One of mom's friends said that after being diagnosed with cancer, one tends to worry that any new ache and pain could be more cancer. Unfortunately this worry spreads to family members too.

[Snowflake]

WonderMom,

Were your mother a smoker, I would be on the fence with you getting a scan - radiation vs. reality. BUT, something I read has given me pause: Mom diagnosed with stage IV nsclc on 12/5/06 after being treated for pneumonia for two months.

Never smoker, 51.

My thought? For some reason, this has popped up in your mother...do you still live in the same area she does? It could be environmental, it could be heredity, but it damn sure ain't smokin' that caused her cancer. If my mother, a non-smoker, had been diagnosed, I would have been paranoid and I would have insisted on a scan - and I'll be sure to encourage my son to be scanned by the time he's 30 due to my history.

Bottom line, if I were in your shoes, your age (I'm betting I'm at least a decade older), I WOULD get a baseline chest CT. If you've been keeping up with the reading, children of lung cancer patients have a higher risk. I would think, your mother being a non-smoker would elevate that statistic for you.

...and here's hoping it's much ado about nothing for you!

[janehill]

It's AWFUL that CT scans aren't covered for screening purposes and, unfortunately, the risk/reward ratio for insurance companies will likely never bring them into the sphere of "routine." They've probably figured that out of 1M CT scans, only 3 LCs would be detected which would cost them 200K to treat vs. 5M fo the CT scans. (those aren't real numbers but just the way it's calculated)

I will say this, if anyone believes strongly enough that a CT is warranted for them, please do everything in your power to pay for it yourself if your insurance company won't. I have an amazing story of a woman I used to work with who was insistent that something was neurologically wrong and actually sold off some jewlery to pay for an MRI (sad that it had to come to that) when her insurance company wouldn't. She had a glioma (sp?) that was caught at an early stage as a result.

Nothing is more important than your health. Please scrap the vacation fund if you have a strong instinct about something being wrong. It could be your life you save.