I wasn't really sure if I wanted to do it either. Sometimes I don't mind talking and answering questions and sometimes I do. I woke up not sure I wanted to talk about lung cancer or my thoughts about it.
But, since I had agreed to participate, I got ready and made the trip into Dallas. Finally talked myself into trying out LBJ Freeway which has been under construction for the last several years. Wow! It is nice! :)
I was very curious to see who the other two participants would be. Would they be sickly? How long had they been sick? I felt certain that I would look far healthier and feel far better than my colleagues. In fact, I was a little smug in my belief that I am doing so much better than most would be a year after being diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer.
I arrived first. Next, a nice looking lady about my age came in. She sat next to me and we had a wonderful time. She didn't look unhealthy either. And despite her saying that she is depressed and worries constantly about her diagnosis, she had a fabulous sense of humor. I believe she had been diagnosed about 7 months previously. Her cancer was different than mine and she was able to have a lung removed. Nevertheless, she is currently undergoing chemo that is making her really sick. Ugh. I know the feeling. I referred her to UTSW. Maybe they can get her into a study with a drug like mine that doesn't make you sick. I hope so.
The last person to arrive was Lydia. She looked a little worse - she wore a hat, perhaps because she has no hair and perhaps because she prefers a hat. I'm not certain. Looking at her, I assumed she had had the cancer the least amount of time and that she was suffering the most. Wrong. As it turns out, she has been battling the disease for five years. Tumors have popped up all over her body. And the doctors have managed to treat them and get rid of them. Lydia is on a maintenance drug and is doing quite well.
Interestingly, Lydia never smoked a day in her life. When she developed a dry cough, nobody tested her for lung cancer. It took months for a doctor to decide to rule out cancer ... and find it instead. Makes you wonder if she'd have been better off if she had smoked previously. At least, if that was the case, the doctors would have nearly immediately tested for lung cancer.
The other lady had smoked, but she quit 23 years previous. Her lung cancer was discovered as a result of her having a skin cancer examined. For some reason, they decided to do a lung x-ray, too. Like me, she had no symptoms whatsoever.
I, too, smoked, but I had quit five or six years before my cancer was discovered. When I agreed to have a CT scan just to be sure I didn't have cancer, I was certain that I would get a clean report. Wrong!
So ... here are some lessons! Lung cancer doesn't attack only smokers - current or former. It certainly increases the odds of getting it if you do smoke, but that is not a criteria.
Even though the cancer is spreading through your body and advancing to stage III or IV, it is entirely possible that you will have no symptoms at all. By the time you have symptoms, you may well be way too sickly to ever recover. Scary stuff!
The purpose of this blog, though, is not to scare anyone. Rather, it is my hope that it will be encouraging. The statistics say that only 41.2% of people diagnosed with lung cancer survive the first year. Only 26% survive the second year. Scary statistics.
But, of the three of us who were in that room, one has had the cancer for a little less than a year, but it seems likely she will still be living after a year. One of us has beat the odds for over 5 years. And I am well into the second year of my battle. A lung cancer diagnosis is scary, but it is not an automatic death sentence. That's what I want people to understand and believe.
Facts and Statistics - Please Help Support Lung Cancer Research
Lung cancer has a stigma associated with it that most other cancers do not. It seems that people almost think that those who get lung cancer deserve it. The first questions you ask when you hear of that diagnosis are, "Do you smoke? Did you smoke? For how long and how much?" And, if ever in their life the person smoked, subconsciously you think, "Well, you should have known better. You should not have smoked and you would not be sick now." Probably as a result of this thinking, fundraising for lung cancer lags far behind that of breast cancer and some other cancers.
Below are some facts and statistics about lung cancer. If you ever decide to donate toward cancer research, I hope you will consider earmarking your contribution to lung cancer.
- Lung cancer (both small cell and non-small cell) is the second most common cancer in both men and women
- Lung cancer accounts for about 14% of all new cancers
- In 2013, there were 228,190 new cases of lung cancer (118,080 in men; 110,110 in women)
- In 2013, there were an estimated 159,480 deaths from lung cancer; accounting for about 27% of all cancer deaths
- Each year, more people die of lung cancer than of colon, breast, and prostate cancers combined
- Overall, the chance that a man will develop lung cancer in his lifetime is about 1 in 13; for a woman, the risk is about 1 in 16
- Only 15.6% of people diagnosed with lung cancer will still be alive five years after diagnosis.
http://www.cancer.org/cancer/lungcancer-non-smallcell/detailedguide/non-small-cell-lung-cancer-key-statistics
http://seer.cancer.gov/faststats/selections.php?#Output
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