Home

My lung cancer came suddenly and severely back in March of 2015.  It started with a sudden onset of what I thought was vertigo on a Wednesday. By Friday morning, it had changed dramatically, and I knew it was time to see a doctor. I had just had my hip replaced and was not cleared to drive, so I

The day my wife Heather found out she had lung cancer was the day that everything changed. In that moment, our plans for the future disappeared. Our focus for the present became just lung cancer. While Heather dealt with the disease, I dealt with the details. I was the gateway of the data. I kept

I was only 30 years old when I was diagnosed with lung cancer. Before I was diagnosed, I spent 5 days in the hospital to have tests done. Even though they told me it could be cancer, I never thought that would even be a possibility. I was only 30 years old – how could I have cancer? I was diagnosed

After battling a persistent cough for six months, I went in for a chest x-ray. This was July 2020, right in the thick of the pandemic, which is why I put off going in for so long. After nothing we tried seemed to help the cough, though, I knew it was time to figure out what was going on inside my

Read Fran's story in English.  Me diagnosticaron cáncer de pulmón en estadio IV en 2012 cuando solo tenía 39 años.  En ese momento, no había pruebas disponibles para determinar qué tipo de cáncer de pulmón tenía.  Todo lo que sabía era que "era cáncer de pulmón, nada más". Aunque los médicos me

Lea la historia de Fran en español. I was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer in 2012 when I was only 39 years old. At the time, there were no tests available to determine what type of lung cancer I had. All I knew was that "it was lung cancer, nothing more." Although the doctors told me that there

I had just graduated college in 2013 when my dad was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. Like most people diagnosed with advanced lung cancer, the discovery of his disease was a fluke. His car was rear-ended, which led to an x-ray, which showed a mass in his lung. He was given a 50% chance of

There are two mantras I repeat to myself and others: “Don’t count the days, make the days count,” coined by Mohammad Ali, and “Cancer didn’t bring me to my knees; it brought me to my feet,” said by Michael Douglas. Another mantra I like is one of my own creation: “My mind and soul can heal my body

I was diagnosed with lung cancer in July 2020. I was stage IV non-small cell adenocarcinoma with metastases in my lymph nodes. My diagnosis was devastating. I was experiencing such severe physical symptoms, such as intense coughing to the point of coughing up blood, that I wasn’t sure I would ever

Caregiver is a funny term to me. There have been times in this process I’ve felt like one, but most of the time, I haven’t needed to take that role. My husband, who is an advanced stage lung cancer survivor, doesn’t need care. He isn’t bedbound or sickly; he’s out biking and golfing on the weekends

It all started innocently enough with a swollen lymph node above my collar bone. As a family nurse practitioner, I knew this was a bit unusual. When it persisted for a week or so, I thought it time to have it checked out. A last minute decision by the provider I saw to do a chest x-ray most likely