Being a caregiver for someone with lung cancer can be rewarding, but it can also be challenging. This is because a lung cancer diagnosis is life-changing for both the person with the disease and their caregiver.
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.
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.
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?
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 lungs.
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".
