I’m so grateful for friends! Several of my friends are Speech-Language Pathologists, which means that they are experts who do tremendously important work helping people communicate better. Some S-LP’s are experts in helping people swallow better, and today a swallowing expert colleague of one of my S-LP friends came over to watch me swallow a variety of things and give me information about how to avoid choking or aspiration pneumonia. I learned that while swallowing is something we generally do without much thought, it’s actually quite complex and there are many ways it can potentially go wrong. I’ll need a barium swallow test (which involves ingesting radioactive food & drink, and watching what happens to it) to give us more insight into what exactly is going on when I am swallowing.
Many of these are definitely not on the “easy to swallow” list.
I was very grateful for the swallowing expert who came over today. She taught me about the mechanics of swallowing, and gave me a long list of practical tips to help things go down more easily. I feel more empowered to fuel my body better with less risk.
Well, that bump was bigger than expected! Sadly the radiation in October did not do the cancer-crushing work we were hoping it would. My recovery wasn’t going as well as anticipated, and tests showed I had pneumonia as well as cancer growth. My oncologist and I discussed chemotherapy, which is the only treatment option available to me currently.
My oncologist and I both reached out to some Canadian lung cancer researchers to investigate whether there might be a clinical trial suitable for me available in Canada, either now or in the near future. I was disappointed but not surprised to learn that there is nothing on the horizon.
There are some possibilities in the US, so I applied for the “ALK Second Opinion Program”, which is funded by some generous people affected by the same kind of lung cancer that is affecting me (ALK). I learned within a couple of hours that my application was accepted, so the program will pay for me to have an online appointment with one of the top ALK researchers in the world. I have met most of the doctors on their list, and it is a tough decision because they are not only brilliant but also very kind. I plan to go with the Boston team because, although Dr. Alice Shaw is not spending much time seeing patients there now, they may have a clinical trial appropriate for me in future, and Boston is much easier to travel to than Nashville or Colorado. My oncologist has very kindly offered to participate in the online appointment with me, and one of my dear ALK sisters has offered to walk with me through this process. I’m very grateful for the support.
I had my first chemo of 2020 on Monday November 30. It hit pretty hard, and I had to go to emergency with a fever which turned out to be another round of pneumonia. Antibiotics helped a lot, and I’m feeling much better. I’m still very tired, coughing a fair bit, and having problems swallowing (since August). Thankfully there is soup, and I’m very grateful for friends who have brought so much soup!! It’s great to have different kinds of soup that I don’t typically make, and it’s so nice to not have to make it myself!
My next chemo is Monday December 21, which will get me through the holidays, as my awesome oncologist noted. The following one is scheduled for January 11. Apart from the blood tests on the Fridays before, I’m hoping to not need any additional hospital visits! đ
This is quite a change from the targeted therapy lifestyle, which tends to be much more smooth sailing, with fewer appointments and blood tests. I’m so very grateful for my many years of reasonably good health while living with stage four lung cancer. I never expected to live seven years past my diagnosis, and now I have much more hope than I did at diagnosis. I am hopeful for new treatment options. I hope that the chemo I’m on now will work more effectively with fewer side effects than the older harsher chemo I took in 2013-14. I hope researchers will develop new treatment options that will be available just when I need them. That has been my roller coaster adventure ride with lung cancer these seven years, and I hope for more! Oh yes I do!!
More than that, I hope for more research to extend the lives of many more people affected by lung cancer, because there are so many of us and we all want life and need hope. So if you know any lung cancer researchers, please thank them for the good work they are doing and encourage them to keep up the good work with diligence and urgency. So many of us are counting on them!
I’ve worked hard to keep doing light weights, stretching and walking through the Fall. My daily step count has fallen below my usual 9000-10,000, but I haven’t given up hope!
So grateful for friends, for so many delicious soups (and other yummy things!), and for so many calls and messages. This has really sustained me and helped keep me buoyed up.
I don’t talk about my faith a lot, and I would never want anyone to feel like I’m pushing Christianity on anyone. I want to be clear, please stop reading if you are feeling offended. My relationship with God means so much to me, and keeps me going. God is good all the time, and I am grateful for the love of God poured out through Jesus, and the ever-present comfort of the Holy Spirit. It’s the love of Jesus that motivates my advocacy, and any good I do is because of God working through me.
Cheers to the researchers, and the whole team who has helped keep this mom of three alive for seven years since a stage four lung cancer diagnosis December 2013!
I’m so grateful to be here! My life is enriched through knowing and spending time with a variety of very special people (whether online, on the phone or in person). I’m blessed with dear friends and meaningful work as a lung cancer survivor advocate. This weekend, two of my fellow lung cancer survivor advocates sisters gave our family this feast to celebrate my seventh “cancerversary”, along with a beautiful card. Thank you, Andrea and Kim! (photo’s of people all taken before COVID).
This seventh year has meant a lot because my youngest turned 13. She was only 6 when I was diagnosed, and she doesn’t have many memories from before then. During these seven years she has grown and matured, and I catch so many glimpses of the amazing young woman she is becoming. Now we’re in this brief, sweet spot where all three are teens. Parenting adolescents isn’t easy, but it’s a privilege and there is so much joy. The oldest is doing well in his second year of Electrical Engineering and Physics at University, and the middle one is currently enjoying a high school co-op placement perfectly suited to him and his love of music and music education. What a gift to walk with them through this season! #ResearchMatters
Here are some photo’s of the kids from the past seven years. We are so grateful for milestones and memories!
We owe a debt of gratitude to the researchers who, through creative brilliance, steadfast discipline and diligent tenacity navigate the twists and turns, false starts and dead ends that form the research pathway from bench to bedside, from idea to effective treatment.
And the whole team of administrators, statisticians, economists, funders, panel members, visionaries, regulators, encouragers, and so very many more very necessary and important team members, Thank you!
Way to go, team! Thank you! Thank you for working to keep me alive these seven years! On behalf of family, friends and communities, THANK YOU!!!
We had no idea I’d still be alive seven years after diagnosis. Please keep working hard with urgency so that I and others like me can live longer and better!
Through the Valley 