Margie M., TN

September 2024 will be my 5 year Cancer-versary. This is something I never dared believe I would live to see. The week of Thanksgiving in 2018, I went for a routine physical because I was feeling short of breath. I had gained some weight and figured I was just out of shape. The x-ray during my physical showed a spot on my lung the size of a quarter so I was referred to a pulmonologist. It seemed impossible, I never smoked and I was perfectly healthy.

The week after Thanksgiving I got the devastating news that they were sure it was NSCLC - Adenocarcenoma, mutation EGFR. On Christmas Eve, my pulmonologist called to say they were sure it had not spread and that because of my age and excellent  health, he was recommending a lobectomy to remove my upper left lobe. Even though I was immensely relieved, I was too afraid to count on that - the Holidays were a blur. I was still so scared. We decided not to tell our kids until after the New Year so they wouldn't worry and could enjoy at least one more carefree Christmas. 

I met my Oncologist in January, a research Oncologist specializing in lung cancer. He reassured me that they didn't think the cancer had spread but even so, he wanted me to do chemotherapy and radiation as part of my treatment plan, then get into a research program. February 26, 2019, my world caved in after my surgery when he told me that I was Stage 3A, that the cancer had spread to the lymph nodes outside of my lung, in my chest and at the base of my throat. I was to begin treatment the next week.

Three months of chemo, 6 weeks of daily radiation, horrible side effects from research drugs, and countless stories from people who knew someone "who had died from lung cancer" - I stopped telling people I was sick. I didn't want to hear about people who had died from lung cancer, I wanted to know who was living with it, who was thriving despite their diagnosis! I was too young to die. I had kids to finish raising and a life to live, I wasn't ready to give up!

I believe there will be a cure for lung cancer, hopefully in my lifetime, and I believe that it has changed my perspective on everything, made me appreciate everyday of waking up and that if it ever creeps back, I'll be just as determined to live as I was 5 years ago. Lung cancer doesn't have to be a death sentence!