Lung Cancer and Moving

As I meet more and more people with lung cancer, I seem to see a trend. Those who have no children in their homes (empty nesters) seem to be downsizing. This is a fantastic idea to think ahead and realize you may not be able to keep up with the maintenance in your present home. But before you make that big decision, you need to think about a couple of things.

Preparing to move

Moving is a very long, tedious, stressful job. While your health may be compromised at this point, you may want to either reconsider or enlisting the help of anyone and everyone you can. The chore of moving involves a lot more than packing a few boxes and leaving your larger home.

You will have to go through every nook and cranny of your home and decide what you want to keep and what you don't. Then you need to decide do I want to throw this away or give it to someone close to me. This can cause an array of emotions. Remember, you are going through your entire life while you are facing your own mortality and the biggest struggle of your life.

Allow yourself enough time to clean out your home and deal with the emotions that will come along with that. Don't plan on moving in two months. Try to make the decision long before it is time to move so you have plenty of time to grieve and mourn the items that you are not keeping. That may sound silly, but once you start going through things, it will only get harder.

Planning around the holidays

Another thing to take into consideration is - is there an upcoming holiday that you and your family have always cherished and enjoyed. If so, plan to move a while after that holiday. Use that time to have a few potluck dinners with family and friends in your home that you will be leaving. I'm not suggesting you have a dinner party since your health may not be up to par, but a potluck whereas all your family and friends can help you make the afternoon or evening a great success.

Taking care of yourself

You are facing a lot right now. You want to be in the best possible place mentally so your body is strong enough to handle whatever treatments you may have upcoming. Healing is not only from the medications but from within. You always want to be in a good frame of mind when making hard life decisions and this will by far, one of your hardest decisions to date.

The key is to go slowly, be organized, be honest with yourself and enlist aid anytime you can from your close network of people. Your medical team may also be able to give you some insight on how to handle all of this at once. We are trying to rid our bodies of a foreign object and need to have all our strength to be able to handle what is coming up.

Editor’s Note: We are extremely saddened to say that on January 28, 2020, Jennifer Toth passed away. Jennifer was a passionate advocate for the Lung Cancer community. She will be deeply missed.