Living

Being a cancer patient does not counteract parental duties, though I often wish it would. Many times I have had to drag my child along with me when I was...

At the end of June, a bipartisan amendment was passed to restore the budget for the Department of Defense (DOD) Lung Cancer Research Program to $20 million for 2019. What...

"Your tumor is growing. I am sorry, but I am pulling you out of your clinical trial," my oncologist said. And, with that, my world came crashing down all around...

Until very recently, chemotherapy has been one of the only options for first-line treatment for lung cancer. Depending on your tumor(s), you may receive chemotherapy in a mild form or...

I bet you're thinking of your loved ones, right? Well, I am actually not. What I am writing about is all the friends I have made throughout my lung cancer travels. I have...

Cancer treatment can be a whole world of contradiction for a patient. Because of our individual biologies and the unpredictability of treatments, not to mention the cancer cells themselves, it...

Opdivo, an immunotherapy, can cause many side effects. Some of which are itching, rash, fatigue, pneumonitis, and colitis. I have always had the rash and fatigue and it appears that...

In cancer terminology, there is a lot of very loaded language. Terms like "survivor" have become so ingrained that patients even worry about when it is okay to use the...

How many of us have lived with the notion that the doctors with whom we interact know everything about the medical circumstances we find ourselves in? That they are smarter...

Have you ever heard about Chemo Angels or Angel Mail? Chemo Angels are a wonderful group of people who simply want to be Angels in the lives of cancer patients or caregivers. They...

Way too many of us find that we can no longer continue to work at an 8-5 job after we are diagnosed with cancer. Besides the challenges of having to...

A friend of mine who teaches yoga asked me about how my lung cancer affects my breathing. That is an interesting question with a variety of answers, which I will...

I have certainly learned a few things through the process of dealing with my latest, nagging side-effect. This persistent rash, covering me quite literally from head to toe, could have...

Lately, I have been getting really tired of cleaning up after myself. Literally, cleaning myself after myself, if that makes any sense. I am constantly shedding so many dead skin...

I attended a workshop taught by Shera Dubitsky, formerly a senior advisor to Sharsheret, a national not-for-profit organization supporting young Jewish women and their families facing breast cancer. She called...

Have you ever met that person who enters a room and is instantly likable? Someone who has a positive comment to make about everything she sees? Think of the type...

This is Part II of the article series, Meet Nicole, taken from a March 2018 interview with Nicole McNair of Greensboro, NC. Dusty:How did they tell you that you had...

For all my complaining about living in Los Angeles, I have to acknowledge how fortunate I am to be here. As with many things in life, since being diagnosed with...

I attended a LUNGevity Lunch and Learn meeting yesterday. During the Survivor Stories session, a man I will call Jack began telling his story. He was diagnosed with advanced small...

Laughter is the tonic, the relief, the surcease for pain.  --Charlie Chaplin I recently listened to a Webinar put on by the Texas Oncology Foundation that was called Survivorship: Your...