Living

Do you have FCR...Fear of Cancer Recurrence? FCR has been defined as "fear, worry, or concern relating to the possibility that cancer will come back or progress." Now that we have...

To be honest, I was somewhat confused about what a needle biopsy entailed. When I was diagnosed about three and a half years ago, I had biopsies done of my...

Hope is a word I never used to associate with lung cancer because for a very long time there just wasn’t any. I have been fighting lung cancer indirectly, and...

Have you heard of Precision Medicine? If you haven't, you are certainly not alone! But, it is very important for you to know it exists, what it is, and how...

In mid-April, I attended the annual meeting of the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) for the second year in a row. This conference brings together over 20,000 cancer researchers...

One of the anomalies of lung cancer is that for many patients, they never experience any symptoms to clue them into their predicament. As the disease becomes more advanced, of...

In today's political climate, it isn't often that you hear about a bill that enjoys bipartisan support, but the Women and Lung Cancer Research and Preventive Services Act of 2018...

Announce that you have cancer and it will likely be met with an outpouring of uncensored comments, a flood of words that had not been thought through, or it will...

I have had lung cancer for 4 years and 3 months. Overall, I have been healthy. That does not include the side effects from my different treatments but I am referring to...

Most people who hear of someone being diagnosed with lung cancer know, well, that's bad. And when they hear it is stage 4, that's even worse. That was my experience...

Trigger alert: cancer is a sensitive issue, but sometimes patients need to find humor in even the direst prognosis. I did not expect the reveal of my metastatic disease to...

I don't know about you, but when I was undergoing chemotherapy, I was so constipated that I was absolutely miserable. In fact, the constipation was one of the very worst...

I wrote an article recently about how I was guilty of falling into the trap of blaming an acquaintance's smoking habit for her possible lung cancer (it had not yet...

I have had four biopsies since I was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2013. Why so many biopsies? Well, each one was done at a particular time in my treatment...

It only takes one candle to light a dark room.  My mom would say that to me any time I would say that my contribution to something wouldn’t make a...

There has been a lot in the news in recent years about the importance of handwork for early childhood development, and how working with the hands enhances brain function, increases...

Once I got involved with patient advocacy, it quickly became apparent that my initial lack of information about lung cancer was definitely the norm, not the exception. The good thing...

Several days ago, I got a text message telling me that a former colleague and friend had passed away unexpectedly. I had seen her recently and she was her usual...

Nurses are such an important part of the cancer care team, and I hope we all show our gratitude to these professionals. For full disclosure, I am married to a...

Okay, this post is probably going to have a lot of people looking at me and thinking I have gone stark-raving crazy. But, here goes anyway! I participate in a...