Lung Cancer – Page 2 – I Am Barb Lee

Happy Cancerversary to Me!

Since there aren’t that many people out there who want to celebrate my life and my journey with me, I’m just going to do it myself! Two years ago on this day, I was formally diagnosed with non small cell lung cancer. Of course the beast has been in my body for longer than two years, but it was confirmed on October 8, 2019, so this is the date I will acknowledge. My last two posts have recounted my trail of surviving the deadliest cancer out there. You can read them here and here.

I was on a train bound for New York City’s Penn Station last weekend when I started writing down ideas for this post, and decided that I would share my thoughts in two categories: What I’ve Learned, and What I’ve Accomplished, in the past two year. A few years before my diagnosis I was told by someone that I use the word “I” much too much, but screw him. I’ll be using it ad nauseam here to make my point, and I think I’ve earned it!

Ready?

What I’ve Learned

I’ve learned more about my strength and spirit than I’ve ever wanted to know.
I’ve learned more about cancer than I’ve ever wanted to know.
I’ve learned more about people than I’ve ever wanted to know.
I’ve learned that some people like you better when you’re down.
I’ve learned that some people are never going to like you, up or down.
I’ve learned that some people don’t have compassion unless something is happening to them.
I’ve learned that people throw the word “love” around but don’t know what it means.
I’ve learned that “love” really needs to mean more than just a word.
I’ve learned who my true supporters are.
I’ve learned that to survive, I had to let go of those who aren’t.
I’ve learned that people will crush you in the worst of times.
I’ve learned to keep going in spite of them.
I’ve learned that me with cancer and me without cancer aren’t that different.
I’ve learned to live my life in mostly the same way even though I have cancer.
I’ve learned that terms like “fighter” and “warrior” only serve to move you away from being YOU.
I’ve learned to reject those terms.
I’ve learned that for many people, my illness is over, even if it will never be over for me.
I’ve learned not to underestimate the power of cancer.
I’ve learned not to underestimate the power of ME.
I’ve learned that it’s okay to let my “strong” guard down once I shut the door on the world outside.
I’ve learned that the world keeps turning, even though I have cancer.
I’ve learned that my world keeps turning, even though I have cancer.
I’ve learned that tomorrow isn’t guaranteed for anyone.
I’ve learned that my life still matters, even if I have cancer.

What I’ve Accomplished

I’ve lived through cancer in my lung, neck, sternum, hips, pancreas, stomach, and chest wall.
I’ve been on four road trips.
I’ve written a 42,000 word book about my cancer journey. (Unpublished)
I’ve begun another book about a woman living with ALS.
I’ve written 45 blog posts.
I’ve walked/hiked 3,350 miles. (Not a misprint.)
I’ve lost me.
I’ve found me again.
I’ve continued my life in full for two years, with cancer.
I’ve ridden 110 miles on my $100 bike.
I’ve revisited 18 states.
I’ve booked my first trip out of the country since summer of 2019.
I’ve rebooked and gone on two of the three trips I had to cancel for cancer.
I’ve continued my teaching career through COVID19 and cancer.
I leased a brand new car but kept my old one!
I was debt free for a year.
I’ve used up two of my nine lives on cancer.
I’ve found solace in art, but am no great artist!
I’ve explored New England more intensely than ever.
I’ve found friendships with a few of the greatest people anyone could possibly ask for.
I’ve left friendships that weren’t productive.
I’ve been blessed with the constant love of three family members.
I’ve left family relationships that weren’t productive.
I’ve requested no sympathy.
I’ve held fast to my dreams for the future.
I’ve tried to help others with cancer to do the right thing.
I’ve survived and thrived because I LOVE LIFE.

I rest my case as I look toward the future.

Coming Clean, Round 2

It’s inching closer, my cancerversary! Less than a week away, when this goes public. I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about my journey anymore, but most people don’t know all the crazy details, so I’m letting them be known for anyone who cares to read. Last week I recounted my first “round” of cancer and treatment. You can read the post here. All involved were hoping for a knockout punch that would last a lifetime, but it was not to be. After radiation to my lung and neck, and a year of targeted therapy, I noticed a small bump on my right flank. My oncologist sent me to a dermatologist in November of 2020. The skin guy did a biopsy in the office, and as I awaited results I headed down to South Carolina to see my niece. Surrounded by love from her and her three adorable dogs, we decorated her Christmas tree, went bowling, and shopped for homemade soap at a local farm. A huge celebration occurred when the results came through: No new cancer! The bump should go away. Life went on happily!

If the bump had gone away and life had gone on happily I probably wouldn’t be writing this post. The next month, just a few days after my 54th birthday, I went to Boston for a PET scan, with my fingers crossed that I would get the coveted news that I had No Evidence of Disease (NED), a designation that I had cut so close during the summer. I wasn’t feeling well, but I still had hope. Feeling crappy had become a way of life even before cancer, and after treatment it was even more so. Fatigue and exhaustion would hit me and stay for a week or more, but I’d keep pushing through to feeling better. By this time I had put my life back on track fully, I was on pace to shatter my yearly mileage record for walking and hiking, road trips were happening again, and I had great hopes for the future.

Which made the results of my PET scan all the more shattering: I had more cancer. That bump on my back meant something. It had not gone away, and was now lighting up as cancer on the scan. But there was worse news than that, as cancer had also infiltrated several other places, including both my hip muscles, my upper stomach, and worst of all, my pancreas. I won’t soon forget receiving this news in the cold of COVID19 December, all alone in Boston as the world got dark, and someone who is supposed to love me making it even darker. That last part is another story in and of itself, and at this point I’m over it. From here forward I’ll keep this post about cancer.

Now what? I was surely going to die, with cancer happily invading my space again. I would have to switch medications. My oncologist’s suggestion was a clinical trial for a brand new tyrosine kinase inhibitor, or TKI, like the one I was currently on, but considered a”next generation” drug, called Repotrectinib. Before I could go on it I had to endure a new series of scans and blood tests, and a fresh biopsy to be sure that the new metastasis was the same as the old one. I also went back to South Carolina to dog-sit my favorites canines while my niece went to Florida. Perhaps it would be my last trip there.

I had so much new cancer I was having trouble keeping track of it, so I made this fancy diagram:

*My rendition of me, loaded with new cancer*

Cute, isn’t it? Yeah, unless it’s you.

I waited a tense month for the drug company to accept me into the clinical trial. My cancer was growing, making the likelihood of death all the more certain if the new wonder pill didn’t work. The tumor on my back continued to grow and topped off at 3.3 x 3.0 centimeters before I started treatment. Not only was it disgusting to look at (this one was actually like a skin tumor and growing on the outside, unlike the tumors in my neck, which were under the skin,) but it was also bleeding and getting in the way of life, because if it rubbed against anything it would gush blood. I had to keep it covered 24/7 and couldn’t sleep on my right side. A few times I had to cancel plans with friends because I had to take care of my tumor. Yay, me! (Eye roll.)

By the time I started treatment in late January of 2021, all my tumors had grown. In centimeters, my pancreatic lesion was 2.1 x 2.0. Left hip: 3.2 x 1.9. Stomach: 2.7 x 2.1. And tipping the scales at 8.4 x 3.8, the right hip tumor. They had gained considerable steam in a matter of a month. And that bleeding tumor in my side? Any information that I found on lung cancer metastasis to soft tissue was extremely grim. I was literally dying for treatment. Again.

Somehow, I kept going. Shout outs to several friends and a few family members for sticking with me and helping me through. Remote learning saved my finances. I got an accommodation from my school system to teach from home until the end of the school year in June of 2021. The tumor on my back, as disgusting as it was, turned out to be a creepy blessing, as I was able to watch it shrink down to nearly nothing and knew the medication was working. Within six weeks I didn’t need to cover it any longer, and it stopped bleeding.

I kept hiking and walking. Went back to South Carolina in February, revisited my beloved Southern Utah in April, took two fantastic road trips this past summer.

I get scanned every eight weeks on the clinical trial. I don’t feel fabulous most of the time, and am currently sore as hell and have weakness in my legs, but hey, the bottom line is that I’m still able to do everything I love. As long as my luck holds out, I’ll be heading to Costa Rica for Christmas!

Let this sink in: Thus far, I have survived cancer in my lung, neck, hips, pancreas, flank, and stomach. Last scan, in early September, my hips and pancreas were clear, with the stomach and flank tumors significantly reduced. Still hoping for NED!

Sigh.

And what a two years it has been! Bring on the cancerversary!

*10-2-21, Roosevelt Island, New York City*

Coming Clean, Round 1

Here we are again, heading into the autumn season. At one time, this is when I’d be mourning summer, reminiscing about the road trips I’d just taken, and dreaming of the next years’s road trips. Almost unbelievably, I’m still doing all that, but for the past two years, September is also when I’m faced with memories of the beginning of my cancer journey. Yes, I’m coming up on my second cancerversary with Stage IV Lung Cancer, a diagnosis that few are lucky enough to survive. So I have to be prepared when I look at my Facebook memories, because chances are 100% that I’ll be seeing myself with a tumor growing in my sternum, the first sign that there was something not completely right in my world.

To “celebrate” the upcoming anniversary of my diagnosis, I will “come clean” with the many details of my journey of staying one step ahead of death, sometimes not even that. And because I know that I’ll need more than one post, I’m calling this Round 1.

I saw the lump in my sternum in late August of 2019. Felt it before then, a strange pulling feeling in my neck. And I was exhausted. But the summer was great. I had amazing road trips in the southern U.S. and southwestern U.S., and an incredible journey to Sri Lanka. Other than being really tired at the end of the day, I had no other sign of what was coming. I hiked hundreds of miles a month, and kept up my crazy schedule otherwise. Frequently I proclaimed myself a “lucky girl” for the life I was leading.

The 2019-2020 school year started well, my sixteenth year as a Special Ed teacher. Two weeks in, however, I began to feel intense pain in my neck and head, so bad that one day I had to leave and go to the ER. I also had the school nurse look at the lump in my sternum. She measured it at one centimeter and suggested I get it checked out. I didn’t pay much attention to it until I started to ache from the waist up, so badly I couldn’t think straight.

Thus started a string of doctor appointments, ER visits, and scans. An X-ray showed something happening in my lung. A CT scan was next. I sat on pins and needles while awaiting results, trying to function correctly while trying to convince myself that my life wasn’t falling apart. It couldn’t! I was a lucky girl, traveling and doing so many things I love to do!

My primary care doctor soon uttered the word “oncologist,” not because she thought I had cancer, but because she wanted to be sure I didn’t have cancer. And so, I entered the world of “the Big C”and oncology, hopefully for only one visit. That was not to be. After an overnight hospital visit, a series of scans including the all-powerful (and expensive) PET scan, and a ton of misinformation, I was told in one of my now-frequent ER visits, that I indeed had cancer. An “incidental finding” from a brain MRI also showed a tiny tumor, usually benign, called a meningioma. I have not revealed this until now, because I feared brain cancer. Over the past two years my little buddy has proven thus far to be unchanged and something that has likely been there for some time. Meningiomas are actually quite common. But at the time, it was more devastating news that would get worse before it would get better.

Two draining months went by as I ran from doctor to surgeon to specialist to radiologist and back to oncologist. The road trip I never wanted to take. The news was grim: Stage 3b non small cell lung cancer, (NSCLC) with radiation and chemotherapy in my foreseeable future. My team of local oncologist and radiation oncologist were hoping for “cure” but also sent out the biopsy tissue from my tumors for what is called biomarker testing, which could change the entire course of my treatment, if I was “lucky” enough to have one of the eight biomarkers in lung cancer. It could be the difference between taking a pill to kill cancer (what???!!!) by targeting a mutation in my tumors, or going through the common course of treatment, chemo and radiation. While we awaited results, a node on the side of my neck started to grow, and the tumors in my sternum and lung continued to get larger. I also had to have a biopsy on a growth in my throat that turned out to be benign, but that held up treatment by a couple of weeks. My dentist even chimed in with the possibility of a tumor in my gum. All arrows seemed to be pointing to death. Metastatic cancer. Everywhere!

The truth was that I had active and growing cancer in three places: lung, sternum, and neck node. The local team stuck with the 3b designation. Behind the scenes, I was considering a trip into Boston, about 75 miles from my Western Massachusetts home, or at least getting an online second opinion. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is consistently in the top five cancer centers in the country, and friends were telling me that I needed to go there. Admittedly, I dragged my feet, because I thought I was doing okay with the local hospital. But I had the good sense to talk to my oncologist about it, who sent a referral. His staff set up an appointment for me, which was after I had already started radiation, but was the very day before I was set to start chemo. How’s that for timing?

Starting treatment was at least going in the right direction, or so it seemed, but the worst news of all came through: seven out of eight biomarkers came through as negative, so there would be no pills for me. So much for being a “lucky girl.” Bring on the chemo!

November 13, 2019 is a day that lives in infamy for me, for it’s the day that I went to Boston for my appointment at Dana-Farber. It’s the day that I found out that I was in Stage IV, but that I indeed had a biomarker, the eighth one, ROS1, and that I could stop radiation, cancel chemo, and swallow a pill! Two weeks later I started a drug called Rozlytrek (entrectinib) that by some miracle shrank all three of my tumors. The one in my sternum went away altogether. The other two shrank enough that I could have consolidative radiation therapy, that had the possible promise of a long life restored!

For most of 2020, things were moving steadily in that direction, even through COVID19. I had radiation on my lung tumor, and later, my neck node was radiated. Whew, what a cancer ride! This looked like the end of it for me! Had I ever lucked out! Imagine, possibly cured of Stage IV Lung Cancer!

I had lucked out. But it wasn’t over. I wasn’t quite that lucky.

Before I could even enjoy winning round one, round two was ready to take me to the mat.

Me, one year after diagnosis, road tripping between rounds one and two

Positively Positivity

Whew! I was really hoping to be back here long before now, but guess what? I recently returned to face to face teaching, with students in the same room for the first time in over a year. After working remotely followed by an accommodation due to a serious underlying illness (advanced lung cancer…yikes!) for the entire 2020-2021 school year, I’m in front of the kids again for real. Masks are required for everyone, so it isn’t quite the same, but I have to admit that it’s been a mostly positive experience for me to be back in the routine I was in for many years before my cancer diagnosis. In fact, I feel quite normal, and can even sometimes forget that I have a deadly disease. Add last week’s great scans to that equation and it makes for some happy times. But heck, what a struggle to get here, and believe me, I’d be a fool to think that it’s going to last. Which doesn’t mean I’m not going to enjoy the break until the next big cancer event, and that I won’t hope and pray that I have lots of time before that happens.

How did I get to this more comfortable place?

I got (and continue to get) the best medical care possible.

I asked for no sympathy.

I found new ways to do what I love.

I found new things to love.

I surrounded myself with positivity.

I didn’t (and don’t) let my illness define me.

Please click the links above to read previous posts on how I live successfully with a chronic illness that initially spun my world around and still continues to at the drop of a hat.

In this post, I will discuss point number five, surround yourself with positivity

Let me put it right out there: you don’t need people throwing around their own special brand of negativity when you’re already dealing with more heartache than most humans can handle. Do you know what it’s like to have a needle in your arm and lie in a tight, noisy machine while it scans your brain? Then to get out of that machine and get in a different one to scan most of the rest of your body? How about radiation? Ever had it? Or, think about what it might be like when you just want to live your life but you can’t because you have to do things to save your life. Now, add a negative person or two to that and aren’t you feeling extra super sucky? Yeah, I’ve been there, done that.

So, what do you do? The solution is simple to say, difficult to accomplish. Complicated, because the negative individual is oftentimes someone we love and we think we have to be “nice” and let that person chip away at us when our health woes are already doing that, because to get rid of them is “mean” and we just don’t dare cross that line. Listen, there’s no definitive proof in medicine that stress and unhappiness cause diseases and illnesses to fester inside of us. But last summer when I was in Boston for three weeks receiving radiation I was under siege, being called every ugly thing in the world by someone who claims to love me, and the emotional pain I was feeling was palpable. This was on top of being off my cancer medication and limping around Boston five days a week to get my treatments, being away from home, being masked several hours a day in heat and humidity, and wondering if the radiation was even going to work to save my life.

I know now that the radiation did its job pretty well, but five months later I had metastasis in my lower body, and guess what? The abuse continued. When I was sitting around a medical facility alone because of COVID19, too far from home, and fearing for my life again after a pretty good run at cancer, the abuse didn’t stop. I still remember that cold December night very well. I had just turned fifty-four. And I certainly wasn’t getting what I wanted for my birthday.

Alas, I have gained control of this situation since then. I was “mean.” I wasn’t “nice.” I had to avoid this hurt and pain at all costs, and I still do. I’m not much on sidestepping problems, but then I never had cancer to deal with. I danced around this blemish in my life and a few others that threatened to bring me to the ground. Sorry folks, it’s about me now. I can’t afford the abuse, any abuse. My goal is zero percent negativity, but this is pretty much impossible to achieve unless you never leave the house!

Truth is, I’m overwhelmed (underwhelmed?) by some of the adversity I’ve had to deal with on top of cancer. You would think people would know better. But some don’t. Does it still apply to say that whatever doesn’t kill you will make you stronger? Perhaps, but when you’re already dealing with something that has the potential to kill you, any extra adversity is totally unnecessary.

Say good-bye to it in the nicest way possible. And if you can’t do it nicely, it’s okay. You’ve earned the right to be “mean.”

Not Another Cancer Survivor’s Story?!

Yeah, I’m a cancer survivor, and yeah, I’m writing a book about my journey. Told here for the first time, the tome’s working title is “Destination Life: My Cancer Road Trip.” Though everyone has a story to tell whether they have cancer or not, I think that my tale is quite interesting, perhaps even a little over the top, and not one you’re going to hear that often. Some parts of it are typical for sure. Yes, my life was devastated. (Though really, is having your life devastated “typical?”) Yes, I was frightened that I was going to die. And yes, I had an incredible amount of stuff to learn. This is probably where the “typical” part of my journey ends. Because I’m one of those people that eventually took control of my care, had a fair amount of good luck in a bad luck situation, called out the prayer warriors, eliminated negativity, and saw things turn around quite dramatically. I know the wonders of modern medicine. I know the power of Big Pharma. But I had to go through some poop to get to the right place.

Before all that happened, I was just a human being flailing with the thought that my life would never be the same again, and maybe I wouldn’t even have a life to look forward to:

It’s still warm in New England, and foliage season is approaching. Autumn is not my favorite time of the year as it is for many, but definitely a beautiful time, and one that I always enjoy hiking in. The leaves are changing colors, and so is the rest of my world. As my sister drives us home the “C” word starts to set in. I look at other people out the window and they appear so casual, so carefree, no worries in the world. They don’t have to think about cancer, but I do. And I come to understand something again, that I realized in 2004 after my mom passed: the world still goes on. Life goes on, even as you’re suffering, even as your life or your world has suddenly been dealt a devastating blow. The world doesn’t care. It has to keep turning for everyone else. It is one of the many sad facts of humanity.

As I write this post, I’m stronger than ever in many ways, but I had to find my wings to fly through my new life. It wasn’t always easy or positive. The ground I was walking on was shaky, uncertain. The fear was real, and debilitating. For a while, the news was getting worse. Here’s an excerpt from one of my darkest days:

A lymph node on the right side of the base of my neck is on the rise. Supposedly it’s on the PET scan, but wait…wrong. The one on the PET is in the lung, a hilar node. The neck node is unaccounted for. I discover it when I scratch my shoulder one night, while talking to my sister on the couch. So now there’s four areas.

Or…five?

Dr. L finds an abnormality in the back of my throat and matches it up on the scan. Now we have to find out what these two new discoveries are. The possibility of two different cancers is floating around. Could I really be that unlucky? Head and neck cancer, and lung cancer, too? The cure word gets tossed aside, the waters muddied. The rug gets pulled out from under me again.

More questions without answers are swirling around. This is an all-time low point. Two more biopsies are on the near horizon. The throat node requires a trip to another specialist, an ear, nose, and throat (ENT) doctor.

Treatment looms too far ahead as cancer grows inside me, packing its bags for an adventurous road trip.

I wasn’t totally serious about this book when I sat down to type it from the original journal I composed in longhand. But I’m committed to it now, as hard as it is to relive such heartrending moments so soon after they happened. Yes, this was only four months ago. Oh, how far I’ve come since then!

I don’t know how this particular book will end, since my new life is still unfolding in the most interesting of ways. Nor do I know when it will be done. I’m not on a schedule; I’m in no hurry. But I’m pretty sure that it won’t be the only book of its kind. Thinking it might be a series. I have a lot to say, and I’ve always wanted to write nonfiction. Here’s my chance!

Cancer-Survive-Quote

Am I Cancer, or Am I Still Me?

Ever since I was diagnosed with lung cancer two months ago I’ve been having a real identity crisis. Suddenly, I have this thing sticking out of my neck that probably nobody notices but me, yet I’m my harshest critic. It’s ugly, it’s embarrassing, it marks me as not being like everyone else. I’m a tumor. Who would want to hang around with me? I might be contagious. And truth be told, I’ve already been dumped by someone I thought was one of my best and closest friends. So, I must not be me anymore. I must be nothing more than a cancer growth.

I’ve started to have social anxiety. Me, the traveler that a few months ago was expounding on the wonders of Sri Lanka after an exciting summer trip. Me, the hiking lady. Me, the road trip queen. Going shopping is a challenge now. Everyone looks so happy and cancer free. Going for a walk is a great achievement. What if I feel weak or need to sit down? Driving is even more aggravating than it used to be, that petty nut behind me trying to push me to go faster, not knowing the challenges I’m facing. Get a life, will ya? I got cancer, screwball. You: In a big hurry to get to McDonald’s for dinner. Me: Figuring out how to save my own life. Beat that. Yeah, you’re seriously going to get the finger now. No questions asked.

I keep hearing the usual things.

“Everyone has problems.” Yes, I know. But not everyone has the problem of figuring out how to be here to see the calendar flip to 2021 in thirteen months, when the statistics say it isn’t going to happen. Not everyone has a devastating disease rendering them unable to do seventy-five percent of the things they love to do.

“You’re still you, and we love you!” I know that, too. I don’t blame my mindset on anyone but me and cancer. You wouldn’t feel any differently if the future you were working so hard toward and looking so forward to might not ever happen.

“You’re not being a warrior!” Listen, I can’t be a warrior one hundred percent of the time, and for a person who had the rug pulled out from underneath her several weeks ago, I think I’m doing pretty good, in spite of it all. By some small miracle I’m not severely depressed, even though my life has changed from hopping planes to hopping on hospital tables. From hiking poles to biopsy needles. From Southwestern road trips to doctor’s office road trips.

Am I working through it? Yes, I am. I realize that life is fleeting for everyone. It can end at any time. There’s no guarantees for anyone. It’s a crap shoot that we’re all destined to lose. Maybe, though, I’d rather not know when, how, or why it’s going to happen.

Lately, I’ve been listening closely to the words I put out to the world, and I’ve changed the way I’ve been doing it. Instead of bemoaning my situation, I’m thinking of it as a hurdle I have to get over to get back to what I want. Instead of assuming that I’m not going to reach my goals, I’ve put them back on the table. Retirement is still a possibility. Getting back to traveling is, too. Over the weekend I took my first hike in a month and a half. Was it as fun as it used to be? No. But I can’t expect miracles. I just have to chip away at the hole I’ve dug for myself since this all started.

Oh, wait, was I really me and not a tumor just a couple short months ago? Yes. Then maybe I’m not that far from where I need to be. I’ve begun treatment and am ready to see this ugly piece of costume jewelry start to shrink. Until then, it’s easily covered with any number of pretty scarves I used to wear just because I liked them. I’ve been lucky enough to be granted a pass on chemotherapy, so I won’t need to deal with the extra added burden of being stared at while trying to look fashionably bald. Go, me.

I’ve stepped up my daily fitness goals. Though they’re still a shadow of what they used to be, they’re still better than they were. I’ve made some new norms, since many of the old norms aren’t possible right now. And yes, I have five realistic goals set for 2020. Let’s not worry about 2021 quite yet.

Something has to make me happy. My life can’t be all about cancer. Thankfully, most of the poking and prodding is over now that treatment has started. And the endless phone calls have ceased, too. Though I have to admit, those annoyances kept me busy with little time to think about anything else.

Now, I have to think about getting me back and ceasing to be defined by a tumor. Maybe I’ll even figure out, like some cancer survivors do, that there’s a really good reason behind all this, as ironic as that sounds.

I want to believe there is. Just be patient with me while I find it.

Reason