<p>another lung cancer “survivor”</p>
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</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.bhcaih.org/articles.html[/url]”>http://www.bhcaih.org/articles.html</a></p>
<p>Shelley14, thank you for your kind note, I appreciate it. </p>
<p>Today was #3 of 14 wbr treatments. I am doing well it seems - yesterday I went paddle-boating around the tidal basin with my daughter. Was surprised to discover I have lost no leg strength, and she was worn out before I was - amazing, considering she was a D-1 athlete in college. </p>
<p>I felt especially thankful when I read online this morning about a woman my age who is also on day 3 of wbr treatments, but, cannot walk, sleeps most of the time, and is also having some other serious issues. </p>
<p>This makes me so aware that health is so fragile and what we each have today can be gone tomorrow. Healthwise I am a very different person than who I was seven months ago, but I am so grateful for what I have left. </p>
<p>Last night I also started “Never Give In” by Arlen Spector. Only half way through it but there are a lot of parallels in our thinking about how to fight this monstrosity that is cancer. Of course, his survival potential at five years was 70% and mine is 2%, but, 2% still isn’t zero, and the same weapons of choice are still valid. I am at my office today and thrilled to be able to be here. </p>
<p>Epistrophy, thank you as always for the links. It’s good to know some people do win, and it’s good to have some definition put to them.</p>
<p>So true that 2% isn’t zero.</p>
<p>This reminds me of the story I ran across while in treatment of the guy who was in the boats headed for the D-Day invasion. They told them as they were reading for battle that only a small number of them would survive, about 5%. He looked at the other 19 guys in the room and thought, “Those poor guys.” The point is, someone has to be in the survivor group if it is bigger than zero.</p>
<p>another lung cancer “survivor”</p>
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</p>
<p>[WCFcourier.com</a> - Waterloo and Cedar Falls Iowa News Homepage | Opinions<em>»</em>Letters To Editor: Cancer survivor tells tale](<a href=“Cancer survivor tells tale”>Cancer survivor tells tale)</p>
<p>and another</p>
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</p>
<p>[CNN.com</a> - Transcripts](<a href=“CNN.com - Transcripts”>http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0603/07/acd.02.html)</p>
<p>and another</p>
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</p>
<p>[How</a> I Lost 12.5 Pounds & Regained My Soul: March 2006](<a href=“http://clarkcountydiva.blogspot.com/2006_03_01_archive.html]How”>http://clarkcountydiva.blogspot.com/2006_03_01_archive.html)</p>
<p>and another</p>
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</p>
<p>[The</a> Promise Of Cancer Gene Therapy For The Treatment Of Lung Cancer Free Seminar April 16 Greenwich](<a href=“The Promise Of Cancer Gene Therapy For The Treatment Of Lung Cancer Free Seminar April 16 Greenwich -- J. Howard Public Relations | PRLog”>The Promise Of Cancer Gene Therapy For The Treatment Of Lung Cancer Free Seminar April 16 Greenwich -- J. Howard Public Relations | PRLog)</p>
<p>Dear LTS: I found myself racing to my class tonight because I left a little late. (I wasn’t late, well maybe one minute!)</p>
<p>I heard the voice in my head saying, “Oh no, I’m going to be late to school. Then it corrected, no, there is only one latetoschool.” You are always with me.</p>
<p>LTS - you are amazing! Go girl!!!
Epistrophy - how on earth do you have time to search for all those links??? :-)</p>
<p>Spoke with my DC girlfriend yesterday, and apparently those cherry trees are intoxicating! LTS - take all the good from them you can!</p>
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</p>
<p>Actually, it almost never takes me more than a minute or two (five tops) to find something worth posting. (If it did, I’d have a very hard time doing this at all these days, as I’m now in week 5, or 6, or whatever [I’ve lost track], of what’s expected to be a 2-3 month federal conspiracy trial.) The trick - to the extent there is one - is in finding a combination of search terms that’s likely to bear fruit.</p>
<p>I have thinking of you especially today, LTS. I hope you are doing well. Gentle cyberhugs. Lorelei</p>
<p>and another</p>
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</p>
<p>[CBC</a> News Indepth: What’s killing Canadians?](<a href=“http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/canadashealth/lungcancer/survivor.html]CBC”>http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/canadashealth/lungcancer/survivor.html)</p>
<p>LTS…you never cease to amaze me on many levels. I won’t mention them all now, but this one…the fact that through your illness and through these treatments that often have side effects, the way you have been able to physically do all that you do…travel, work, and now paddle boating around the tidal basin? The fact that you can do ALL of this is a sign to me of how well you are doing and surviving and will be the one who stories will be written about survival! You go girl!</p>
<p>On the WalMart front, they are dropping the efforts to recover the money from Debbie Shank as discussed above. After all the pain, effort, dollars spent… why did they bother in the first place. Geez. Just think if, instead, the gave the dollars spent trying to get their benefits back on this poor woman. It was just plain wrong on all counts. Bullies, that’s all they were.</p>
<p>Thank goodness Walmart is backing off, however, just the fact that they put Debbie Shanks and her family through what they did, I will never shop there again. Ever. I never liked their culture in the first place. </p>
<p>Epistrophy, thank you for continuing to contribute here in spite of your heavy workload. It helps more than you can imagine, and I sincerely appreciate it. Hopefully it is also helpful to others who are dealing with their own cancer battles. There are a couple of CC community members who have not made their health struggles with cancer public knowledge, but they correspond with me in PM and they are in treatment now. And I am sure you can imagine that if there are a couple of people, there are likely quite a few others who are silently lurking, so, you and everyone else contributing here are certainly helping more than just me. </p>
<p>Soozievt, I have been feeling very grateful for being able to do so much. I have had no side effects so far except for hair loss, and, I do not feel right - do not feel like myself at all. I have completed now 4 of 14 wbr treatments and I surely hope this doesn’t take a downhill plunge. I have to eat a lot to keep my level of strength, but, I eat good, quality food. Monday my daughter and I signed a three year contract for a fitness center that is more appropriate for our geography and so I am working out with weights again. I have also had a full schedule of work, lots of meetings, and upcoming travel. Yesterday I did my wbr session early morning and had a full day of just back to back meetings. </p>
<p>Having said that, I read something simply spectacularly horrifying yesterday. This just has to be the worst thing I have read in nearly seven months of research. As background, by the numbers, I am only supposed to live a few more weeks. The median survival with treatment is 8-11 months; I am at nearly 7 months. Anyway, an oncologist who is a specialist in lung cancer actually wrote on his forum that people who have this disease and who are younger and otherwise healthy and have a high performance status actually die a more gruesome, horrible, longer and far more painful death (as opposed to a very elderly person who just sort of fades away in their sleep) because they are otherwise healthy and so their bodies fight all the way, instead of giving in to the inevitable. </p>
<p>I sincerely hope that is not true. I wish I had never read his comment. I want to believe that feeling terrific (considering all of the treatment), continuing to fully function, having terrific reasons to continue living, etc., means something, however, this oncologist’s belief is that mentally fighting cancer is like trying to will the sun to not set in the evening (exact quote, that last). </p>
<p>I badly want to believe this guy is stone cold wrong. I really, really wish I had never read his comments. Perhaps Epistrophy & company can post some link that will void what I read… </p>
<p>I am nearly finished reading Arlen Spector’s book; his philosophy about working through this and maintaining a high level of performance and engagement in life matches mine precisely.</p>
<p>OH LTS!!! I wish I hadn’t read that, too. But, from what I have read by and about you, I don’t think this is your lot. You are going to jump this hurdle like you have every other! We’re praying here every day for you and your D.</p>
<p>Be well, and know you are loved, from close and afar, by strangers, sojourners, and friends.</p>
<p>“I want to believe that feeling terrific (considering all of the treatment), continuing to fully function, having terrific reasons to continue living, etc., means something…”
It does mean something. It means you are making the most of each and every day for the gifts that they are. You are living life to the fullest taking nothing for granted like most of us who complacently live under a , albeit temporary, false sense of immortality. No matter the diseases progression there are always treatments to manage the quality of like throughout. No one, least of all an MD should make such statements. “Giving in to the inevitable” is a far worse fate emotionally and physically as it drains the will to live and deflates the soul. One can have faith and fight this disease living fully no matter the potential outcome. Staying in the moment each step of the way with the love & support of your family and friends and taking the most you can from each day is the way to go. THIS GUY IS STONE COLD WRONG!</p>
<p>Oh LTS, that is not a fun read. But keep in mind, as we all know, things that are posted in forums may be written rather bluntly, with limited thought as to who may be reading it. So, hopefully that MD poster was overly blunt or prone to embellishment or over-dramatization. I am equally hopeful that epistrophy or you will find something that completely contradicts that oncologist’s statement.</p>
<p>When DS and I were visiting Tulane this past weekend, we attended a lecture on CA and CA treatments given by a biochem faculty member. We then ate dinner with 2 chem. faculty, both of whom are doing research on developing chemical compounds, with DNA, polymers and a whole bunch of really cool stuff I didn’t understand, to deliver medication directly to tumor sites, minimizing the general side effects of chemotherapy. We visited their labs and met with their grad students. They are collaborating with Tulane Medical school, the Xavier Pharmacy school, the biochem dept with the grant funding of these collaborative efforts. There is a big conference that happens to be in NOLA in April where they will be presenting several papers and poster sessions. So, there is a lot of promising stuff on the horizon. I recall your saying that there wasn’t much research being done on sclc , but these projects seem to be applicable to med delivery to a variety of cancers. So, hang in there-- lots of good stuff being done to combat this horrible disease.</p>
<p>As for the Wal Mart case, no surprise that they needed to nip the bad press in the bud and settle her case ASAP. Their explanation for dropping the subrogation was
I wonder what marketing person wrote that spin?</p>
<p>Have you had any luck using the resources offered here to access medical journals for free?? This is a great community!</p>
<p>It’s rather sickening that it required the power of the press to get Walmart to do the right thing. I am glad they finally, at long last saw the light, but, it took CNN to get them there. They had plenty of time - and bled lots of legal talent - before now. They only caved because they were so bluntly exposed. Acceptable marketing spin, but, too little, too late, IMO. </p>
<p>The hardest part of this battle is mental. One can overcome some of the physical challenges, or, at least I have been able to do so, so far. Saturday, I had no idea if I actually could paddle a boat or not, but, once on the water, found that not only could I paddle the boat, but I could actually keep up with, and, at at times carry the weight for the (former) 24 year old collegiate athlete. Yesterday, I had to leave my office for a meeting eight blocks away, and, although I could have grabbed a taxi or car service with no problem, I chose to walk to the meeting with my laptop, briefcase, and in heels and a suit. I figured if I could make it one block I could make it two, and so forth. It’s interesting that if you can get those first steps out of the way the rest come so much easier; for the walk back following a two hour meeting it was even easier. I figured if it became too challenging for me I could always hail a taxi mid-walk. My laptop and case weighs quite a bit and even when healthy I have always refused to use roller bags, believing that using my body and not giving in to these conveniences was a better choice.</p>
<p>Tonight, I will work out on the treadmill a bit, and do some weights. </p>
<p>But the mental battle is far, far more difficult. It takes some serious moxie to stay in a balanced frame of mine - staying positive and hopeful while simultaneously not ignoring issues that are real, and serious, and that need to be known just for basic reasons of planning and common sense.</p>
<p>The oncologist who leads and writes on that particular form is very experienced, and a Harvard AND Princeton graduate as well. Very, very difficult for me to unring that bell. How I wish I had never read that. But burying one’s head in the sand isn’t the correct approach either. </p>
<p>It is also true that a lot of research is being done. I am grateful for the brillant scientists who work so hard on this stuff. Our weird, long trial system is rather problematic though. Still, I am researching many options, in the event we run out of traditional solutions.</p>
<p>Oh LTS, please. Oncologists see the worst patients, and they get depressed too. An old friend who’s now a cancer researcher with the Cleveland Clinic told me years ago that the worst cases stick with you and you forget all the rest. I think that’s what you saw–a depressed oncologist venting his frustration.</p>
<p>Nine years ago my husband’s oncologist told him he’d be lucky to live four more years. Hmm. Funny how very wrong he was.</p>
<p>I love it that you bought a THREE YEAR membership at a gym! I’ve never had more than a one-month plan.</p>