Likely I
am writing this today because my Nurse Practitioner over a year ago went a step further and believed a
chest x-ray should be part of an annual physical.
I write
about my odyssey with Stage 1 lung cancer. With increased availability of CT screening there
should be more of us filling the ranks of those trying to survive lung cancer
every day – DO NOT wait for symptoms!
Unfortunately,
there is no “idiot’s guide to a pre-lung cancer diagnosis” – so just a few
thoughts having recently walked the walked myself.
When I
heard the words ‘suspicious’ and ‘nodule’ in the same phrase with lung, I immediately
wanted to know how long I had to live.
Yet,
from receptionists to medical technicians to my Nurse Practitioner and eventually
Pulmonologist I was stonewalled by an ever growing conspiracy of silence or optimism, “it could be a lot of things”.
When I tried
a new tack by simply typing my scan reports into Google and calculating my own
prognosis then asking my Nurse Practitioner to comment, she suggested I “step
away from the Internet”.
Once diagnosed,
I was buried in helpful materials like manna falling from heaven but pre-diagnosis I
was wandering alone in the proverbial wilderness.
The time
of waiting I learned is known as scanxiety. Like a lot of things artists express it better.
When the songwriter is also a thoracic oncologist you get lyrics like these
below to “Scanxiety”:
“I long for words of warmth, support and empathy
I need your compassion
Not your dominance
Nor your disrespect”
Patrick Leer
Health Activist:
Caregivingly Yours, MS Caregiver @ http://caregivinglyyours.blogspot.com/
My Lung Cancer Odyssey @ http://lung-cancer-survivor.blogspot.com/
health
lung cancer
harrisburg
pennsylvania
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