I get an awful chill when I say those words. Lung Cancer. My best friend, my husband has lung cancer. Is that really true? We were busy getting ready for our daughters summer wedding and we missed the signs. We didn't see the flags. There were these vague things, a dry nagging cough, some shoulder pain that started about the same time as the yard work we were doing to get ready for the wedding. He had lost quite a bit of weight, on purpose, but now he was having trouble putting on some weight for the wedding. He has been a smoker since high school and had cut back to four or five cigarettes a day for the past three years. He always had this "smokers cough". So what was wrong? Something wasn't right.
The wedding was fabulous and the day was extraordinary. It was the summer party we had hoped it would be. Life was wonderful! Our daughter was married to a wonderful young man and our son had married a beautiful young woman the year before. Everything should have been all set. But something was wrong!
My husband was not himself. We spent the next several weeks trying to get to the bottom of these vague complaints. We wanted an answer. It was like wading through molasses.
Finally we got an answer and it wasn't the one we had been expecting. It was Lung Cancer. I felt like we were stepping off of a platform into the abyss. Everything was gone from underneath. Nothing was where it should be. I couldn't breathe.
Then, out of this thick fog, our children, now suddenly so adult, have appeared and become our ROCKS. How did that happen? They came and called on us to draw on their strength. They assured us that life will go forward with all of us in it! What a gift!
We headed off into New York to Sloane-Kettering. Sloane-Kettering an island of medical professionals who work to reach the highest standards of patient care and caring. They do it all.
Two surgeries later, and many trips into New York, my husband is now surgically cancer free.
We had to leave the security of Sloane-Kettering and return to the Hartford area.
He has to undergo sixteen weeks of Chemotherapy. Doing it closer to our home is the logical way to go. We have new words in our vocabulary now, like Cisplatin and Vinorelbine . Things are different in Hartford. I don't feel as safe there.
Still, everything is going well. We have new things to learn, side-effects to watch for, lab results that we have to watch rise and fall and adjust our lives to. We've just started this new job.
It's been a cold winter. I feel chilled to the bone. I'm very excited that the clocks are turning ahead early this year and spring is on the way.
This will be a great summer... Warm. sunny... new!
Something really good is happening I can tell.
The wedding was fabulous and the day was extraordinary. It was the summer party we had hoped it would be. Life was wonderful! Our daughter was married to a wonderful young man and our son had married a beautiful young woman the year before. Everything should have been all set. But something was wrong!
My husband was not himself. We spent the next several weeks trying to get to the bottom of these vague complaints. We wanted an answer. It was like wading through molasses.
Finally we got an answer and it wasn't the one we had been expecting. It was Lung Cancer. I felt like we were stepping off of a platform into the abyss. Everything was gone from underneath. Nothing was where it should be. I couldn't breathe.
Then, out of this thick fog, our children, now suddenly so adult, have appeared and become our ROCKS. How did that happen? They came and called on us to draw on their strength. They assured us that life will go forward with all of us in it! What a gift!
We headed off into New York to Sloane-Kettering. Sloane-Kettering an island of medical professionals who work to reach the highest standards of patient care and caring. They do it all.
Two surgeries later, and many trips into New York, my husband is now surgically cancer free.
We had to leave the security of Sloane-Kettering and return to the Hartford area.
He has to undergo sixteen weeks of Chemotherapy. Doing it closer to our home is the logical way to go. We have new words in our vocabulary now, like Cisplatin and Vinorelbine . Things are different in Hartford. I don't feel as safe there.
Still, everything is going well. We have new things to learn, side-effects to watch for, lab results that we have to watch rise and fall and adjust our lives to. We've just started this new job.
It's been a cold winter. I feel chilled to the bone. I'm very excited that the clocks are turning ahead early this year and spring is on the way.
This will be a great summer... Warm. sunny... new!
Something really good is happening I can tell.
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