What to Expect: Lung Cancer

We must choose hope over fear. Hope is the only way. When you first hear the words, "lung cancer," you know, your world is shattered. Here I am, 32 years old, and lung cancer, and I've never smoked in my life. You know, how does this happen? When I went to the doctor appointment, he started rambling off all these numbers and different things about the prognosis,

and none of the numbers that they give you are favorable. You see these percentages that are the lowest of the low, so I didn't really listen to those numbers, because I've always had the belief that those numbers aren't talking about me. I was not a candidate for surgery, nor radiation at the time,

because mine has advanced so far. So I was looking at an only option at that point of traditional chemotherapy. You can't completely prepare yourself for what your body is about to go through. It definitely puts you in a different state with being sick all the time. Nobody wants to be sick every day, but when it's your only option,

you jump in whole-heartedly. So this entire process-- you're going to get out of it what you put into it. If you fight for a little bit more and want to have more for yourself and want to be more, then you're going to go out, and you're going to educate yourself. You're going to get more information.

That's going to surround you with a group of people that you're going to find are in the same boat as you are, and they're going to help drive you, and you're going to feed off of their desires and their will to live. You just have to believe that you can get there. So when you do get these milestones like my little girl's going to kindergarten,

and my son's starting third grade, those are things that I never thought were possible for me after they said cancer, because that kind of stripped that away from me. And I was so happy that I'm very close to my five- year mark. It used to be you get this cancer, and you're a goner,

but I think me being here today is living proof that things have changed. After a diagnosis, it can be difficult to look far into the future. But realize that the joys will be that much sweeter. Your perspective will be that much clearer.