As I think about it now, it seems strange to me that I had surgery before ever seeing an oncologist. My Pulmonologist referred me to a local oncologist that has a great reputation. I did specifically tell my Pulmonologist that I would like to go to a specialist for lung cancer. He said there really was not a specialist, but that the Doctor he was sending me too saw a lot of lung cancer, by virtue that he was referring his patients there.
I won't say the Oncologist's real name, but I will say that I did not get warm fuzzies. Oh, he did the right thing, leaning into me when he talked, etc., but he talked really fast and I was in and out of his office in ten (10) minutes. I felt as if he thought that on the scale of cancer patients, I had surgery, cancer was removed and I did not need much of his time. I'm not certain that was his thought, but ones' perception is their reality, so that was my REALITY. To sum up my visit, he suggested that I take Tarceva, a targeted therapy that works with that EGFR mutation that I have. He thought this would be good in case there were any remaining cancer cells that were so small that they were not yet detectable. Tarceva, is a great drug, to help one live with lung cancer, but it does have symptoms for most who take it.(diarrhea and a bad rash). The other issue with Tarceva is that lung cancer is known to become resistant to it over time. I had several questions in my mind. Without any detectable cancer, how would we know if it was actually working? How would we know if it was not working with no detectable cancer? What if down the road the cancer did come back and I had already used up my Tarceva card?
Being an avid reader, I was reading everything that I could about cancer survival. My favorite author at the time was Kris Carr and her book Crazy Sexy Cancer. One thing she said that hit my is that the statistics show that those who go outside of their local area for the medical care tended to have higher survival rates. Having not warmed up to Doctor Hurry Up And Send Me On My Way and still convinced that there had to actually be Oncologist that specialized in lung cancer, I began the search for my Doctor. Thanks Google! I found Dr. Jennifer Garst with Duke University Health System. She does research on lung cancer and only sees lung cancer patients. I had found my specialist. I called immediately and made an appointment for my second opinion.
Dr. Garst was everything that Dr. Hurry Up And Send Me On My Way was not. She spent about 45 minutes with me. In my appointment, she went line by line through my biopsy and lab results and explained it all. She felt that Tarceva was not good for me at the time. She also was more aggressive in her plan for my follow-up scans, plus she immediately wanted me to have an MRI of my brain, as often lung cancer metastasis to the brain. Dr. Garst is passionate about lung cancer and is a great advocate . She is the Chair for the North Carolina Lung Cancer Initiative, a non-profit that supports lung cancer research and education. I left my appointment feeling really secure in my choice of her as my Oncologist.
So my first year, I tried to change my diet some, but mainly began to incorporate juicing into my morning routine. God bless my husband for his tolerance, as I experimented with recipes. For about the first six (6) months we kept a journal of each recipe and our comments on it.
I also began to exercise, which has never been a favorite past time. I initially started at the gym just walking on the treadmill and riding a bicycle. After a couple of months, I started the C25K progam. The idea is that you use an app on your phone that supposedly takes you from being a couch potato to running a 5K in 30 minutes. The program is for nine (9) weeks. I never got up to running 5K, but I was running 15 out of the 30 minutes, which for me I thought was AWESOME!
I volunteered to be on the race committee for Race For Breath, a 5K walk/run held on November 1st at the Oceanfront in Virginia Beach. The race was to benefit Free To Breathe, another non-profit who raises money for research and has a mission to "Double Lung Cancer Survival By 2022". My husband and nephew, Kenley, walked the race with me and my Sister, Theresa, came and spent the night with us. It was a fun time for a good cause.
I won't say the Oncologist's real name, but I will say that I did not get warm fuzzies. Oh, he did the right thing, leaning into me when he talked, etc., but he talked really fast and I was in and out of his office in ten (10) minutes. I felt as if he thought that on the scale of cancer patients, I had surgery, cancer was removed and I did not need much of his time. I'm not certain that was his thought, but ones' perception is their reality, so that was my REALITY. To sum up my visit, he suggested that I take Tarceva, a targeted therapy that works with that EGFR mutation that I have. He thought this would be good in case there were any remaining cancer cells that were so small that they were not yet detectable. Tarceva, is a great drug, to help one live with lung cancer, but it does have symptoms for most who take it.(diarrhea and a bad rash). The other issue with Tarceva is that lung cancer is known to become resistant to it over time. I had several questions in my mind. Without any detectable cancer, how would we know if it was actually working? How would we know if it was not working with no detectable cancer? What if down the road the cancer did come back and I had already used up my Tarceva card?
Being an avid reader, I was reading everything that I could about cancer survival. My favorite author at the time was Kris Carr and her book Crazy Sexy Cancer. One thing she said that hit my is that the statistics show that those who go outside of their local area for the medical care tended to have higher survival rates. Having not warmed up to Doctor Hurry Up And Send Me On My Way and still convinced that there had to actually be Oncologist that specialized in lung cancer, I began the search for my Doctor. Thanks Google! I found Dr. Jennifer Garst with Duke University Health System. She does research on lung cancer and only sees lung cancer patients. I had found my specialist. I called immediately and made an appointment for my second opinion.
Dr. Garst was everything that Dr. Hurry Up And Send Me On My Way was not. She spent about 45 minutes with me. In my appointment, she went line by line through my biopsy and lab results and explained it all. She felt that Tarceva was not good for me at the time. She also was more aggressive in her plan for my follow-up scans, plus she immediately wanted me to have an MRI of my brain, as often lung cancer metastasis to the brain. Dr. Garst is passionate about lung cancer and is a great advocate . She is the Chair for the North Carolina Lung Cancer Initiative, a non-profit that supports lung cancer research and education. I left my appointment feeling really secure in my choice of her as my Oncologist.
So my first year, I tried to change my diet some, but mainly began to incorporate juicing into my morning routine. God bless my husband for his tolerance, as I experimented with recipes. For about the first six (6) months we kept a journal of each recipe and our comments on it.
I also began to exercise, which has never been a favorite past time. I initially started at the gym just walking on the treadmill and riding a bicycle. After a couple of months, I started the C25K progam. The idea is that you use an app on your phone that supposedly takes you from being a couch potato to running a 5K in 30 minutes. The program is for nine (9) weeks. I never got up to running 5K, but I was running 15 out of the 30 minutes, which for me I thought was AWESOME!
I volunteered to be on the race committee for Race For Breath, a 5K walk/run held on November 1st at the Oceanfront in Virginia Beach. The race was to benefit Free To Breathe, another non-profit who raises money for research and has a mission to "Double Lung Cancer Survival By 2022". My husband and nephew, Kenley, walked the race with me and my Sister, Theresa, came and spent the night with us. It was a fun time for a good cause.
