blogger profile

Noranc

I'm a thirty-something working mom to the cutest little boy on earth, a child bride who just celebrated her 10th wedding anniversary, a TV addict, a bargain huntress, a lover of food, especially ice cream, and a self-professed word nerd. Being an editor with skirt! is something of a dream come true ...

READ MORE

A sad passing

I was deeply saddened to learn that Cathy Rose, a 34-year-old lung cancer patient and mother of three, died Tuesday. Cathy, a nonsmoker, was featured in the News & Record in May and I had hoped to profile her in our September issue. Sadly, I will never get the chance to meet her, but what I can do is publish this essay she wrote about how cancer changed her view of the world.

Lung cancer isn't just a smoker's disease
By Cathy Rose

Before I got lung cancer, I wore suits and high heels to work.

After I was diagnosed with lung cancer, I wore a hospital gown for nearly five weeks. On good days, I could get up and put on my own bathrobe.

Before lung cancer, I never left the house without my makeup and jewelry.

Now, I never leave the house without my oxygen tanks and barf bucket.

Before lung cancer, I had a refrigerator door that held my daughters' artwork and school papers.

Now it holds a two page chart to track my 23 daily medicines and treatments and an oversize calendar to mark my doctor and chemo appointments.

Before lung cancer, I had a dining room with a dining room set in it that was less than 3 months old. My husband and I saved up for it for 10 years. It was our Christmas present to ourselves.

Now I have a hospital bed and an oxygen machine in there. The dining room set is boxed up in the garage and my husband sleeps upstairs alone.

Before lung cancer, I knew that people were good and helpful.

Now I have witnessed first hand the truly extraordinary generosity, kindness, and thoughtfulness of family, friends, co-workers, church members and even total strangers. Their offerings of prayers, food, care, and concern have held me up and made this terrible time more bearable. They have been a witness of godliness and goodness.

Before I got lung cancer, I thought it was a terrible disease that smokers got in old age after a lifetime of bad habits. It is usually diagnosed in people in their 70s.

Now I know that women who have never smoked can get lung cancer. One in five women who get lung cancer have never smoked. 

Now I know that lung cancer kills more people than the next four leading cancers - colon, breast, pancreas and prostate - combined.

Now I know that breast cancer is not the number one cancer killer of women: lung cancer is. Lung cancer is, in fact, the number one cause of cancer deaths in the United States.

Now I know that lung cancer is extremely underfunded in the United States. It gets less than half the funding of colon cancer per death, less than one sixth of the funding of breast cancer per death.

Now I know that there is no early detection for lung cancer. If you have a persistent cough and chest pain that does not respond to treatment, question your doctor and demand a thorough reading of your chest X-rays.

I now manage each day as it comes. According to my doctor, my cancer is progressive and aggressive. It has not responded positively to surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy - yet. But she is treating me as proactively as possible with some newer therapies.

I stay positive and optimistic and each day I fight this as hard as I can. I am grateful for each day I have, each hour with my husband and children.

Now, every day is a beautiful day.