I had a mediastinotomy in October and a lymph node that had shown up on the CT scan was biopsied. The biopsy was sent off to pathology and a few weeks later the results showed it was Stage 3 lung cancer, that was eventually classified as having the ALK mutation. When we looked into what may have caused my lung cancer diagnosis, we tested the house for radon. The house was built in 1969 and the Becquerel reading on the main floor, after 3 months of testing, read over 400, with the finished basement reading over 700. That was higher than the Health Canada recommendations of less than 200 Becquerels as being a safe level so we subsequently had it mitigated.
The nest step was a referral to CancerCare Manitoba (CCMB), which was fortunate as it was adjacent to the hospital I was working at. I shared my situation with my boss, who was very supportive and accommodating to my medical needs, which was a great help. My personal style of dealing with my cancer diagnosis was to tell anyone that would listen, especially with doctors, nurses and social workers that I worked with.
I had chemotherapy and radiation at the same time, 25 treatments of radiation and 2 weeks of chemotherapy, one week at the beginning and one week at the end of radiation. While I was on chemotherapy, I was fully independent, however, I stopped going to the gym and running outdoors. The CT a few weeks later showed that the treatments had a minimal effect, and basically the cancer had not changed. I was then referred to a different surgeon, because my original surgeon had retired, and he decided to perform a left upper lobectomy and extensive lymph node resection by a thoracotomy. This was in March 2015, I was again fortunate as I knew the anesthetist, and operating nurse and knew that I was in safe hands. My length of stay in hospital was longer than anticipated because I couldn’t keep my oxygen levels up and required a blood transfusion. Surgery was followed by one round of chemo. I think that with all cancers, the cures and the treatments can be worse than the initial disease itself.
I had been using sick days and applied for short term disability through work. Eventually, the disability insurance wanted to start a return to work program. I loved my job as the renal transplant social worker, but it was busy and stressful at times, and I knew that if I returned to work I wouldn’t have the time or energy for all of those things that were important to me. Fortunately, I could afford to take early retirement. While I was off work recovering from my cancer treatments and surgery, I wanted to do things that would give my life meaning. I started going to yoga again, meditating and exercising, (all of these being offered for free through CCMB), I started playing my violin again and volunteering. Initially with an organization for immigrant newcomer children, then with a senior’s center. I also started watercolour painting, zentangling, resumed travelling, and going to cross-fit classes for seniors. I am English and still have family and friends in England, my partner is from France, and my eldest son lives in Australia, and so we travel frequently to various places and this continues to be important to me. Life was good and I was very active and busy.