Stories of Lung Cancer

We tell ourselves stories in order to live.     ~Joan Didion

I’ve Decided I DON’T Have Lung Cancer | Feb 16 2021

 

 

February 16, 2021

Look. You cannot get on a stationary bike and ride hard without coughing or panting if you have lung cancer, right? Right?

Can you see my daughter’s side-eye? Because when I said that at her house this afternoon, she gave me A Look. “Uh, I don’t think so,” is what she said. “Really?” I asked. She shook her head from side to side. “No,” she said softly. “Sorry.” 

Maybe it’s good the appointment got postponed. It gives me a little more of a chance to digest this? Maybe. I still prefer to imagine that I don’t have cancer and that this is some stupid weirdness that will go away. Except there’s those sorta-enlarged lymph nodes….

My daughter the cancer survivor has tons of experience with cancer support groups; she knows a lot. She thinks they may want to biopsy those first. Maybe chemo, or radiation first. Maybe a biopsy of the lung? She things there will be surgery, then chemo. Or chemo, surgery, then more chemo. It all depends on what they find. 

Mostly it’s a waiting game. 

Today, that’s a good thing. I’d rather believe I don’t have cancer, and with no evidence to the contrary, I will just go about my business. 

I really don’t want to have cancer. 

Really. 

 

Photo by Brett Sayles from Pexels

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