Dear Doctors: Please Do Not Confuse Your Medical Degree with my Google Search

Dear Doctors: Please Do Not Confuse Your Medical Degree with my Google Search

A friend posted this picture on Facebook: LOL, right? No. Not for me. That mug/meme may seem like a silly, harmless joke. But, the message, and the sentiment behind it, is offensive and detrimental to the doctor-patient relationship. My oncologist is an…

ROS1+ Cancer Research Survey Launched + FUNdraisers!

ROS1+ Cancer Research Survey Launched + FUNdraisers!

I have wonderful news! With the help of the phenomenal Addario Lung Cancer Foundation, we have just launched the ROS1+ Research Project. The first step of this research project is an online survey. If you have ROS1+ cancer (note: ROS1…

Is it Possible to Thrive After a Stage IV Lung Cancer Diagnosis?

Is it Possible to Thrive After a Stage IV Lung Cancer Diagnosis?

Just a few weeks after my diagnosis, I learned my cancer had tested positive for a rearrangement of the ROS1 gene. Of course, the first thing I did was Google the crap out of the term “ROS1.” I didn’t understand…

Update #10: Shi(f)t Happens

Update #10: Shi(f)t Happens

I was struck by a quote that my friend Samantha posted on Facebook a few weeks ago: “You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading the last one.” I’ve been building up to shifting my…

Cancer Has Made Me a Bigger (But Still Shallow) Person

Cancer Has Made Me a Bigger (But Still Shallow) Person

There’s a book titled “Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person.” I haven’t read it, but the title made me laugh. Sometimes having cancer makes me have very deep thoughts about the purpose of life and what comes after, yada yada…

Guest Blog: "Dear Lung Cancer Patient Who Didn't Smoke"

Guest Blog: “Dear Lung Cancer Patient Who Didn’t Smoke”

Last December, my family took a trip to Hawaii. On a whim, I messaged a woman I barely knew, Karen “K” Latzka, a fellow lung cancer advocate who’d recently friended me on Facebook and regularly posted stunning pictures from her…

Hope (in the form of paying my annual Bar Association dues)

Hope (in the form of paying my annual Bar Association dues)

I haven’t practiced law in over a decade. I stopped long before I was diagnosed with lung cancer. In fact, even when I was practicing, I didn’t like it. For me, law was a misstep. I never should have gone…

Profiles in Lung Cancer -- Day 22, Sandy Arlin Jauregui-Baza      [Perfiles en El Cáncer de Pulmón -- Día 22, Sandy Arlin Jauregui-Baza]

Profiles in Lung Cancer — Day 22, Sandy Arlin Jauregui-Baza [Perfiles en El Cáncer de Pulmón — Día 22, Sandy Arlin Jauregui-Baza]

PROFILES IN LUNG CANCER – DAY 22 Lung Cancer Awareness Month 2015 Sandy Arlin Jauregui-Baza, Survivor and Advocate “Life doesn’t have to end after diagnosis. It can be a wake-up call to start making YOU your biggest priority in life.”…

Profiles in Lung Cancer -- Day 15, Dr. Lucy Kalanithi

Profiles in Lung Cancer — Day 15, Dr. Lucy Kalanithi

PROFILES IN LUNG CANCER – DAY 15 Lung Cancer Awareness Month 2015 Dr. Lucy Kalanithi, Lung cancer advocate and former caregiver “Lung cancer happened to Paul, but it’s something we did together.” Twitter handle:@rocketgirlmd Who are you? — I am…

Living Scan to Scan (and trying not to)

Living Scan to Scan (and trying not to)

There’s another LC survivor whose catch phrase is “make the play now, cry later.” It was a lesson she learned in softball that she applied to LC. I think most of us who have been handed a diagnosis like this,…