Until Dad was diagnosed with Stage IV Non Small Cell Lung Cancer, the topic was a scary one, but not one that I completely understood (and I still don’t).
I am a very analytical person, and I try to find as much information about every piece of every puzzle that affects my life or those I care about. When it came to dads diagnosis, I found myself relentless in trying to find answers to our questions such as what to expect with Stage IV lung cancer, what to expect from chemotherapy, how long does dad have, why did dad get cancer when he quit smoking 25 years ago, and so many other questions.
The only information I could find were statistics that were not relative to my Dad’s situation. It made me think that other’s may find something useful in reading about our daily struggle with lung cancer, and hopefully we can help answer some of the questions that I was not able to find.
Writing about it also helps me to try and accept it for what it is, and to make the most out of every single day while not losing any of my thoughts in the process. I want to be able to look back at some of the happy moments and also the struggles. This is the type of thing that truly makes you appreciate every single day, regardless of the struggles you may face in your own life.
My name is Melissa, and I am my fathers daughter. I am the youngest of 2, but not by much. My sister is only 20 months older than me, and we are struggling through this together. We have been trying to figure out why this happened, because everything happens for a reason… right? So we both thought, but now find ourselves wondering what reason there could be to take our Dad from us to lung cancer, and put him through hell in the process.
You can read about important dates and chemo appointments here, or you can click through all of the blog posts in chronological order beginning with Dad’s biopsy results.