In memory...

Ten years ago today (September 14, 1999), my mother lost her battle with lung cancer. She was diagnosed New Year’s eve, 1998, with stage IV cancer, lung cancer assumed to be primary but at that point it was found to have metastasized to her sternum, collar bone, and spine. The doctor gave her 5 months to a year to live. She was 44 years old at that. She fought for 9 months before passing at the young age of 45.
Dying of cancer is a brutal, slow and painful process. I urge everyone to be involved in your healthcare and be proactive with your health. With that comes appropriate screenings for your age and risk factors. If you have a family history of cancer you need to be more fastidious in screenings and follow ups. Also, if you are a smoker…now is the time to quit. Put the cancer stick down…it isn’t worth it. Maybe it is… I don’t know; I’m not a smoker.
Every single one of us will either be diagnosed with a form of cancer or will know a loved one to be diagnosed with cancer. This is scary stuff. There are many ways to combat it if it happens and it does not always win. My father did continuous research during my mom’s illness and through feeding her a very healthy diet high in antioxidants combined with treatment we were miraculously able to put the cancer in remission to the doctor’s complete shock. Unfortunately, where the cancer had eaten away at her spine needed an emergent stabilization operation, a very serious procedure of putting rods in her back. The recovery for that kind of operation is quite arduous even for someone not battling cancer. The cancer process sped up and she died quickly after that. My point is that there is always hope. Be informed and fight. Whatever it takes…
“More people die from lung cancer than any other type of cancer. This is true for both men and women. In 2005 (the most recent year for which statistics are currently available), lung cancer accounted for more deaths than breast cancer, prostate cancer, and colon cancer combined.† In that year,
• 107,416 men and 89,271 women were diagnosed with lung cancer*†
• 90,139 men and 69,078 women died from lung cancer*†
Among men in the United States, lung cancer is the second most common cancer among white, black, Asian/Pacific Islander, American Indian/Alaska Native, and Hispanic men. Among women in the United States, lung cancer is the second most common cancer among white, black, and American Indian/Alaska Native women, and the third most common cancer among Asian/Pacific Islander and Hispanic women.† For more information, visit Cancer Data and Statistics by Demographic.” Information from CDC website: http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/lung/statistics/index.htm