Alisa was too busy caring for her mom, who was fighting cancer, to pay any attention to her own health. She was a single mom to twin boys, her mother’s caregiver and was working full time. Alisa just couldn’t worry about the pain she was feeling in her knees. After her mom passed away, she eventually focused on her health again and went back to the doctor; Alisa’s knee pain had gotten worse.
Another doctor in the office suggested that she get a chest x-ray to rule out cancer since her mom just passed from it and apparently some lung cancer patients get pain in their bones from a hormone a tumor can excrete. The x-ray didn’t rule out cancer. Alisa was diagnosed with stage 3 non-small cell lung cancer. The same kind of cancer that had just taken her mother’s life.
“I had a lobectomy (middle right lobe removed) and then adjuvant chemo treatments – 6 cycles of taxol/carboplatin, followed up with Integrative Care. I went to all my chemo treatments and doctor appointments alone, before I had to pick up my twins from school.”
Alisa was afraid for the future of her twin sons. She felt isolated and alone after her diagnosis and didn’t have a large support network.
Social media didn’t really exist at the time of Alisa’s diagnosis and treatment in 2000, but eventually she found the Lung Cancer Support Community, the message boards at LUNGevity
“The message board was a lifeline for me, not just for the emotional support but for the informative information and recommendations passed on by other survivors and caregivers. I was so alone for years … it would have made a world of difference to me if there were the LUNGevity brochures in the various medical offices. I can’t imagine my life if I didn’t later stumble across Katie and that message board on my own.”
When asked what advice she would give to someone newly diagnosed Alisa says;
“Make sure to get a second, or even a third, opinion – there is no rewind button. Do not get stuck on statistics as there are many survivors who were told nothing can be done yet they have been thriving for years. I would also give the information to LUNGevity’s website and encourage them to reach out.”
“The best thing about this experience is attending LUNGevity’s national Hope Summits and witnessing the amazing strength and compassion of my fellow survivors. So many people that have touched my heart in an enormous way would not be in my life now if I hadn’t gotten lung cancer.”
Alisa is a 14 year lung cancer survivor. She worries about a recurrence or new primary and, of course, Scanxiety. She worries for her children, as many of her family members were diagnosed with NSCLC. To combat those fears she volunteers her time and energy raising awareness about the disease at LUNGevity’s Breathe Deep NYC.
She wants to let others know they don’t have to walk the journey alone.
