November.. Lung Cancer Awareness & Mike
November was Lung Cancer Awareness month which most people don't know about because sadly it's a negatively stigmatized cancer. Understandably most people think that you must be a smoker or former smoker to get lung cancer, so it's "your fault"! While it is true that smoking does cause not only lung cancer but several other cancers, never smokers are being diagnosed more and more every year! So really if you have lungs you can be diagnosed with lung cancer, as was Mike!!!
Our president declared a public health emergency for the opioid overdose epidemic because it kills 91 Americans daily, but lung cancer kills 433 people per day and no one talks about it!?! I don't know what the answer is but pouring more money into it doesn't seem to be helping! Once again, we need to try and prevent it through lifestyle instead of trying to "cure" it after the fact! We also need to stop stigmatizing those who have lung cancer by asking if they smoked!!! We don't ask other cancer patients if they ate too much, drank too much, sat too much, got too much sun, or not enough sun, etc, etc... because it's not appropriate! I get it, I've done it, because really we are trying to tell ourselves that we won't get "it" because we "didn't do that". Sorry, for the soap box!
Mike is doing well and only has 2 more weeks of his oral Chemo, BUT his WBC was super low as are his neutrophils due to the Etoposide, so he has to take a longer break before starting back up. He also needs to stay healthy and avoid picking up any virus/infection floating around, because you need WBC's to fight off infections! He did have his blood drawn yesterday and his white blood count was up to 5.1 so much better! but the longer break in between will be nice, especially for his sleep! Another positive is that the two tumor markers they check are nice and low and we are so thankful for that!!!
High School basketball games started this week, and that helps keeps us busy and our minds occupied. This is the first year since Jack was in 2nd grade that Mike hasn't coached him so it will be a different experience but hopefully good for both of them!
With Christmas fast approaching it's important to remember the true meaning of CHRISTmas! We love the song Put A Little Love In Your Heart, and won't write them all out here but a few lines that seem so important now: Think of your fellow man, Lend him a helping hand, Put a little love in your heart, You see it's getting late, Oh please don't hesitate, Put a little love in your heart… And the world will be a better place…
Be Blessed, Paula