One of many phrases I never wanted to say in my life, my family member has stage 4 lung cancer. However, that is the hand we were dealt 2 weeks ago. For years my uncle had pain in his shoulder and his arm. He chalked it up to arthritis from his motorcycle accidents over 30 years ago. His doctor wasn’t having it though and finally said enough was enough and sent him for testing. We sat watching as the health system very quickly moved him from one test to another. We knew it was not a good sign. On May 18th we got the news we were expecting but not wanting to hear. Stage 4 lung cancer along with lesions on his brain.
The Oncologist told my uncle he had 3 choices;
- Accept that it is terminal and no longer be with us in 3 months.
- Treat him with chemotherapy to help with the symptoms and he will be with us for 4 to 8 months
- This one we did not expect. Due to his age and his health without the cancer, there is a chance if we fight it strongly with radiation and chemotherapy he may be able to beat it.
The choice was up to my Uncle. He chose to fight it. We were sent straight away over to radiation where he was fitted for a mask to receive 6 radiation treatments on the brain lesions. As soon as those treatments were over he would start 33 radiation treatments for the lung cancer along with radiation.
We offered up our home for him to come stay with us while he faces the fight of our life and he took us up on the offer. The following week was filled with radiation appoints and doctor appoints. It was also filled with me watching my Uncles pain get worse and worse even with a crazy amount of meds to try to ease his pain.
Last Thursday the doctors decided it would be in his best interest to be admitted to the hospital to get his pain under control. It was so bad he couldn’t even lie still for his radiation appointment. So this is where we sit for now. He is in the hospital and I am there every day. What the future holds we don’t know. But my Uncle is a fighter and one must never give up on hope.