I, too, am a cancer survivor. My 5 year anniversary for survival was March 2nd, 2006. At this point I feel I am the luckiest person on the planet because every step in my experience was accidental.
I had been being treated for a year and a half for a back injury from a fall. I had the pain pills, the bed rest, the injections, the exercises, and finally the news that surgery would be necessary. The doctor was hoping for March 2nd. I spent an afternoon having my pre-op testing done and was awaiting the call from my doctor for a date to do the surgery. The call came, but the message was not what I expected.
The doctor told me they had found a more serious problem and that my back surgery had to be put on a "back burner" for now. I was told that in my pre-op chest X-ray there was a small spot at the top of my left lung and I was scheduled immediately to see a pulmonary doctor. An intense battery of tests were performed within a few days, and I found myself in the hospital, coincidently on the same date for which my back surgery would have been scheduled.
My lung surgery was successfully carried out, although I have no recollection of anything until early April. The day following surgery I fell victim to ARDS (acute respiratory distress syndrome), a condition unknown to anyone in my family or any of my friends. Much research took place to learn about ARDS, along with the information supplied by my doctors at the hospital.
How lucky could I get? Eastern Virginia Medical School is part of Sentara Norfolk General Hospital. The scool was in the process of working on some experimental drug to treat ARDS. Permission to use the drug was required from my family. Apparently within a few days I regained conciousness and came out of the coma which I had been in since being stricken by ARDS. FYI: Survival of ARDS has a rate of 50%.
My very first thought when I awoke was that, during the bizarre dream-world I had been living in for weeks, I thought a doctor had said I did not need chemo or radiation treatments. This, to me at least, was unheard of for someone having lung cancer surgery. This was the very first thing I recall asking the doctor because I thought I had dreamed it. He assured me that it was true. In fact, he had to reassure me for several days that I did not dream it. He said I was fine!
As I stated at the beginning, everything about my experience was accidental. I had never been sick or had any symptoms of having a lung/breathing problem, (if I hadn't fallen, I wouldn't have gone through the pre-op); I did not need any further cancer treatments; and, best of all... I never had any nicotine withdrawal because I went into a coma caused by ARDS and slept through it. I view all of this as the up-side to what was a traumatic experience, not only for myself, but for my family.
I am saddened that in the past five years I have lost loved ones who were not as fortunate as I. But on their behalf, I have written a journal and have participated in two research programs sponsored by the University of Philadelphia and Seattle, WA. I have retired from the business world and pursued a writing career which is something I didn't take time for before.
Life is good! I have been granted this reprieve and thank God every day. Whatever help I can be to others, I am more than happy to be there, share and encourage. We all learn in one way or another that life is too short not to be grateful for every minute we have. And to accomplish something in that minute is really all that counts.
Given all of the irony involved in my experience with cancer, if I were to be honest about it, my greatest fear is not that cancer could reoccur, but that ARDS can strike me again, or anyone, at almost any time, i.e., during difficult childbirth; having pneumonia; having a bad case of flu, or any number of health issues that would otherwise seem non-life threatening. I would strongly urge anyone who has never heard of this condition to go to the ARDS web-site and read about it. It could help save your life or that of someone you care about.