Even Though I Had No Symptoms, I Found My Lung Cancer Early Enough to Treat It

As told to Erica Rimlinger

At age 43, I had very few risks for lung cancer, if any. I ran regularly, ate well and had never puffed a cigarette. I’d also never been exposed to secondhand smoke or dangerous levels of air pollution. In fact, my dad was a lung doctor who warned me since early childhood about the dangers of smoking and all the other potential threats to my lung health.

So imagine my surprise when, after a quick run, I arrived for a CT scan that was sure to be routine and walked away with a diagnosis of stage 1 lung cancer. Just one hour before, I’d been running my usual route, with no airway problems at all. I wasn’t breathing heavily. I felt great. I had no symptoms.

My path to diagnosis started with a family-plus-business trip to New York City, where my husband encouraged me to get a full-body MRI for a baseline picture of my health. He’d done it several months before, and the scan had uncovered a minor medical problem that would have gotten worse if he hadn’t known it was there to fix. I wanted to spend the afternoon in the city with the kids but finally gave in and made the appointment. Insurance didn’t cover it, so I paid out of pocket.

The radiologist identified a small mass in my right lung but recommended I not follow up on it. It was a “minor finding,” the radiologist told me. It was like finding a freckle on a skin check: It’s good to chart it and know it’s there, but it’s no cause to worry. When I returned from my appointment I told my husband, “See? I’m just as beautiful on the inside as I am on the outside.”

I mostly forgot about the MRI finding, but my family and friends didn’t. I’d been told by the doctors in my circle of family and friends that an MRI was great for diagnosing dense tissue and organs but not so great at looking at the lungs. They recommended I follow up with a CT scan. I didn’t think it was necessary, but I did it anyway.

That’s how I ended up sitting in the radiologist’s office, learning that the mass in my lungs — the freckle — had grown 4.1 centimeters in the months since my MRI, and that mass was likely stage 1 lung cancer.

I refused to believe the diagnosis. I’d just come from a run, and I had no problems breathing. I didn’t have a cough, so I couldn’t possibly have cancer. I felt great, so I was well. Defiantly, I sent the video of the CT to my dad, the lung doctor. I also gave a copy of it to a radiologist friend’s husband I saw in the carpool line. I knew they’d read the scan and have a better answer than cancer. That was a Friday. On Saturday, my phone rang and I was surprised to see my friend’s name pop up on the caller ID. Why was she calling instead of texting? She told me I needed to see an oncologist immediately.

My husband was deployed, but fortunately he returned just in time for my oncologist appointment, where he learned the diagnosis alongside me. I had a quickly growing adenocarcinoma that required surgery. When we got home, we gathered our four kids, who ranged in age from 8 to 14. They sensed the atmosphere quickly and one of them asked, “Are you getting divorced or does Mom have cancer?” I told them I had cancer. The kids laughed at what they thought was a joke. Then we all cried.

I had a bronchoscopy the next day, a procedure that requires a ventilator. A few days later, I hosted a fast breaking for Yom Kippur, where I told our loved ones the news. That week, my husband made countless phone calls to get me onto the surgery schedule. I’d have surgery a week after learning of my diagnosis.

The surgery removed half my lung and confirmed the cancer hadn’t spread to my lymph nodes. Although I felt physically terrible after the surgery, I also felt lucky we’d discovered the cancer at such an early stage.

During my recovery I learned lung cancer kills more women than breast, ovarian and cervical cancers combined. It’s so deadly because it’s rarely discovered early, when the survival rate can be high. When lung cancer has spread throughout the body, the stage when lung cancer is most often found, the chances of surviving it drop dramatically. And yet, we don’t regularly scan for lung cancer the way we routinely screen for other cancers.

Five weeks after my surgery, I was running again. Six months after my surgery, my tests and scans confirmed I was clear of cancer. Although I was happy to have lung cancer in my rearview mirror, I realized what a miracle I’d been given, and how my miracle could help others.

Until we can all get our cancers caught early, I’ll never stop advocating for early screening. Currently, to get screened for lung cancer, you need to fall within certain guidelines, which are based on outdated notions. These include assumptions that lung cancer happens after age 50 and only to smokers. In fact, women who never smoked are now getting lung cancer at a faster rate than men who smoke, and the average age of diagnosis is dropping too. Current guidelines are so antiquated they don’t even address vaping.

I advocate for early detection now, knowing it saved my life. I’ve also created the foundation Cancer Doesn’t Care, which helps people with the cost of preventive low-dose chest CT scans. I’ve written a book, “One Scan Saved My Life,” about my experience to raise awareness, with all profits going to Cancer Doesn’t Care.

Lung cancer is often thought to be the result of lifestyle choices. But lung cancer isn’t a choice, and nobody deserves it. Right now, I’m lung cancer’s lucky exception, and I don’t want to be lucky alone. I’ll keep fighting for preventive screening until my story is considered typical, not fortunate.

Resources

American Cancer Society

American Lung Association

Cancer Doesn’t Care

This educational resource was created with support from Daiichi.

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