I was diagnosed with Stage 4 Lung Cancer on June 10, 2021. We were preparing for a family vacation. A quick COVID test to confirm my lingering cough wasn’t contagious turned into an x-ray, followed immediately by a trip straight to the ER. All I could think that night in the hospital, looking at the bottles of bloodied fluid they had just drained from my lungs, was “WTF just happened?”

In my case, I was incredibly fortunate to have close friends and family in the medical and specifically oncology communities, who helped me through those early foggy days. Over time, I discovered an amazing online community of people dealing with the same diagnosis, who provided the hope, practical advice and support I needed to keep plugging away. In the years since my diagnosis, I’ve been one of the lucky ones to have responded well enough to my treatment plan to have seen a bit of the arc of lung cancer. 

Which brings me to this book. On the surface, it seems like resources for lung cancer patients abound. Advocacy organizations, hospitals, government health offices, and pharmaceutical companies all offer explanations of what it is, and the treatments available. But practical advice on what to do, how to deal with it in your real life? Not much. So this book is my way of giving back to the community which have given so much to me.

The Lung Cancer Patient’s Guide is the handbook I wish I’d had on Day 1, and many of the days afterwards. Real advice from people who have been there - at home, in the hospital, at work, with family. My hope is that the Guide will be of some help to the 2.5 million of us who are still being diagnosed with Lung Cancer each year.

I hope you’ll join us by sharing advice or a story, or by following our journey.

Naomi

p.s. Why the marathon photo? I completed the New York City Marathon the year I turned 50, two years after my diagnosis. Marathons, and especially NYC, are known for their creative spectator signs. The one that stuck with me read, “There will come a day when you cannot run a marathon. Today is not that day.” To my fellow Lung Cancer patients: Today is our day.