I was at a meeting in 2014, called the REV Forum; its objective was to rethink cancer care delivery by gathering patients, advocates, thought leaders, and entrepreneurs. Even now I am struck by some of the things I learned that day. One that stays in mind is when a woman who looked like she was in her late 30s stood up and told us, “I had ovarian cancer. And even now, I don’t remember anyone telling me what I was going to go through. I had no one guiding me; it was as if I taught myself. I learned how to be a patient with ovarian cancer.”
That thought came to me recently after a woman presented with a persistent cough. She was in her early 70s and had never been sick. She never smoked, exercised fairly regularly, and ate sensibly. The cough started in late fall, which she attributed to allergies. When it did not go away, she saw her primary care doctor, who treated her for bronchitis (common things are common, after all). Two months went by and still she coughed. Then she noticed small bumps in her neck, and then a mass in her armpit. Still, her doctor was not worried. After another few weeks and no improvement, she underwent imaging, which showed multiple lung masses, including a large one in the right upper lung field. Her doctor had cried when he told her the results. “I think you have cancer.”
She was floored; she later relayed she had stopped hearing him; all she heard was “cancer.” Her doctor sent her to a pulmonologist, who immediately performed a bronchoscopy. A few days later he sat with her. “You have lung cancer, stage IV.” She stared, not believing what she was hearing. She just let him talk. “You will need an oncologist, and you won’t be seeing me again.”
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