scifiknitter

Another two-part series, this time looking at what it's like to be in a clinical trial. The first part covers some basic information about clinical trials in general: what are the different types of clinical trials? What do they require? Who pays for them? What It's Like to Be in a Lung Cancer Clinical Trial - Part One, Background Information The second part describes my experience in a phase II trial for an experimental drug. I have talked  about this trial in a previous post on this blog, but this piece has been freshly written. What It's Like to Be in a Lung Cancer Clinical Trial - Part Two, The Clovis Pharmaceuticals Phase II Trial for CO-1686

The weight of a lifetime's accumulation of stuff may seem especially heavy when you realize in your gut that your life is finite - and that someone else is going to have to deal with all that stuff some day if you don't. This post has been one of my most popular at the Free to Breathe patient support site. Sorting Out the Stuff After a Lung Cancer Diagnosis

I see both a very smart general oncologist who practices at a local cancer center and a very smart research oncologist who practices at a major cancer research hospital. I talk about why in this post. Why I Have Two Oncologists

The question of where we can find emotional support as lung cancer patients is a huge one, and I break it down into two sections in two blog posts this week for the Free to Breath lung cancer patient support site. We reach out for support first from family and friends. There are caveats, however - they are also having a difficult time with your illness, and maybe you can't talk with them about everything you are thinking about, or discovering. Finding Support as a Lung Cancer Patient: Family and Friend s Photo credit: Creative Commons CC0 Public Domain image from Pixabay In part two, I discuss places to find support if you decide to reach out beyond family and friends: phone calls with other patients, church, support groups, conferences, and counseling. Finding Support as a Lung Cancer Patient: Reaching Out Photo credit: Unmodified image by Colin Gray, taken for the Govanhill photoshoot at the Arches, Glasgow, licensed under terms of Cre...

As a new year approaches, I have a new platform for some of my posts. I am now a Community Blogger for the Free to Breathe site on the HealthUnlocked platform. HealthUnlocked  is an international site bringing together non-profit groups dedicated to helping people with serious and chronic illnesses, and offering a place for people to connect with others, be they survivors, patients, or caregivers. While I'll be posting regularly on the Free to Breathe site, I'll also continue to post here from time to time. I still need a place to post about my knitting, and I also have some long form pieces I want to do that more properly belong here. A post about the new standard of care for lung cancer is done now, and I will put it up in the next few days. My first two posts for Free to Breathe are: A meditative piece on how I have in effect skipped ahead a generation due to my diagnosis of lung cancer, and I now stand with my elderly parents, with much the same concerns and outlook ...