9-year stage 4 lung cancer survivor seeking to help others?

Thank you for sharing your remarkable journey and your desire to support others in this community. Nine years of navigating stage 4 lung cancer while also caring for loved ones demonstrates incredible resilience. Your unique perspective as both a physician and patient, combined with your extensive experience, could provide valuable insight and hope to others facing similar challenges. The community would likely benefit greatly from your knowledge and willingness to share both the difficult moments and the victories along the way. Consider sharing your experiences and connecting with others here who may be at different stages of their own journeys.

I completely agree - your incredible journey and dual perspective would be such a gift to this community, and I'm wondering if you might also consider sharing some of the coping strategies that helped you through those rocky periods you mentioned.

I can share some experiences good and not so good, but manageable. Initial course of chemotherapy was more or less a breeze except for low blood pressure. I managed with a liquid diet and still went to work sometimes having to wear compression stockings to keep the blood pressure up. I manage the nausea with Zofran and occasional diarrhea and neuropathy with symptomatic local treatment. Muscle crimes were a huge problem in the beginning but I knew the functional capacity of Ecog 0 is absolutely essential in metastatic disease hence went on a exercise schedule and stretching exercise exercises before going to sleep. Which seem to help the muscle cramps. Try to eat light without much fried food at night. And generally cut down the carbohydrates and stuck to a Mediterranean diet. Make sure my vitamin D levels were over 40 and I took 2 g of vitamin C every day. I try to eat a whole grain diet as much as possible and avoided processed foods which will cause swing in the insulin levels as insulin being effective growth factor I didn’t want to adversely affect my cancer. My colleagues wanted me to see a counselor which I did on two occasions but the counselor felt that I didn’t need any counseling as I was wired very positive. My only goal was to be alive till I take care of my wife and my mother. And every morning when I woke up I reaffirm these thoughts that I will feel better today and I’ll make someone else feel better today which kept me going. I will post tomorrow regarding how I navigated the Covid years. One thing I advise you all is you’re not part of a statistic. Your immune system is clearly unique to you and you keep doing the things which you can correct and have control over and leave the rest to God everything will work out well. I’ll try and post at the end of each day and you have to excuse I’m not computer savvy so there may be a lot of spelling mistakes. I love you all in this battle and you will come out ahead with persistence, positivity,faith and productivity. Love you all Ramesh

Hi Dr. Ramesh, I love your positivity and your self endurance to be able to care for yourself and others! I know how I feel on a daily basis and to think of your profession and your compassion as a caregiver, I honestly don't think I would be able and I never experienced chemo . I admire your inner strength. I feel I need a second opinion... you're supposed to eventually feel better after they remove all your cancer and a quarter of your lung, right? lol any I just wanted to say your an amazing person and I look forward to talking more with you later;) Welcome! Amy

Hi Amy, thanks for posting. get uourself a spirometer from Amazon and do breathing execises when u wake up there are u tibe videos also. count to 4 and slowly inhale thro you nose ans hold ur breath count to four and exhale thru your mouth counting 6. do 10 times 3 times a day. it will increase endurance. start slow walking on glat ground and increase daily.. start the day sith positive thoughts. 🙏