Introduction

On December 28, 2013 I was given the diagnosis no one ever expected.  I had chronic shoulder pain for over a year, which I thought was work related, and I have chronic asthma. Otherwise,  I am a relatively healthy, young Asian female who has never smoked.  After little to no improvement of symptoms from massage, chiropractic and physiotherapy, we pushed for more testing;  MRIs, blood tests, CT scans and finally a biopsy.  My husband and I received the horrible news from the ER doc after our return flight from the holidays; I had gone in for shortness of breath and came home with stage IV lung cancer.  The reality of it is still settling in.  Needless to say, we are devastated.

I want to increase awareness of lung cancer in young, non-smoking individuals. Everyone knows about lung cancer risk in smokers... Well, non-smokers can also get lung cancer.  I have found a multitude of others like me online.  The fact is, lung cancer kills more people each year than breast, colorectal and prostate cancer combined.  We need more research funding for lung cancer treatments; I can't think of one fundraising event for lung cancer in my area. We need to be more sensitive to lung cancer symptoms and find better screening tests. If you have chronic shoulder, back or chest pain, chronic cough or shortness of breath that is not alleviated by conventional means, push for further testing as soon as possible.   

But most importantly, I started this blog for my family, friends and others affected by lung cancer.