Buffalo seasons Awareness in life
From Prognosis to Possibility: Rewriting the Story of Lung Cancer Survivorship.
For decades, a lung cancer diagnosis often carried a single story — one of finality. The prognosis was grim, the path forward narrow. Today, that story is changing. Advances in targeted therapies, immunotherapies, and early detection have opened new chapters in what it means to live with lung cancer.
But as treatment evolves, so too must the way we understand survivorship. Beyond medical progress lies an equally vital conversation: how we make meaning, find connection, and reclaim identity after diagnosis. This is the heart of the new narrative — the shift from prognosis to possibility.
The Impact of Cancer on Personal relationships
When I was 15 years old, entering high school, my maternal grandfather, aka Moo Moo, died of lung cancer, which had metastasized to his brain. Treatments and prognoses have come a long way since then, and some forms of metastatic disease are curable. I often wish that he would have been able to live this long to see such amazing advancements in medicine. He was in his mid-50s—my age now. I still have the quiet moments I spent with him in his bedroom, the bed facing the rugged lawn and all its rural wonder; but I also have memories of better times with him fishing on the LaCrosse River, eating hot ham and cheese sandwiches at Hardees, and trying to make cream turn into butter by shaking the half and half capsules at the local diner (his idea and prompting).