“ I had stage 4 lung cancer at the age of 29 but have never smoked ”

In May 2018, I was a 29 year old mom at the start of my third trimester of my second pregnancy. A few years ago I had been diagnosed Crohn’s disease, a chronic inflammatory bowel disease that can cause unintentional weight loss. So when I stopped gaining weight as quickly as when I was first pregnant, my doctor and I thought that was the simplest explanation.

But a few months later, in mid-August 2018, I woke up with severe chest pain. I couldn’t breathe or move without excruciating pain. My husband had already left for work, so I took our 2 year old daughter to school and then Google searched for my symptoms. I called my obstetrician and my GP and they told me the same thing: go to the emergency room at once.

After a chest x-ray, the doctor came and told me I had a calcified granuloma – a small patch of inflammation typically benign (non-cancerous) often caused by infection – in the lower part of my left lung. In most cases, these do not cause any symptoms. Everything else was clear, so the doctor diagnosed me with lung pain from pregnancy and sent me back on my way. Basically he believed my chest pain was a normal response to the pressure of carrying a growing baby.

In October 2018, I gave birth to a healthy baby girl. A month later my husband bought me a Peloton bike and I jumped on it as soon as I was cleared to exercise again. For three months I rode my bike pretty much every day and then fell a bit when I got back to work in February 2019.

In April I decided it was time to get back in shape, but struggled a lot on my first outing.

During my lunch break, I jumped on my Platoon for a 15 minute ride, just kind of a workout. But it was very, very difficult. As a former college basketball player in a Division 1 school, I had never had such a difficult time exercising. I thought, Oh my god, I’ve never been so distorted in my life!

That night I was getting ready for bed and brushing my teeth when I spat blood.

It was that light pinkish red color. I looked at my husband and said, “Oh, shit.” The next morning the same thing happened. I called my doctor and walked in for an appointment. She listened to my lungs and, shockingly enough, said they sounded good. I was a little short of breath, but she couldn’t hear anything. She thought I probably had an infection like bronchitis, and my lungs were just on fire. She prescribed me an antibiotic and told me to come back if I still had symptoms in ten days.

In about three days I had stopped coughing up blood, and while my the cough is not gone completely, it wasn’t a boredom all day either. I thought about going back to the doctor, but I still had an appointment scheduled for next week, so I postponed it a bit. The hindsight is 20/20, but it was Derby Week (a large affair where I lived in Louisville, Kentucky), and wanted to enjoy my weekend. So I pushed through.

But I started coughing up blood again. Not to be too rude, but the consistency has changed. It started off in light pink, not so much. Now it was a brighter red color and I was cough gobs that were about the size of two quarters. It sucks, I thought. Guess I just need stronger antibiotics?

Monday morning I went back to see my PCP and she was quite confused. I mentioned that I lost more weight than I expected. I was postpartum – so some weightloss was normal, but I seemed to lose weight faster than after my first pregnancy.

After a variety of tests and scans, they finally referred me to a pulmonologist, who performed a bronchoscopy to examine my lungs and take samples. For the first time, I was worried about having lung cancer. I had a hunch that it was bad.

The following Monday I received the call: I made have lung cancer.

I remember the doctor telling me I had to sit down. He said he was sorry to do it over the phone, but that we had to start figuring everything out ASAP to cure my cancer. I texted my husband. I made the doctor call her to give her the details. Beyond that, I hardly remember anything. I think I passed out.

After a bunch of tests, scans and a second opinion I was diagnosed stage IV lung cancer that had spread to my liver and bones. I had three spots on my spine, rib cage, and pelvis.

When the doctor shared the news, he was visibly shaking and upset. To anyone outside of this room, I looked like a healthy 30 year old. Like most people, when I heard “lung cancer” I thought about smoking. I had never smoked a cigarette a day in my life. I do not have feel like the typical patient with metastatic lung cancer. I was numb.

I had developed lung cancer despite none of the typical risk factors.

My oncologist suggested that I get a Complete Genomic Profile (CGP) to help identify the genetic mutations I had, so my doctors could better plan my treatment. About three weeks after my diagnosis, my test results showed that I had ALK-positive lung cancer (anaplastic kinase positive lymphoma or ALK +). Among all patients with non-small cell lung cancer (the most common form), only one in 25 is ALK-positive. Patients with ALK-positive lung cancer tend to be like me –younger people who has never smoked.

The ALK mutation causes your lung cells to grow abnormally like cancer cells, and over time they can also spread to other parts of your body. Compared to other mutations that cause cancer to grow, ALK is generally more treatable and often responds very well to targeted therapy, such as taking a pill that blocks the action of this mutation to stop the spread of blood. cancer cells. It beat the alternative we had considered: traditional chemotherapy.

Although I had no idea what ALK-positive meant until this meeting, I learned that it was literally the first good news we had received since my diagnosis. My doctor explained to me that there was a pill I could take, and I predicted that it could work for years for me. It was really great news – a beacon of hope. For the first time, we had hope. I started taking the targeted therapy drug right away, and continue to do so today.

Within a few days, my lungs started to clear up and I stopped coughing.

In July 2019, a few months after my diagnosis, I had a CT scan that showed no signs of illness. In the spring of 2020 my cancer came back, but after the chemotherapy there was no more sign of illness in December 2020.

Today I continue to take pills for targeted therapy, but otherwise I am returning to a fairly normal life. When you look at me you probably see a healthy 31 year old mother of two who might be a little tired because, well, she has two kids who keep her busy.

I want young women to understand how important it is to be your own spokesperson and take your health seriously – because I haven’t.

I didn’t think cancer could happen to me at 29. Even though I knew it didn’t make sense that a 15 minute bike ride was that hard, I never could have imagined having lung cancer.

As young and healthy women, we often put off strange symptoms and get overlooked by doctors. But if you think something is wrong or notice that your fitness is not where it should be, it doesn’t hurt to be checked and followed up until you understand. what is happening. Keep pushing for the answers and the treatment you need.

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