Addendum: Why me?

Today, I met an absolutely wonderful nurse at MSK. She's been a nurse at MSK for 20 years. She was so informative and caring. She was there to draw my blood. She said I bet you don't smoke. I asked her what percent of lung cancer patients are non-smokers. She said 13%. It doesn't seem like a lot but there are 275,000 people expected to be diagnosed with lung cancer this year. In addition, there is a significant percentage of ex-smokers who are diagnosed even after they have stopped smoking for decades. The average age of lung cancer patients is 70.

She mentioned that there are studies out there to determine why Asian women are more prone to getting some of the mutations that cause lung cancer instead of Asian men. She also acknowledged the research on the high temperature of oil in the wok. What makes that carcenogenic? It's sticky. She explained that when you breathe in the air, the oil sticks to the lungs. That doesn't sound good.

The one great news she gave me was that lung cancer patients with the gene mutation have a higher survival rate than those without. Her advice: Don't read the statistics online! They don't apply to you! She said at the moment there is no data on the survival rate of people with mutations.

She's awesome. :) She had neat pins on her white coat. She said the pin of the lung is to remind everyone that as long as you have a lung you could get lung cancer. I asked her if I could snap a picture of her pins for my blog. She said sure. She gave me a pat on the back for starting the blog because these types of gene mutations are relatively recent discoveries so more awareness and research needs to be done. She let me cry, encouraged me to keep fighting, and gave me a great big hug. :) I wish more nurses were like her.

Here are her pins: