cachexia

Morning glory

I am not a doctor. My husband has cancer. He was diagnosed in October 2005. When I learned that John had cancer and that it was Stage IV lung cancer, I was devastated. I felt utterly powerless. I had no control over what was happening.

But I am not a wallower. I am constitutionally unable to stay sad. I prefer action. So, when I learned of the cancer, I began to look for ways to take control of the situation and make a difference. I make no claim that anything I am about to tell you will save your life or the life of someone you love. What I will tell you, however, is how you can take control of something; how you can make a difference.

For some scientific reasons that I don’t claim to understand, cancer kills people in a lot of different ways. The most obvious way is that the cancer invades a vital organ (like the lung, liver or pancreas) and stops it from functioning. What I did not realize, and what I learned from sifting through a mountain of information over the Internet, is that most people who die of cancer, die before that stage.

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