First off, let me explain...

This will be a long first post, mainly explaining why this has come to be and why I'm doing this.

Hello everyone. This has been a hard thing to start up (procrastination and fear mostly). Some of you reading this are probably wondering why you received a text or an email with this web address attached, asking you to please take a look or just to take some time to read about what has been going on over the past few months.

I was originally diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer (Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer via cancer.gov) around September of last year. I was having some issues with breathing and coughing spells that would not go away; so after some tests to see if I had bronchitis, the cancer was found. I had a surgery to remove a small tumor and after some treatment I fell into remission. Unfortunately, very recently the cancer has formed a 3cm tumor in my left lung, 2 inches from my heart. This puts me in the area of Stage 1(B) lung cancer. Surgery at this point in time is out of the question because of the tumors location and the fact that it is slowly growing. Being so close to my heart they (specialists) believe that the surgery could do more harm than good. 

So, currently, I'm on a single drug that is designed to slow the growth to a minuscule amount so surgery can become an option in the future. 

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Some of you may be asking yourselves why lung cancer is even the problem seeing as I've never been a smoker of any kind. Lung cancer is, unfortunately, one of the few cancers that can be hereditary. My dads dad (my grandfather) died from complications due to lung cancer (he was a 2 pack a day smoker who barely lived through WW2). Add that to the few mutated cells in my system that were lying dormant for all these years and you have a strange case of cancer just waiting to happen; and for me it happens to be lung cancer.

I don't have any day to day problems, yet. Some things that could happen are: slowly collapsing lung, intense (very painful) coughing, coughing up mucus or blood, shortness of breath, and the inability to catch my breath. With all those things possibilities, some of my favorite sports and outdoor activities have been taken from me i.e. hockey and long boarding. Luckily I've been able to make bowling work. Plus, I've been doing a lot drawings and art; mainly with Sharpies for some reason. 

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And with that, here is what I ask from all of you who have read this. Continue reading every week, or don't. No matter what, I'll be posting at least once a week to update and most likely share what has been going on. I don't think any other posts will be as long as this one unless my diagnoses changes. 

Thank you for reading and I hope you all have a wonderful day. Until next time 😃