As Erica Rimlinger tells it
At age 43, I had very little, if any, risk of developing lung cancer. I ran regularly, ate well and had never smoked a cigarette. Additionally, I have never been exposed to secondhand smoke or dangerous air pollution. In fact, my father was a pulmonologist who warned me from early childhood about the dangers of smoking and all other potential threats to my lung health.
So imagine my surprise when, after a quick run, I went in for a CT scan, which was certainly routine, and came away with a diagnosis of Stage 1 lung cancer. Just an hour earlier I had walked my usual route without any respiratory problems. I wasn’t breathing heavily. I felt great. I had no symptoms.
My journey to diagnosis began with a family and business trip to New York City, where my husband encouraged me to get a full-body MRI to get an initial picture of my health. He had had it done several months earlier and the scan had revealed a small medical problem that would have been made worse had he not known it needed to be addressed. I wanted to spend the afternoon in town with the kids, but eventually gave in and made the appointment. Insurance didn’t cover it, so I paid for it out of pocket.
The radiologist found a small mass in my right lung but recommended that I not investigate it further. It was a “minor finding,” the radiologist told me. It was like discovering a freckle during a skin exam: it’s good to note it and know it’s there, but there’s nothing to worry about. When I got back from my appointment, I said to my husband, “See? I’m just as beautiful on the inside as I am on the outside.”
I have largely forgotten the MRI findings, but my family and friends have not. The doctors in my family and friends had told me that an MRI was good for diagnosing dense tissue and organs, but not so good for examining the lungs. They recommended that I do a CT scan afterwards. I didn’t think it was necessary, but I did it anyway.
So I ended up sitting in the radiologist’s office and learned that the mass in my lung – the freckle – had grown 4.1 centimeters in the months since my MRI and that this mass was likely stage 1 lung cancer.
I refused to believe the diagnosis. I had just come from a run and had no problems breathing. I didn’t have a cough, so I couldn’t possibly have cancer. I felt great, so I was fine. I defiantly sent the video of the CT scan to my father, the pulmonologist. I also gave a copy of it to the husband of a radiologist friend who I had seen in the carpool line. I knew they would read the scan and have an answer better than cancer. That was a Friday. On Saturday my phone rang and I was surprised to see my boyfriend’s name appear on the caller ID. Why was she calling instead of texting? She told me I needed to see an oncologist immediately.
My husband was deployed, but fortunately he returned just in time for my oncologist appointment, where he learned the diagnosis along with me. I had a fast-growing adenocarcinoma that required surgery. When we got home, we gathered our four children, ages 8 to 14. They quickly sensed the atmosphere and one of them asked, “Are you getting a divorce or does Mom have cancer?” I told them I had cancer. The children laughed at what they thought was a joke. Then we all cried.
The next day I had a bronchoscopy, a procedure that requires a ventilator. A few days later, I hosted a Yom Kippur fast-breaking ceremony where I shared the news with our loved ones. That week my husband called countless times to get me on the surgery schedule. A week after I found out about my diagnosis, I would have surgery.
The surgery removed half of my lung and confirmed that the cancer had not spread to my lymph nodes. Although I felt physically terrible after the surgery, I was also lucky that we caught the cancer at such an early stage.
During my recovery, I learned that lung cancer kills more women than breast, ovarian and cervical cancer combined. It’s so deadly because it’s rarely caught early, when survival rates can be high. When lung cancer has spread throughout the body, i.e. at the stage where lung cancer occurs most often, the chances of survival decrease dramatically. And yet we don’t regularly scan for lung cancer like we do for other cancers.
Five weeks after my operation I was able to walk again. Six months after my surgery, my tests and scans confirmed I was cancer-free. Although I was happy to have lung cancer in the rearview mirror, I realized what a miracle I had been given and how my miracle could help others.
Until we can all detect our cancers early, I will never stop advocating for early detection. Currently, getting screened for lung cancer requires following certain guidelines that are based on outdated ideas. This includes the assumption that lung cancer only occurs after the age of 50 and only in smokers. In fact, women who have never smoked are now developing lung cancer more quickly than men who smoke, and the average age at diagnosis is also falling. The current guidelines are so outdated that they don’t even address vaping.
I now advocate for early detection because I know it saved my life. I also founded the Cancer Doesn’t Care Foundation, which helps people with the cost of preventive low-dose chest CT scans. I wrote a book called “One Scan Saved My Life” about my experiences raising awareness and all profits go to Cancer Doesn’t Care.
It is often believed that lung cancer is the result of a certain lifestyle. But lung cancer is not a choice and no one deserves it. At the moment I am the lucky exception to lung cancer and I don’t want to be happy alone. I will continue to fight for screening until my story is deemed typical and not happy.
resources
American Cancer Society
American Lung Association
Cancer doesn’t care
This educational resource was created with support from Daiichi.
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