Another Birthday...What Are the Odds?

Birthday dinner with Wynn and Nina

     Yesterday, I turned 61.  And, in one week it will be seven years since I was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer.  In 2012, the prognosis for someone with my diagnosis was 6-12 months, with the median longevity being 8 months.  (Median longevity, in my case, means that 8 months from the time of diagnosis, 50% of patients are alive and 50% are dead.) Back then, my five-year survival rate was 2%.  Pretty sucky, wouldn't you say?  I don't know why I've survived beyond  expectations.  I have many friends I've met through my lung cancer community that have passed away - some in their 20's and 30's...with young children.  

     When gambling in Las Vegas, one goes there knowing they will be playing the odds.  However, most of my life, I've been naive ignorant to the conscientious gathering of knowledge and strategies needed to tip the odds in my favor.  In general, I just lived my life and hoped good things would happen for me.  I now know that there's loads of information one must consider when hoping for a particular outcome. Even so, when I think about the odds that I would be here to celebrate my 61st birthday, nearly seven years after my diagnosis, I'm pretty sure the odds category would be in the "slim to none" range.  Yet, here I am.  

     Like I mentioned earlier, I don't know why.  Although, in my observations over the last seven years, it really does appear that the patients that know the most, live the longest, it's also very evident that plain old good luck has a significant role here.  Plain, old good luck is that nebulous, uncontrollable phenomenon that leads us to success.  Plain, old bad luck does the opposite.

     As with every birthday since my diagnosis, I am filled with gratitude...for my family, friends, medical care team and lung cancer community. This year, I'm focused on being grateful for an abundance of good luck...that phenomenon that I don't have any control over.  For my birthday, please join me in hoping that my good luck won't run out anytime soon. 

(Thank you!)