STORIES OF STRENGTH
Maki Inada’s Story
Q: What first prompted you to see the doctor?
A: The very first winter after moving to Ithaca, NY I caught a typical cold. I had a bad cough that just would not go away. I went to the walk-in clinic to get some antibiotics, since we didn’t have primary care physicians there yet. The nurse ordered a chest x-ray. This is where they first saw the ‘abnormality.’ However, since I had never smoked and was young (36), they sent me home with antibiotics, but insisted I come back for another x-ray three weeks later. After a CT scan, a biopsy and a PET scan, I learned I had a seven cm tumor in my upper left lobe and two more nodules on my lower left lobe. I was diagnosed with stage IIIB NSCLC.
Q: What was your treatment plan?
A: I was given chemotherapy, and because I had never smoked, was Asian and female, I was also given erlotinib (Tarceva®). I started the erlotinib before knowing if my tumor had the mutation in the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) that predicts success of erlotinib, but opted to have the surgical biopsy to check. If my tumor didn’t have the mutation, I could just go off the erlotinib. It turned out my tumor did have the mutation, so I kept taking erlotinib. My tumor shrunk down to 0.5 cm after the chemo/erlotinib, so the surgeons agreed to do an upper left lobectomy, given my remarkable response. I stayed on erlotinib for two years after the surgery.
Q: What inspired you while you received treatment for lung cancer?
A: My neighbor, who went through cancer twice. She taught me that we didn’t have to take this lying down and how to be defiant. Lance Armstrong’s book, and Kris Carr (of CrazySexyCancer)’s book and movie inspired me to fight, and keep running during my treatments. It was refreshing to have both of these young people to relate to in my cancer journey. Before, I really only knew cancer as an old person’s disease.
Q: How did your treatment affect your plans for a family?
A: My husband and I were trying to get pregnant at the time I was diagnosed. Just before starting chemotherapy, we met with a reproductive endocrinologist, who suggested that I go on Lupron to put ovulation on hold while undergoing therapy. There was no time to do IVF and store embryos given the size and severity of my lung cancer. After my two years on erlotinib, we waited a month to clear it out of my system, and started trying to get pregnant again. Today we have a beautiful little girl, Mariko! We feel very, very lucky.
Comments
Posted By: deb dugger on 11/27/2011
My Auntie lives in CherryHill and needs a support group….or someone’s story to touch her heart…Anyone out there…can encourage her…She has about given up…and counted herself for dead already with a non small cell 3b tumor stagiej…and feels all is for nought…DD
Posted By: Shirlee Schneider on 11/21/2011
You mention a new drug that’s in trial. What is the name?
Posted By: Elayne klein on 11/01/2011
Hi Maki, I had a very similar experience with my diagnosis and also had a similar response as you did. You show so much strength of character. I also had my right lower lobe removed and many lymph nodes in the mediastinal region but was followed up with chemo and radiation at HUP…staged at 3A. I never thought about whether I was incorrectly staged.
Surgery was 2006 and after 5 years I am still here. They are watching my L lung now which has several lesions which are too small to biopsy but have grown slightly over the last year. I moved to CA a month ago and will have to decide whether to follow up in Phila. or out here in SF.
I admire that you took charge of your medical care and remained involved in it. I took charge of mine by searching for alternative support like reiki healing, integrative medicine, traditional Chinese medicine (teas),various vitamins and herbs, meditation, prayer, and anything that would give me hope and look at life optimistically.
The mind can become your worst enemy so it’s so important to support it. That’s how I did it. Knowing your own body is also an important point that you make.For me, I just kept waking up tired and various aches and pains. That’s not easy to diagnose as a symptoms of anything. It took catching the flu for me to do get the diagnosis 2 months later because my husband insisted that I get tested for a persistent cough. I am now 65 and feel hopeful for the future because that’s the only way I can enjoy living although Cancer is always in the back of one part of my mind trying to frighten me.
There is a new drug in trial that I tested positive for which I will consider if the nodules grow larger. Good luck to you and to all of us women out there who weren’t smokers and somehow got this disease. We should all hear good news!
Posted By: Alice on 01/18/2012
Please don’t castigate smokers or ex-smokers. If you have never smoked or quit smoking, you have no idea how hard it is to change. One of the main problems is that the paradox that nicotine is also helping you to feel great, while the tars and other carcinogens are damaging your body. Let’s get united to continue helping prevent tobacco use and to increase funding for lung cancer research. Studying and helping those who have smoked will do just as much to find a cure as studying healthy behaviors and helping nonsmokers.