Hope for ALK+ NSCLC Patients

It’s important that we generate our own hope throughout the challenges and difficulties of ALK+ NSCLC. 

Oh yes, there is plenty to be hopeful about on the research and treatment fronts. The news about next-generation TKIs, chemotherapy, vaccines, a variety of promising trials; all give credence to the case for much longer survival than ever.  We have this ALK Positive community, along with its effective advocacy and research fostering capacity, and these are wonderous phenomena that were unheard just a few years ago.  We have instant information dissemination through the website, and a communally driven education and advising system that is both organic and free of charge.   There is an academic community devoted to ALK+, highly focused on patient care and treatment research, with substantial institutional and philanthropic funding.  There are biotech companies investing billions of dollars to build pharmaceutical factories in our behalf.   There is an increasing number of ALK+ NSCLC experienced doctors, the diagnostic testing is continually improving, and the radiologic treatments are incredibly precise.  None of this existed ten years ago, so there is very good reason to be hopeful, 

But at four o’clock in the morning when the little voice comes whispering up from under the blanket and says “pssst, you have lung cancer”, and the fear creeps up from the soles of your feet to the top of your head, then what?  That well-constructed optimism built of facts and considerations, information and conclusions, has to sit in the corner for a while, irresolute.   The heart and soul don’t always buy what the mind is sold on, and mortal fear can have a twisted way with hopes and dreams.   It can be buffeting, the oscillation between optimism and despondency that we all have to deal with, for the most part in silence.  How do we keep our heads up every day, present a consistently brave face to our loved ones, and manage through the maelstrom of activities that living with this cancer requires?   

Where is that source of hope that comes from deep inside, that sits below the fear and behind the heartache?   Part of it comes in through gratitude, from simply living with appreciation of the blessings we’ve been provided with.   Gratitude is an antidote for most hard feelings.  Channeling that powerful thankfulness we experience upon a positive disease milestone, for example, into the simple wonder of being alive and human, can be a powerful force for good.  There is nothing like a positive scan result to create appreciation for all that we are and enjoy.   Another part of it arrives through kindness, whether from the medical community, one’s family and friends, our Facebook community, or our own quiet words to ourselves.  Gratitude and kindness frequently hide behind fear, and perhaps our challenges are in part meant to obliterate that fear to let our better selves through, at least for a while.  In this way a soul learns to heal itself.    

And the ultimate reward for successfully dealing with the anguish and devastation, as we all must, could perhaps be an enhanced ability to love.  Ordeals such as these surely serve to temper the soul, and test the mettle of all fallen ill in this way.  We can choose to hold onto our higher qualities as they present themselves, to hold onto the gratitude and the kindness, to habitually put the love out there like our lives depend on it.  To let those things be our primary method and purpose of survival.  

Then the hope will come from deep inside, and shine like a light for all to see.        

Author: Jeff Sturm