I am a 12-year survivor of non-small cell carcinoma in my right lung. I originally went to my GP due to pain in the back area of my right rib cage. The doctor— without examining me—told me that I had “arthritis of the ribcage”, and told me to go home, take Daypro and learn to live with it! Since I didn’t know another GP to go to and the pain continued to increase, I went to my chiropractor, Dr. Bruce Presnick in Pleasant Hill, California, who had helped me 10 years earlier after I had suffered a terrible whiplash when I was rear-ended at a stoplight. After a few treatments and the pain continued to get worse, he stated that the only thing left to do was take a chest x-ray.
Dr. Presnick is the doctor who found the shadow on my lung! (I had quite smoking in 1985). I went to the Mt. Diablo Cancer Center in Concord, California, and my oncologist is Dr. Elizabeth Odumakinde. I had a combination of chemo and radiation to shrink my tumor through November and December of 1997 and surgery on 1/20/1998 when they successfully removed what was left of the tumor and parts of 4 ribs (the tumor had been pushing against my ribs). I had chemo for 4 months after my surgery and I am here… thanks to the wonderful team of Doctors—Dr. Richard Kops (Pulmonary)—Dr. Elizabeth Odumakinde (Oncologist)—Dr. William Sweezer (Thoracic Surgeon) and Dr. Bruce Presnick and the amazing team of people at the Cancer Center.
The LCF is doing everything that I had hoped would be done to help raise awareness—that Lung Cancer kills many more than Breast Cancer.