When Nina Beaty underwent a low-dose CT scan to check for lung cancer in 2014, she didn’t expect the radiologist to find anything. Although she smoked for about thirteen years as a young adult, she quit over thirty years ago and took pride in living a healthy life. But because her mother had survived lung cancer, she decided to get screened.
She was completely shocked when her radiologist called her a few days later and told her she had small cell lung cancer. “I wasn’t surprised when my mother was diagnosed: she had been smoking four packs a day for decades,” recalls Beaty, a 68-year-old art therapist from New York City. “But I had been the epitome of health for decades. I just couldn’t ignore it.”
Initially, her cancer was only in one spot, at the top of her left lung. Beaty underwent chemoradiation and preventive whole brain radiation. Then, in early 2015, she received the devastating news that her cancer had spread. Normally that would mean she only had a few months left to live. But she was able to enroll in a clinical trial at Memorial Sloan Kettering, where she received a new immunotherapy drug.
“Within weeks my tumor shrank by leaps and bounds. My oncologist said he had never seen anything like it,” she recalls. Fortunately, Beaty is now in remission. But she had plenty of scary moments where she assumed she wouldn’t make it.
Control your emotions with MSCLC
It’s normal for a diagnosis of metastatic small cell lung cancer (MSCLC) to lead to an overwhelming number of emotions, ranging from sadness to guilt and fear, notes Daniel Huvard, a social work consultant at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Here are some ways to help you manage:
Have hope. A diagnosis of metastatic small cell lung cancer is not necessarily a death sentence. Some people with advanced lung cancer, like Beaty, can live for many years after diagnosis. Some doctors even think that hope can help your body cope better with cancer.
“Since I had spent most of my career working with patients who had AIDS or terminal cancer, I didn’t have the traditional response,” Beaty says. ‘I had seen enough deaths that I wasn’t necessarily afraid of it. I kept telling myself not to view my recurring cancer as a relapse, but as a natural progression. The medications my doctors originally gave me weren’t working, so it was time for next steps. If that didn’t work, we’d try again. And again.”
Find ways to express your emotions. You may not yet feel comfortable talking about your diagnosis with friends or family, and that’s okay, Huvard says. But it’s important to find other ways to process your feelings, whether that’s through journaling, meditation, or even art.
“My first year with cancer was tough: I had moments where I felt completely worthless and didn’t want to put in the effort to ‘keep up the good fight,’” Beaty says. What helped: grabbing a pen and paper to process the dark thoughts that came to her mind. “I was working through thoughts like, ‘Where will I go when I die?’ as I drew a picture of a bridge going somewhere, even though I didn’t know exactly where,” she explains.
Embrace your mind. Embracing faith or spirituality can help you get through a diagnosis of metastatic small cell lung cancer. It doesn’t have to mean attending a religious service. It can be something as simple as practicing mindfulness or spending time in nature, Huvard says. Montessa Lee, 43, who was diagnosed with small cell lung cancer 15 years ago, credits her faith with helping her cope with her initial diagnosis. “Normally I was a pessimist, but whenever I felt overwhelmed, I read the Bible and found it soothing,” she recalls. “It gave me something to focus on so I wouldn’t keep slipping into emotions like anger and fear.”
Think about your legacy. A diagnosis of metastatic cancer can serve as a wake-up call for you to pause and think about how you want to experience the rest of your life. Maybe you want to go somewhere you’ve never been before, or finish projects you’ve put aside, or mend broken relationships. “When I was first diagnosed, I was desperate. I thought, ‘I’ve been divorced twice, I don’t have kids, and I haven’t done much with my art therapy career,'” Beaty says. “I asked myself, ‘What legacy am I leaving?’”
Then, one afternoon, while undergoing a six-hour cancer treatment, Beaty was scrolling through the emojis on her cell phone and realized that none of them were relevant to her life right now. A year later, she created the EmPat Project, a website filled with animated emojis that allowed cancer patients to text friends and family when they were feeling too tired, sick, or sad to explain how they were doing. “The EmPat emojis became the legacy project I was so afraid I would never be able to create,” Beaty says proudly.
Get support if you have MSCLC
Surround yourself with a medical team you can trust. Alexis Daniuk, 76, was diagnosed with metastatic small cell lung cancer in January 2021 after being hospitalized for a persistent cough. Almost as soon as she got the news, she got a call from her doctor. “He was there from day one, encouraging me and telling me I would beat my cancer,” she says. “He was always chasing me to make sure I was eating enough, and to remind me to get off the couch and walk every day, even if it was only two feet. He really helped me through my darkest times.”
Lean on others. “When I was diagnosed with small cell lung cancer 15 years ago, I had to swallow my pride and ask for help,” Lee remembers. “But I needed help – I was treated with radiation and chemotherapy in two different hospitals, and the therapies made me so dizzy I couldn’t drive.”
This can be especially tricky if you have adult children, as there can be quite a sharp role reversal. “As a parent, you don’t want your children, no matter how old they are, to see you sick and take care of you,” says Daniuk. But she soon discovered she had no other choice. “My daughter Shannon is a nurse, so she knew exactly what to ask the doctors when I was first diagnosed,” Daniuk explains. “I also realized that it makes her feel better to help me.”