Living with Lung Cancer During California Wildfires

Kathie Watson, Lung Cancer Survivor

Editor’s note: This blog was written in mid-September 2020.

I was diagnosed with lung cancer in December 2013.   My initial treatment was chemo/radiation, which led to remission for about a year.  When the cancer returned, I went into a clinical trial, which I did well on for over four years.  Now, I'm on an approved targeted therapy and doing very well.  I don't need oxygen and someone who didn't know me wouldn't know I have cancer.  However, because of my cancer, I have to take extra precautions for two reasons:  the COVID-19 pandemic and the California wildfires.

First, the COVID-19 pandemic hit.  Because of lung cancer, I am more careful than others.  I don't go to coffee shops, even if they're serving outside.  My husband and I have not gone to restaurants.  When my bible group moved into someone's house, due to the summer heat, I opted to physically not attend because 10-14 people in a house is too confined for me as a lung cancer patient.  I'm making the best of the situation, however, by still getting together with a friend or two in an outside environment and virtually calling into my bible group.

Just as we were getting used to life with COVID-19, the wildfire season began.  I live in Chico, California, which is about two hours north of Sacramento.  There are fires all over northern California, with the closest fire about 25 miles from us.  When I get up in the morning, I check air quality; right now, the air quality is hazardous.  I can't tolerate going out even with an N95 mask.  Ash and smoke seem to seep into our home.  Ash covers our deck and BBQ.

I am not a California original, but I've been in the area so long (Chico since 1971), I might as well be a local.  Recently, there just seem to be so many more fires and the acreage keeps getting larger.  Facing these fires as a lung cancer patient hasn't made life more difficult, but it certainly has made me more careful.  I'm more aware about where I'm going, for how long, and if I need to wear a mask to whatever activity it is. 

I feel blessed, though. My families are safe and not affected directly by the fires.  My youngest daughter, who lives a mile from us, is housing two families who had to evacuate their homes.  We've never been evacuated from our home and generally evacuations aren't necessary where we are located.

I'm also blessed to have not one, but two retired firefighters in the family.  My husband and son-in-law are both retired from Chico Fire Department.  It's calming to be able to depend on them for their guidance during times like this.

While I'm okay physically, it's been challenging at times mentally.  Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we sometimes feel confined and unable to see friends and, when we can, there is the need to socially distance.  Now, because of the fires, we can't even sit outside in the yard.  We're tired of that.

That said, I've become a person of faith.  I accept things the way they are and know I can't change it.

I occupy my time with sewing, reading, baking, and cleaning. I'm just grateful for everyday and have come to a place of peace with my cancer, COVID, and wildfires. 

I'll be grateful when countries open up.  Once that happens, my husband and I want to take long road trip to Vancouver Island.  We've been before, but we'd like to go further up the island.  It's such a beautiful place and, after all the ash and smoke, we're ready for something beautiful again.

 

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Kathie Watson retired in 2005.  She has grown kids; grown grandchildren.  She lives with her husband and together they enjoy classic cars and road trips.

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