Lung Cancer and how it affects people

I took a STEAM class called Disease. In this class, we looked into the diseases such as cancer and how they occur. We also learned about the human body so that we could truly understand how the diseases affect the human body. While learning about the human body we discussed the organ systems such as the immune system, the respiratory system, and nine others. In this class, we haven't gone on any FE's yet but hopefully, we will visit a doctor’s office and then maybe have a doctor come into class. For this action project, we had to look into a certain disease. I chose lung cancer because my mom's cousin had it. For the sake of privacy, we will call her Julia. Hopefully, you learn something new about lung cancer and how it affects the body.

Lung cancer is a disease that killed over 150,000 people in 2012. I want to study it because it has affected the life of my mom's cousin. For this project, I interviewed Julia, who is my mom's cousin. Julia was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2017.

Julia-

Julia is a 69-year-old woman who was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2017. Julia's life is very different than it used to be. She used to be a very athletic outdoorsy type person but now she indulges in indoor activities like board games and things that require less physical strength. She also experiences more coughing and chest pains than most people, but nonetheless, she continues with her daily life.

Julia is currently experiencing symptoms such as coughing and chest pain. Her life has changed drastically since she was diagnosed. She has had to cut down on physical activities since she can’t breathe as well as before. Julia needs targeted therapy but hasn't had the funds for it. The problem is that she has a malignant tumor in the right lung that is causing the problem. She currently is relying on her family to raise the money to get the treatment that would hopefully cure her of lung cancer.

One reason she could have contracted the disease is that she lives in a big city and while she doesn't smoke she does have neighbors who smoke which could have caused her to get the disease. We do not know how she got the disease because there isn't any way to guarantee that you don't get it.

The way Julia attempts to keep herself from experiencing pain is by doing light exercise that won't cause her to breathe too hard. She also takes medicine such as Tylenol to ease the pain. She said that the pain wasn't horrible because of the medicine but if she didn't take any, she probably wouldn't even be able to do her light workouts. She said herself "I think the light workouts actually help me because I think they make my body stronger which in turn keeps me healthier and feeling better".

Her life has changed because she still needs to have a source of income and so she now works from home. She said that every night she needs to take her medication before bed because of the pain. Her diet has also changed because she cant eat unhealthy for fear of getting worse. Before her diagnosis, she ate healthily but sometimes gave herself a cheat day, now when she feels like eating something unhealthy she has to force herself not to because she is worried it could lead to worse symptoms. Her relationship with her friends has also changed. Before the diagnosis, she used to work out with her close friends. Now she can't work out as much or as hard. She now tries to do things like limited amounts of pushups, pull-ups, and other activities that don't include weights. She also said cancer has pushed her friends away because they can't do the same things together but she has found a way to try and overcome this. Julia has now started cooking with her friends so that she can spend more time with the people she loves. Julia has actually made a few new friends along this new journey one being Sophia (name changed). Sophia was also diagnosed with lung cancer but she has actually beaten it. She was diagnosed in 2010. Now they are great friends and spend lots of time together.

Lung Cancer-

If you want to fully understand the disease, you'll have to know some vocabulary first.

-cancer cell, a cancer cell is a cell that has split to grow out of control.

-Lung- The lung is an organ in the respiratory system that allows you to extract oxygen from the air.

-Benign tumors- These are when the cells that split continuously are not cancerous.

-MRI- An MRI is a machine that uses a strong magnetic field to map out an area of interest.

-Radiation- Radiation is one form of treatment for cancer.

-Prognosis- Which is an estimation of how long you have to live.

This disease affects many people in many places but some of the most common places are in big cities where there is a lot of pollution. The reason for this is that pollution is a way to make a cell that becomes cancerous. People who live in the countryside have a smaller chance of getting lung cancer because they are not exposed to the same pollutants as people who live in cities.

While the place you live is important, the person can also increase or decrease their chances of contracting the disease. The main way to cause the disease is by smoking. Out of the more than 150,000 people who have died of lung cancer, 135,000 of them contracted it because of their own behavior. The best way to lower your chances of getting lung cancer is simply not to smoke. There are many different diseases that are transmittable but luckily lung cancer is not one of them.

This disease affects the respiratory system and the immune system. It affects the respiratory system because lung cancer starts in the lungs. When this happens cancer can actually spread to different parts of the body such as the lymph nodes or any other part of the respiratory system. The respiratory system is in charge of your breathing which means if it is damaged then it can cause death. It can affect the immune system because it can infect the nearby tissue causing tumors which can damage and weaken the immune system. The immune system is the system that keeps you healthy, if this system is damaged then the possibility of you dying increases because you can't protect yourself from common viruses.

S, D. Human Body. Chicago, 12 Feb. 2018.

While doing this project I encountered many problems the main one being that I had a hard time getting time to interview with Julia because she was very busy, also I have not talked to Julia in a long time. I overcame this by being patient and persistently seeing if she has an opening. In the end, I managed to get the time for an interview and everything turned out alright. It was also a challenge finding information about lung cancer because a lot of the information was very advanced and therefore was difficult to understand. I overcame this by looking up words, talking to others and checking other sources. Overall this action project was difficult and was pretty challenging but in the end, everything came together to make a nice article that portrays lung cancer in a real persons life and what the disease is. I hope you learned something new.

Citations:

“Lung Cancer.” American Cancer Society, www.cancer.org/cancer/lung-cancer.html.

“Lung cancer.” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 4 Jan. 2018, www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/lung-cancer/symptoms-causes/syc-20374620.

Stöppler, MD Melissa Conrad. “Lung Cancer Symptoms, Signs, Stages, Treatment & Types.” MedicineNet, www.medicinenet.com/lung_cancer/article.htm.