'Everything happens for a reason': Surviving lung cancer at 37

As an ER nurse, Jessica McLean isn’t the kind of person to go to the emergency room without good reason. So when she started experiencing abdominal pain over Memorial Day weekend, she figured she’d just tough it out at home.

But she kept feeling worse, and eventually, her husband insisted she go.

“I didn’t want to go to the emergency room with abdominal pain, especially as an ER nurse,” says Jessica. “My husband said, ‘Jessica, that’s it. Take a shower, brush your teeth, we’re going.’”

The trip to the ER never revealed what was causing her stomach pains. But what Jessica discovered may have ultimately saved her life.

An unexpected result

In the ER they performed some labs and gave Jessica medication for the abdominal pain. However, Jessica wasn’t content to leave without confirming whether something more serious was going on.

So she requested a CT scan of her abdomen. The scan didn’t show anything abnormal in her abdomen, but it did show a small nodule on her right lung. The ER team advised her to go home, get some rest and follow up with her primary care physician to have the nodule checked.

Jessica’s husband is in the Navy and they’d just relocated to Hampton Roads, so she didn’t have a primary care physician yet. Luckily, an oncology nurse navigator kept contacting her, encouraging her to get it checked out. She read the results to Jessica, which said the nodule was spiculated (covered with spikes) and likely fast-growing, since it didn’t appear on a previous CT scan. Both of these characteristics are potential indicators of cancer.

An abnormal PET scan

The nurse navigator got her an appointment with a Sentara pulmonologist, who ordered a PET scan of her lungs. By this time, Jessica had set up her MyChart, and was able to see the results as they came in. The verdict? Not promising. The scan had come back abnormal.

“I was walking from my car to a hospital for a job interview, scrolling and reading the report,” Jessica remembers. “It was too late for me to cancel the interview. For ICU nursing positions they want you to shadow after having a conversation with the manager. I spent those 2 or 3 hours shadowing knowing I had an abnormal PET scan.”

At this point Jessica was pretty sure she had cancer, but she needed a biopsy to confirm the diagnosis. As a nurse, Jessica knows what it’s like to deliver bad news to a patient, and on the day of her biopsy she had a feeling the news was going to be bad.

“I could tell something was off after I woke up, and the nurse was rolling me back,” says Jessica. “She wasn’t making eye contact. I could tell by her demeanor that something was wrong.”

Sure enough, when the results came in, Jessica had lung cancer.

‘Why me’ turns into ‘what's next?’

Even though she’d suspected as much after the PET scan, Jessica was absolutely devastated to have her worst suspicions confirmed.

“My heart just dropped. Wow. How can I have cancer?,” thought Jessica, who is in her 30s, has never smoked, and doesn’t have a family history of lung cancer.

But then her experience as a nurse quickly put her diagnosis in perspective.

“I’ve taken care of kids with cancer,” says Jessica. “So if 37-year-old me thinks I don’t deserve it, what does that say about the pediatric patients who I’ve taken care of? My ‘why me?’ started to turn into ‘what’s next? What are we going to do now?’”

Next, Jessica had to do the unimaginable: tell her two sons that she had cancer. She had already told her husband, and the two of them prayed together. Their oldest boy was already suspicious that something was up, so Jessica and her husband told him first.

“My oldest son took it fairly hard,” says Jessica. “The only person he knew in our family who had cancer was my Pop Pop, who I was close to. He passed from prostate cancer.”

Jessica’s family had always been close-knit. Since she is an only child in a relatively small family, they’d often drive up from North Carolina to visit on weekends. The weekend after she found out, her family still made the trip, as usual. Jessica credits her family and close friends with supporting her and keeping her spirits up during a stressful and scary time.

“They still continued on coming up here that weekend, still loving me as they always do, and talking about what’s next, how am I emotionally, spiritually, physically,” says Jessica. “I’ve had a really good support team.”

From cancer patient to cancer survivor

As her family showered her with love and support, Jessica met with a thoracic surgeon to determine her treatment plan. The cancer was Stage 1, meaning it hadn’t spread beyond lung tissue into the lymph nodes, but it was deep in her right lung. Jessica would need a right lower lobectomy, completely removing the lower half of her right lung.

Jessica’s surgery was scheduled for the beginning of August, just over two months from that fateful ER visit that set everything in motion.

“I had so much family and support.” Jessica says. “I felt truly at peace going into my surgery. I had an amazing team at home and an amazing healthcare team.”

Jessica’s family was with her in the hospital. According to her husband, the first thing she did after waking from surgery was ask for her mom and her grandma to come into the room. Jessica was in quite a bit of pain, and had a long road to recovery ahead of her. Luckily, the surgery went smoothly.

A week and a half after coming home from the hospital, Jessica had her first follow-up appointment, where she was told that she was now officially cancer free.

“I don’t have to say I have cancer any more,” says Jessica. “I can tell people I’m a cancer survivor.”

A new sense of purpose

Jessica is well on the way to recovery. She still has some shortness of breath, but she and her husband are taking three to four walks per day to help her regain her strength. They've recently closed on a new home, and she is keeping her eyes on the future. Life is slowly returning to normal, and her sons are relieved that their mother is doing so well.

“The boys have been great,” says Jessica. “The first week of looking drowsy and moving slowly they were worried, but now that I’m moving more, looking more like myself, they've gone back to being themselves.”

But while she’s overcoming the physical challenges, she’s finally getting the chance to deal with the emotional side of her experience.

“I always thank God for that abdominal pain, and I thank God for an amazing husband who pushed me to go that day,” Jessica explains. “I got over the physical part of the experience. Now I’m at the point where I’m dealing with my emotions. I’m letting myself feel everything about my journey, and realizing that everything happens for a reason.”

For Jessica, that reason is to share her experience, raise awareness about the dangers of lung cancer and urge others to advocate for their own health. She’s even considering starting a cancer walk in her area to fundraise for cancer research.

“I'm in my 30s and I had lung cancer,” says Jessica. “Just because you didn’t smoke or have secondhand smoke exposure, don't think it can't happen to you.”

 

Early detection saves lives. Talk to your doctor about scheduling an appointment for lung cancer screening.