Wynn W., WI

I’m a three-time cancer survivor. It all started in my lungs. My lungs kept collapsing, and the first time was in 2005. I had no insurance at the time and went to the hospital. They didn’t do an MRI or any testing beyond an X-ray. The X-ray showed that the right side had collapsed. They keep me put a tube through my body for seven days to get the lung back up. I was told the cause could be stress or other things. 
They never said that I had cancer in my lung with COPD from smoking cigarettes. At that time, I had stopped smoking cigarettes for years. Years later, with no honest answer from that hospital stay in 2018, my lungs collapsed again.

This time, I went to the hospital and was admitted into the hospital and had MRI/ XRAys/ CT scan done. They saw that back in 2005, my lungs collapsed also. Now I am told it’s also due to lung cancer with COPD. In 2018 I Had lung surgery to move the emphysema, and that’s when the cancer showed up too. So in 2018, Nov surgery was again surgery to remove the upper lobe of the lung where the cancer was in March 2019. That’s 2x lung can now er surgery. I refused chemo. I went with the surgery instead; I now have good insurance from 2018. Well, the cancer moved to my brain in Sept 2020, so I had brain surgery to remove the cancer, and I’m still under Dr’s Care to monitor the lungs and the brain. I have not smoked since 2000. It’s 2023, so all people that have smoked and is still a smoker need to check themselves for COPD and lung cancer Emphysema all comes with smokers. No matter how long you stop smoking, a person must be checked for all the above. But a significant barrier is insurance and the proper care where you go for the care needed. I feel if in 2005, if I were properly caring for and checked, all of this 2018, 2019, 2020 would not have been. But that’s how it goes. Insurance does play a key role in the African-American community, and proper healthcare is needed no matter who, what etc., you come from.

The air quality now for me I have to have an air purifier in my home and on in the summer months due to the outside air. The type of cancer was called adenocarcinoma in my upper lobe lung. I had the upper lobe lung removed in my second lung surgery in March 2019, which moved to my brain in 2020 September it has affected my life financially, health, air, housing etc. not able to work full time now on disability monthly. At 62 now now now I can have Medicare, and now they want to take my Medicaid too. I need that, too, to offset medical and medication bills. It’s so so unreal how all this works due to lung cancer. Healthcare needs to see another level of care etc., due to lung cancer or cancer patients dying without proper cancer care.