Tales from the Lung Void

The doctor from the Palliative and Symptom Management Clinic at BC Cancer wrote in her June 24 report: Discussed pleural effusion with Dr. [my oncologist]: "he has been seen by Resp about the pleural effusion and atelectasis and his lung is trapped, there is no role for any sort of intervention, draining etc. he has also had XRT to that area and it didn't open up the lung. I was happy to see the effusion was slightly improved. but there really isn't anything beyond the chemo and the pain meds that can be done for his lungs." In Existential Psychotherapy textbook, Irvin D. Yalom, a renowned existential psychiatrist, references philosopher Jacques Choron, who distinguished three distinct types of death fear: (1) what comes after death, (2) the event of dying, and (3) ceasing to be. The first two do not bother me. It is the third, "ceasing to be" (obliteration, extinction, annihilation), that causes my anxiety. In Staring at the Sun , Yalom documents a patient...

We spent the weekend on Thetis Island , courtesy of Sheryl’s friend Kathy, who invited us to stay in the yurts she had set up for a guitar workshop just before they were taken down for the season. Our first session of therapy took place at a local farm. The owner leaves a bucket of treats by the fence, allowing visitors to entice the horses over to the gate without accidentally feeding them something toxic. The second session was hosted by Hazel, a smart rescue dog belonging to another couple. Hazel agreed to play frisbee, returning it and dropping it directly onto my chair so I wouldn't have to bend over. It is a shame Sheryl missed the shot of me catching it mid- The final session was at the Hand of Man museum , which houses an eclectic collection ranging from prehistoric skeletons to authentic tribal artifacts from around the world.

I was curious about the capabilities of NotebookLM , Google's AI-powered research assistant, so I uploaded all of my medical reports since the beginning of my misadventure with lung cancer. I asked for an infographic, testing various visual styles, to capture the high-level details. The prompt was simple: "Generate a warm graphic mapping my lung cancer journey based on the medical reports. Organize this timeline chronologically." The results are below. I find them amusing. There are two major artifacts: Spelling mistakes that occasionally degraded into pure gibberish. A general disregard for strict chronological order. Click on each image to expand it to full size Kawaii Style This is the only infographic where I manually corrected the spelling. Anime Bento Grid Bricks Clay Editorial Instructional Professional Sketch Note Scientific Cinematic Video I was also curious about the video generation capabilities of NotebookLM, so I asked for a cinematic video (click on the lin...

On June 6, 2026, I was asked to give a two-minute speech at the Give a Breath 5k Walk/Run as a patient living with lung cancer. The event began with torrential rain, but the sun came out just as we started. Last year, I ran the course and paid little attention to the environment. This year, I mostly walked and jogged, which allowed me to take in the lush greenery, the songbirds, and the friendly dogs. I finished in a "PB" of 53 minutes. Still, happy to be among those who understand my specific brand of existence. I was lucky there was no drug testing at the finish line. I’m completely doped up on a cocktail of carboplatin, sertraline, morphine, pregabalin, and the occasional steroid. The following is my three-minute speech. A transcript follows below. Hello, I’m Luc. I’m 56 years old. I live in Vancouver with my wife, Sheryl; we have no children, no pets, and no mortgage. In January 2025, I finished the Disney World Marathon. Two months later, a lump on my neck led to a biops...

On Friday, we visited the Vancouver Police Museum as part of the Tourism Challenge . One of the notable exhibits is the Morgue and Autopsy Suite. Located in a recreated 1970s autopsy suite, the historical displays detail exactly how pathologists determined a victim's cause of death. The collection includes actual pathological specimens, preserved body parts, and tissue cross-sections demonstrating injuries from blunt force, sharp force (such as stab wounds), and internal disease. One of the specimens depicts what I have: lung carcinoma. It was nice to finally put a face to the name.

A few weeks ago, the oncologic NP (nurse practitioner) described my health living with cancer as a line trending downward with periodic plateaus of stability. I suppose the trajectory continues in that pattern until the line hits the ground. There are no units on this imaginary graph. It could be days or months. Since science does not provide the answers I want, I have to resort to other methods, such as the ancient, reliable pseudoscience of palm reading. AI makes palmistry more accessible, and you can even get it to read out the interpretations in a soothing voice. Here is a photo of my left hand, followed by its analysis by AI in Pro mode. A palmistry analysis of a left hand, which is considered the "Fate" or "Potential" hand. It represents inherited traits, natural disposition, and the destiny dealt at the start of your journey. Shape: A broad, square Earth hand. Indicates practicality over theory. Life Line: A deep arc, showing robust baseline vitality. Inters...

While walking the path around Lost Lagoon with Sheryl recently, I noticed a suspicious artifact perched on a fence. A crow. It was clearly surveilling the pedestrians, panning its head rhythmically from side to side. This was obvious evidence that “Birds Aren’t Real.” Birds are actually drones operated by the United States government to spy on citizens of the world, as Peter McIndoe posited in 2017 . In April 2023, McIndoe held a TED Talk about the the satirical conspiracy theory. Why mention a fake drone conspiracy? Because in the cancer world, we have a very real, very dangerous equivalent: Cancer Denialism. But unlike the bird conspiracy, the people promoting these theories are deadly serious. There is no satirical punchline here. Here are the a few specific, prevailing theories of cancer denialism: The Emotional Conflict Theory (German New Medicine) Every tumor corresponds to a specific "conflict." For instance, a "nest-worry conflict" (worrying about a family ...