She was 'stunned' to learn she was sick: How this active hiker found peace as she ‘was rapidly getting worse'

Maine resident Corinne Pert noticed she’d developed some unusual symptoms in the second half of 2015. Then 58, Pert assumed they were related to stress or a house fire that her family had experienced that August.

But, she tells Yahoo Life, the fatigue, severe headaches, “little chronic cough,” shortness of breath and chest pain didn’t let up. Pert saw a slew of medical professionals—her primary care physician, a chiropractor and, when her symptoms got especially bad, a doctor at a walk-in clinic.

While she was at the walk-in clinic in early January 2016 she was urged to have a scan of her lungs. So, Pert had a chest X-ray. “The next day, I was at lunch with my granddaughter who was home from college, when my primary care scheduled me immediately for a CT scan,” she says. Pert says she knew something was wrong then—“things don’t move that quickly in rural Maine.”

Soon after her scan, Pert received a call from her doctor: She had stage IV lung cancer.

Pert says she was “stunned” and “in disbelief” by her diagnosis. “I was a healthy, happy hiker who, with my husband, climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro in 2012,” she says. “Just months before [my] diagnosis, we’d done a multi-day back-country backpacking trip from the North Rim of Grand Canyon to the bottom.”

This wasn’t Pert’s first experience with lung cancer: Both her dad and grandfather died of the disease. “But they were both smokers,” she says, pointing out that her form of cancer is not hereditary.

Pert decided to go to the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. “We knew that was our best hope,” she says. She also had additional scans that discovered her cancer was metastatic, and had spread to her liver and colon.

“I was rapidly getting worse.”

It was three weeks from Pert’s first X-ray to the beginning of her cancer treatment and, she says, “I was rapidly getting worse.” She had three weeks of high-dose radiation to try to reduce the size of her main tumor—it didn’t work. She started taking a chemotherapy medication, which she stayed on for 16 months. “After the first few weeks, the cancer reduced, and side effects were manageable,” she says. Then, in late March of 2017, a scan showed that the cancer had spread to her brain.

Another scan in May showed that the cancer in her brain had worsened, and she was switched to a new chemotherapy medication. “It reduced the brain cancer by 80 percent in the first two months, and continues to hold the beast at bay,” she says. “The side effects have caused some problems, but are tolerable and manageable.” Now, Pert and her husband travel from her home in Maine to Boston for all appointments, which now happen every three months.

Finding inner strength

While Pert says her diagnosis was a shock, she quickly became “determined,” although it wasn’t always easy to maintain a positive mindset. After all, Pert points out, she went from being an incredibly active person to needing to limit her daily activities due to her cancer.

“I’ve been sad at times for what I lost—my career, being very active—and sometimes for what might not be,” she says.

But Pert says she’s worked hard to focus on “looking forward, not back.” She fills her day with things she loves: her family and pets, being in nature, reading, photography and “actively finding joy in the everyday.”

“I meditate, morning and night—or any time I just feel the need,” she says. “I practice breathing slowly and fully. I actively think about hope and joy.”

Pert has also become involved in lung cancer work, acting as a “phone buddy” for the GO2 Foundation, where she connects with other patients to offer guidance and support. She also belongs to several lung cancer support Facebook groups, since “there is nothing available locally” for lung cancer patients. And she serves on a Patient and Family Advisory Board for the Maine Lung Cancer Coalition.

One Facebook group in particular she feels connected with is the “ROS1ders”, which is named after the type of cancer she and other members have. Pert says the support has been invaluable. “We share experiences, helpful information and tips for dealing with side effects, and help think through ‘what next’ and ‘what if?’” she says. “We cheer each other on and provide a safe place to let it all out.”

“The groups are all places where we all can understand some part at least of what others are going through,” Pert says, adding that “it helps me to help others” and gives her “a sense of belonging.”

Pert also maintains a blog called Polepole Breathe, where she keeps people updated on her condition and shares encouraging advice.

While Pert has stayed busy since her diagnosis, she knows that’s not for everyone. Still, she offers this advice to lung cancer patients: “Feed your soul.”

“If you aren't physically able to do what you loved, find a workaround or explore new hobby,” she says. “Try to be hopeful, knowing new treatments are coming every day. Find joy in the everyday. Enjoy the gift of time that you do have.”