“We sat with the thoracic surgeon. She went through the symptoms,” Lee said. She told the surgeon that she smoked cigarettes for about a year when she was 19 in an attempt to appear cool in college.
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“[The surgeon’s] like, listen. That was so many years ago. The probability that it came from that is slim,” Lee said, remembering the surgeon’s words. “So, she just said, we can look at it, we can watch it for the next three months or we can take it out.”
Lee and her husband decided that the tumor needed to come out.
During surgery, the surgeon did locate the tumor – and it was cancerous. The lower lobe of Lee’s right lung was removed.
“I went home and the recovery was eight weeks,” Lee said. “I got up week one and I walked and I started walking every day. I had a chest tube in and it was draining fluid out of my lungs, but I knew I had to get up because what I’ve seen from anyone who has experienced cancer [is] the ones who survive are the ones who get up.”
Also, Lee wanted to show her children that no matter what you’re going through, it’s important to go through it with strength and courage.
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“After eight weeks, I started cooking again. I went back to work,” Lee said. “I went back to my vice president of sales job, a fully stressed out job, but I approached it from a different perspective.”
Now cancer-free, Lee is an advocate for lung cancer through Lung Force, an organization for women to stand together in the fight against lung cancer.
“You’ve got to connect yourself with people that want the same journey you want,” Lee said. “That keeps me going. When I wake up everyday, and as I come to work, I think about the heroes that are out there that are in a worst situation than me that are empowered to learn more, to speak up, to do more and to be more.”