My Life Surviving Cancer

In my lifetime I have been a student, a son, a contractor, a manager, a scuba diver, a dreamer, a singer, a musician, a husband, a friend, a father, and most recently a stage IV lung cancer survivor - one day at a time - but more than anything else in my life, I am a riser.

I hope this blog inspires you to be all that you can be and it helps you or someone you love with answers to questions related to Stage IV Lung Cancer. Feel free to leave a comment or follow me on social media.

Hello.  My name is Darrell Ritchea but a lot of my friends and family call me "D" or "Big D."  I am a 57 year old male that has been a non-smoker all my life that was diagnosed with Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) on 8/8/16.  My particular cancer is adenocarcinoma.  My whole world changed on August 8, 2016 when I went in for tightness in my chest and difficulty getting a deep breath and the Dr. informed me that it looked like I had lung cancer in my posterior medial left upper lobe and referred me to an oncologist.  The following is what I started to write before my webpage but the dates and timeline are correct.  Future posts will be per week or day.

 This is my first attempt at creating a blog on a website that I now own, so let's just say this will be a work in progress. Both of my children (They will always be my children but they are 31 and 26) have been wonderful with posts on Facebook and keeping everyone included on my status with my surgeries and scans, etc.  I just wanted to give something back because so many friends and family have been here for me, so my son registered my own domain name as my Christmas gift so I could tell my story.  This blog may be no more than something you read to help put you to sleep at night or you may see the link and say, "Cool" and that's as far as you go with it.  My hope is that you read something that could brighten your day or make you think twice about something you never gave a chance to or maybe you can just pass my link on to someone else that may benefit from it.  Regardless of how you use it, I love the gift and hope to benefit someone else's life by reading about mine.  With that being said:  Please understand that these are my interpretations and my experiences, beliefs and my results and I ask that you take what you can that will help you and leave the rest.  I'm not looking to debate medical practices or religious beliefs or what is and isn't real.  This is my story and it is here and now and it IS what's working for me and the purpose of me doing this is so that it may help you or someone you know and love.