About
Hello! I am the Cancer Prancer. AKA Dr. Trish Hom, MD, MPH. I have Stage 4 NSCLC (Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer). Four years in, I have finally taken back my life, my health and my healing! I feel confident I have made the right choices for myself. I choose joy and freedom. I choose me. I got there through alternative means which was a long terrifying journey, peppered with happy, sad, and frustrating times.
But rest assured, I am one tough, curious, creative cookie who doesn’t give up! As I have always been this way, all throughout my life!
I was diagnosed with Asian American Lung Cancer as Never Smoker patient unexpectedly on July 3, 2017 at the age of 35. It was three days after graduating from 4 years of challenging, stressful training becoming an OBGYN in LA County’s Safety Net System. I went into medicine via OBGYN to serve the high need, underserved pregnant women. It was the most shocking blow as I had suddenly lost everything. I was a deer in headlights. Shock is an understatement as I spent the next three years walking around awake yet, in a fog.
Then, with the help of two other, further along, lung cancer patients, I started waking up with their help. Then, a series of fortuitous things happened after that some of which were pretty scary but in the end not bad, one after the other. I think, looking back, these fortuitous things were happening all along but I was too stressed out by what I thought were “problems” to pay enough, or at all, to recognize that many were signs from the universe to see and take advantage. Everything really DOES HAPPEN FOR A REASON! Stay calm, trust your body, smile! IT’S GONNA BE OKAY! Just hold on and pay attention.
After so many years, I am mentally and emotionally free and I am doing phenomenally well, incredibly happy in utter joy!
This is the Cancer Prancer, an online information database and journal blog detailing the ups and downs of a stage four lung cancer survivor’s life journey. The Cancer Prancer launched in 2018 and I won’t let up until I have motivated countless cancer patients to be transformed into cancer survivors. If you’re reading this, cancer is probably a major part of your life right now or that of a person you care deeply about. You want to learn everything about the type of cancer that is transforming your body, thinking, emotions and priorities.
Join me, I will walk aside you as you explore your journey of healing! So take my virtual hand and enjoy your trip 🙂
Dr. Patricia Hom, MD, MPH
- The Cancer Prancer (Trish Hom)
- Creator, moderator, content organizer
- Bio Stage 4 NSLC ALK+
- Age 40, 35 yo @diagnosis
- Former Teen Mom of 2 young men, age 20 and 21, both boys in college
- Single parent, boys father is deceased as of the week I graduated from obgyn training
- MD, MPH
- traversed lung cancer am excited to share all I’ve tried and what has worked for me
- give a template and practices for all to try as there’s not a one size fits all
- I am a UCSF research associate playing an in between as both a patient and a research consultant for the UCSF FANS lung cancer epidemiological study which is looking about significant health care disparity affecting Female Asian Am Never smokers who for example in Chinese Am F never smokers like me dx’d w lung cancer as never smokers are 80% compared to 15-20% in nonhispanic whites
- I had my third bout of progression in response to the covid vaccine it was a very strangest set of side effect symptoms not commonly reported
- tried to report to Pfizer which worked, CDC never answered the phone the website form never went through once although tried hours at a time but always resulted in an error…it seemed like the CDC did not want to know so did not have to report such serious incidents to the public tho my onc said can’t say one way or the other…yet I’ve heard/know many cancer patients had various kinds of progressions as well as side effects so serious they resulted in fatalities ( know of more than one personally) so while a happily accepted the vaccine early in its administration, I am on the fence bout the booster leaning towards now.
