What happened, in summary

Marley first explained away symptoms as ordinary life: being tired as a mom, recovering from illness, seasonal allergies, anxiety, acid reflux, or being out of shape. By spring, hills and stairs made her breathless, nausea affected her whole day, and she had to push to be heard. An MRI that was meant to check a known liver hemangioma unexpectedly showed enough of her left lung to reveal that it had collapsed. A CT scan and bloodwork followed, and the online result raised suspicion for lung cancer. During a family trip, Marley received the biopsy result: lung adenocarcinoma. At first, her pulmonologist thought it was at least Stage III. A PET scan then showed spread to lymph nodes in her chest, axillary area, and near her kidneys. Fluid drained from her lung also contained cancer cells. She was diagnosed with ALK-positive Stage IV non-small cell lung cancer. A specific cancer treatment was not named, even though the tumor was described as ALK-positive. What is supported is ongoing monitoring with scans every 3 months. Marley is living with Stage IV ALK-positive lung cancer, with strong family support and hope that evolving medicine may turn the disease into a chronic condition.