Woman says positive attitude key to battling cancer

PORT CLINTON – Connie Lang is not letting brain cancer stop her from living a life of purpose. While many people deal with poor health by retreating into themselves, Lang shared that cancer gives her many opportunities to enrich the lives of those around her, and it has opened her eyes to the daily beauties of life.

She is making new friends, encouraging old ones and taking the time to enjoy the smallest of blessings.

"I call them the benefits of brain cancer," she said. "I now have time to see the miracles of everyday life."

Lang was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme in August after visiting the Magruder Hospital emergency room to address recurring, severe headaches and troubling thoughts she was initially afraid to share with anyone.

"I went to the ER with really bad headaches and weird episodes that something from another time or place was trying to get my attention. Sometimes it seemed real, and sometimes it seemed like a memory," she said.

Lang talked to Physician Assistant Andrew Bowlus, who was working in the emergency room, about the headaches and episodes. Tests were run, and a brain cancer diagnosis was the eventual result. The thoughts, she found, were related to the cancer.

"Instead of thinking I was a crazy woman, he saved my life," she said.

Lang's life instantly changed. She is being helped through her illness by the staff at Memorial Home Health and Hospice in Clyde. "Hospice has been amazing," she said.

Nicole Gish, a ProMedica hospice nursing assistant, has been working with Lang for several months. She said Lang is a strong woman and a fighter whose focus is on those around her. "Connie is very positive through all her struggles. She doesn't want to be the cancer patient that says, 'Why me?'" Gish said. "She wants to do so much for other people in this time when others should be doing so much for her."

Before her diagnosis, Lang had been employed at her dream job at E.C.I. Inc., working with individuals with developmental disabilities, and cancer forced her to quit. Lang called herself a "people person," and the thought of stepping away from that role was difficult — until she found she still had the means to reach out into the lives of those around her.

"I had finally found my life's calling. It was what I wanted to do with the rest of my life," she said. "But now I found I'm still touching people's lives."

She does this with a radiant attitude that spreads positivity to everyone she meets, like an auto finance company rep she talked to for several minutes by phone. A few days later, a package unexpectedly arrived at her doorstep.

"I wondered what it was, because I hadn't ordered anything," Lang said. "It was art supplies — paint, a canvas and a palette. A card came falling out. It was from her, and it said, 'I wanted you to know you made a difference in my life.'"

When a friend's sister died, she supported her through the loss.

"I tried to help her. I'm still touching people from right here in my bed," she said. "Yes, it's the worse diagnosis anybody could get, but it's how you deal with it. I want people to know I'm positive. That makes all the difference."

Lang's prognosis has been downgraded to six months or less, yet she says she is not giving up.

"What am I going to do, look at six months on the calendar and say this is the day I'm going to die? I plan to be here for many years," she said. "It's all positive. Positive is all I want."

May is Brain Tumor Awareness Month, and Lang wants to spread the word about brain cancer.

"My big thing is getting awareness out. I'm not the only one dying of brain cancer. There are 10,000 of us. We're all different, and we're all the same," she said.

Lang spends time each week doing the hobbies she has long enjoyed, like photography and jewelry making. She hopes other cancer patients will do the same.

"Take time to do the things you want to do in life. Talk to people; spend time with people. Renew relationships or make new ones. Love people. If there's something you want to do, do it. Don't procrastinate," she said.