Good Morning Cancer Survivors;
There is nothing more discouraging than finding out It's Back. It's like a bad dream that keeps returning. Wham.... bad news.You're getting close to finishing treatment and you think the treatment is working and you can begin the recovery process, Wham... bad news. During a routine follow-up check with your oncologist, the damn thing pops up some where else or treatment and surgery didn't get it all. Damn... it's not over yet. These and many other occurrence of the dreaded bad news have a way of distorting your courage and discouraging you.
After I completed surgery I was informed by the surgeon while I was getting ready to check out of the hospital, the pathology report showed no signs of the tumor in my esophagus but microscopic cancer in several of the lymph nodes. The good news.... treatment worked at destroying the cancerous tumer....the bad news.... you need to start the chemo treatment again to destroy any residual microscopic cancer cells that may not have been removed with surgery. So after recovering from surgery for 10 weeks I started the treatment regime again - 5 days a week in an infusion chair for 5 hours a round, every four weeks, for six sessions.
Just when I thought the worst was over, the journey made a bad u-turn to renewed treatment. It took me a while to reconcile the bad news which consumed more energy than I should have allowed it to but I was extremely disappointed. It took me about three weeks to regain my inner-strength and decide to go down the chemo treatment path again. Given the choice, I would have much rather stabbed my hand with an ice pick than start treatment again. Although I did have a choice. I could elect not to go through treatment again but I figured I would rather not get down that road and find out latter it's back. I chose to be aggressive and start treatment again. This was an extremely hard decision that was made easier when I thought through my choices and their consequences.
I found with cancer you shouldn't underestimate its resolve to continue infecting you. It is a disease that works 24-7's to kill you, making your battle with it, the worst battle of your life and for your life. It's easy to become discouraged and distraught over the bad news, which makes it more difficult to dig down into your inner strength to buck-up. But thinking through the alternatives and the choices you have, helps deal with the anguish and your ability to buck-up.
When the news is not good, causing the journey to go on longer, I encourage you to get through the discouragement cycle quickly. There are choices and decisions to be made that require a clear mind. Consider instead, there are more cancer patients surviving cancer today and living with cancer today than ever before, and you are one of the survivors. Don't give up, stay strong and keep your sense of humor.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Summer Sun and Cancer Treatment
Good Morning Cancer Patients and Caregivers;
As warmer weather begins and the warm sunny days get longer, its always beneficial to get out in the sun and soak up the vitamin D from the sun rays. When I was deep in chemo treatment and radiation I found just sitting in the warm sun was a way of escaping the side effects and burning from the radiation. However, I also found I needed to be careful in the sun because your skin becomes very sensitized to the sun from the chem treatment. In addition, I needed to be careful not to become dehydrated. I spent the summer in chemo treatment of 5 days in treatment for 5 hours a day and 3 weeks off, then do it again. The last month in treatment was to carry a 24 hour chemo pack and take radiation 5 days a week for a month. Great way to spend the summer but I didn't let it interfere with summer activities we had planned. I just had to be more careful in the sun.
The first thing I noticed was I didn't sweat much. Prior to cancer treatment I sweat like a race horse but now I didn't. The chemo treatment had changed my ability to deal with the heat and although I was careful not to get too much sun or get sun burned, I didn't drink enough fluids which caused dehydration. I thought I could drink enough beer to keep from getting dehydrated but I underestimated the effects of treatment.
I spent the time in the sun all greased up and it reminded me of when my mother would coat baking potatoes with bacon grease to bake them in the oven. About every hour or so I would add more sun block.
The two things to be cautious of when in the sun and going through treatment are to protect your skin with the strongest sun block lotion available, and drink more fluids than you think you should drink. When I was being treated for dehydration I was informed by my Oncologist that beer is not a very good liquid to keep you hydrated. He recommended mass quantities of water or one of the athletic drinks.
So I encourage you to spend time this summer in the sun and be overly protective of your skin because the treatment makes it very dry. Drink more fluids than you think you need to when in the sun, as well as when you are in treatment to avoid getting dehydrated. The cure for dehydration is sitting in an infusion chair having large bottles of fluids pumped into you until your hydration level is normal. The test to see if you are dehydrated is to pinch about an inch of skin on your arm close to your wrist and if the skin stays standing and pinched when you release it, you are dehydrated.
Don't let enjoying the sun and summer be taken away from you because of cancer treatment and the fear of getting sun burned or dehydrated. Just be careful and enjoy the summer.
Stay stong, keep your sense of humor and never give up.
As warmer weather begins and the warm sunny days get longer, its always beneficial to get out in the sun and soak up the vitamin D from the sun rays. When I was deep in chemo treatment and radiation I found just sitting in the warm sun was a way of escaping the side effects and burning from the radiation. However, I also found I needed to be careful in the sun because your skin becomes very sensitized to the sun from the chem treatment. In addition, I needed to be careful not to become dehydrated. I spent the summer in chemo treatment of 5 days in treatment for 5 hours a day and 3 weeks off, then do it again. The last month in treatment was to carry a 24 hour chemo pack and take radiation 5 days a week for a month. Great way to spend the summer but I didn't let it interfere with summer activities we had planned. I just had to be more careful in the sun.
The first thing I noticed was I didn't sweat much. Prior to cancer treatment I sweat like a race horse but now I didn't. The chemo treatment had changed my ability to deal with the heat and although I was careful not to get too much sun or get sun burned, I didn't drink enough fluids which caused dehydration. I thought I could drink enough beer to keep from getting dehydrated but I underestimated the effects of treatment.
I spent the time in the sun all greased up and it reminded me of when my mother would coat baking potatoes with bacon grease to bake them in the oven. About every hour or so I would add more sun block.
The two things to be cautious of when in the sun and going through treatment are to protect your skin with the strongest sun block lotion available, and drink more fluids than you think you should drink. When I was being treated for dehydration I was informed by my Oncologist that beer is not a very good liquid to keep you hydrated. He recommended mass quantities of water or one of the athletic drinks.
So I encourage you to spend time this summer in the sun and be overly protective of your skin because the treatment makes it very dry. Drink more fluids than you think you need to when in the sun, as well as when you are in treatment to avoid getting dehydrated. The cure for dehydration is sitting in an infusion chair having large bottles of fluids pumped into you until your hydration level is normal. The test to see if you are dehydrated is to pinch about an inch of skin on your arm close to your wrist and if the skin stays standing and pinched when you release it, you are dehydrated.
Don't let enjoying the sun and summer be taken away from you because of cancer treatment and the fear of getting sun burned or dehydrated. Just be careful and enjoy the summer.
Stay stong, keep your sense of humor and never give up.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
What about the Needles?
Good Morning Cancer Patients and Caregivers;
I was recently in a discussion with a newly diagnosed cancer patient about what they might expect going through treatment and I was reminded of the volumes of needles, sticking and injections I endured during the course of my treatment and surgery. Having always tried to avoid being poked with a needle, being poked with a needle to take blood, inject medication into my veins or through my chemo infusion port I had in my shoulder, I realized I was going to be stuck with a needle very frequently during the course of treatment and I had better figure out how to endure it.
What I learned was there are various poking with needles for different things and in different places on your body. For injections they go into your shoulder or hip. For infusions they may go into the veins in your arm on the inside of your elbow, inside-top of your wrist or your port. For blood samples they may poke the end of your finger or poke your vein on the inside of your elbow.No matter where or for what, I found being poked hurt and hurt like hell when the attendant wasn't very skilled at it, missed the vein, blew the vein or just was plane rough with the process. Taking off your shirt at 8:00 AM in the morning in the infusion room sitting in an infusion chair, having your port wiped with a cold antiseptic cotton wipe and being poked in the port in your shoulder with the infusion needle is not an event one begins to look forward to.
So what do you do to get through the very short and irritating discomfort that you need to endure with needles? I found several ways to make the event less discomforting. First, distract yourself during the process. I would read the news paper while being poked. Also, I found that at the time being stuck with the needle, if you inhale a large breath through your nose and exhale through your mouth during the jabbing, you don't notice it as much. When being given a shot or being stuck in your wrist or inside your elbow, the breathing works and also works with the withdrawal of the needle. Finally, to help alleviate the pain from the injection especially in the shoulder or hip, spend time rubbing the infusion point to work the bruise out. I also found that doing push-ups helped break down the bruise in the shoulder after the injection. The only thing I found with the hip injection was to rub and message the area to work it out.
I couldn't find a simple way around the torment the needle inflicted, but I figured out how to endure them and make them less tormenting. The needle is another companion you have on your cancer treatment journey.
I was recently in a discussion with a newly diagnosed cancer patient about what they might expect going through treatment and I was reminded of the volumes of needles, sticking and injections I endured during the course of my treatment and surgery. Having always tried to avoid being poked with a needle, being poked with a needle to take blood, inject medication into my veins or through my chemo infusion port I had in my shoulder, I realized I was going to be stuck with a needle very frequently during the course of treatment and I had better figure out how to endure it.
What I learned was there are various poking with needles for different things and in different places on your body. For injections they go into your shoulder or hip. For infusions they may go into the veins in your arm on the inside of your elbow, inside-top of your wrist or your port. For blood samples they may poke the end of your finger or poke your vein on the inside of your elbow.No matter where or for what, I found being poked hurt and hurt like hell when the attendant wasn't very skilled at it, missed the vein, blew the vein or just was plane rough with the process. Taking off your shirt at 8:00 AM in the morning in the infusion room sitting in an infusion chair, having your port wiped with a cold antiseptic cotton wipe and being poked in the port in your shoulder with the infusion needle is not an event one begins to look forward to.
So what do you do to get through the very short and irritating discomfort that you need to endure with needles? I found several ways to make the event less discomforting. First, distract yourself during the process. I would read the news paper while being poked. Also, I found that at the time being stuck with the needle, if you inhale a large breath through your nose and exhale through your mouth during the jabbing, you don't notice it as much. When being given a shot or being stuck in your wrist or inside your elbow, the breathing works and also works with the withdrawal of the needle. Finally, to help alleviate the pain from the injection especially in the shoulder or hip, spend time rubbing the infusion point to work the bruise out. I also found that doing push-ups helped break down the bruise in the shoulder after the injection. The only thing I found with the hip injection was to rub and message the area to work it out.
I couldn't find a simple way around the torment the needle inflicted, but I figured out how to endure them and make them less tormenting. The needle is another companion you have on your cancer treatment journey.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Cancer Treatment and Winter Cold
Good Morning Cancer Patients;
The winter cold makes cancer treatment more abusive. I think its because the treatment kills many of the body's heat receptors and therefore you feel the cold more. I always enjoyed the winters and the cold and could deal with them effectively but when I started chemo treatment of Taxol, Cisplatin and 5FU, I was always cold. I started treatment in the summer and began to notice I would get cold. When I started treatment again in January after recovering from surgery, I really noticed the cold. To compound it even further, the dry heated air coupled with dry skin from the treatment and the neuropathy in my hands and feet made what was a reasonable winter very cold for me. Staying warm became a challenge in public places. I began dressing differently to stay warm. The neuropathy in my hands and feet got so bad I had to be very careful to not get frost-bitten when I was out in the cold. My fingers would turn white down to the middle knuckles before I could feel they were cold, and by that time, frost-bite was setting in. My feet were the same way.
I encourage you not to let the winter cold deter you from living while in treatment but you need to protect yourself and safeguard against frost-bite. Do everything possible to stay warm and to get warm when you're cold. Layer on your clothes, cover your hands, wear a scarf around your neck, use heat packets in your gloves and heavy coat, wear a hat. It's not about how you look it's about staying warm. I found when I couldn't get warm from the cold, a hot shower worked to take the chill out of my body.
I haven't been in cancer treatment for several years now but the cold still bothers me and with the neuropathy in my hands and feet I must be real careful not to get frost-bite. My hands are also very dry and coupled with the neuropathy in them, still today, it makes even simple tasks like buttoning shirt buttons, grabbing small items with your fingers or separating papers are a major task in the winter with cold and dry hands. Hand lotion helps with the dryness but not with the loss of the sense of feel I lost with the neuropathy.
I still enjoy winter and the cold months but I don't enjoy the cold like I used to before cancer treatment. Don't let your lower tolerance of the winter cold keep you from living your life. Even a cold winter day can be drowned out by the excitement of life.
Stay warm, keep your sense of humor and never ever give up.
The winter cold makes cancer treatment more abusive. I think its because the treatment kills many of the body's heat receptors and therefore you feel the cold more. I always enjoyed the winters and the cold and could deal with them effectively but when I started chemo treatment of Taxol, Cisplatin and 5FU, I was always cold. I started treatment in the summer and began to notice I would get cold. When I started treatment again in January after recovering from surgery, I really noticed the cold. To compound it even further, the dry heated air coupled with dry skin from the treatment and the neuropathy in my hands and feet made what was a reasonable winter very cold for me. Staying warm became a challenge in public places. I began dressing differently to stay warm. The neuropathy in my hands and feet got so bad I had to be very careful to not get frost-bitten when I was out in the cold. My fingers would turn white down to the middle knuckles before I could feel they were cold, and by that time, frost-bite was setting in. My feet were the same way.
I encourage you not to let the winter cold deter you from living while in treatment but you need to protect yourself and safeguard against frost-bite. Do everything possible to stay warm and to get warm when you're cold. Layer on your clothes, cover your hands, wear a scarf around your neck, use heat packets in your gloves and heavy coat, wear a hat. It's not about how you look it's about staying warm. I found when I couldn't get warm from the cold, a hot shower worked to take the chill out of my body.
I haven't been in cancer treatment for several years now but the cold still bothers me and with the neuropathy in my hands and feet I must be real careful not to get frost-bite. My hands are also very dry and coupled with the neuropathy in them, still today, it makes even simple tasks like buttoning shirt buttons, grabbing small items with your fingers or separating papers are a major task in the winter with cold and dry hands. Hand lotion helps with the dryness but not with the loss of the sense of feel I lost with the neuropathy.
I still enjoy winter and the cold months but I don't enjoy the cold like I used to before cancer treatment. Don't let your lower tolerance of the winter cold keep you from living your life. Even a cold winter day can be drowned out by the excitement of life.
Stay warm, keep your sense of humor and never ever give up.
Monday, January 23, 2012
Just Don't Get Sick
Good Morning Cancer Patients and Caregivers;
Going through cancer treatment is one sure way to make you feel sick. But its the side effects of treatment that make you feel sick. I believe cancer treatment is a high-stakes poker game. Treatment kills good body cells and cancer cells. The intent is to kill the cancer with the treatment before the treatment makes you weak and it has to be stopped. Your cancer treatment team will do everything it can to play offense and treat your cancer. You have to play defense by helping your body stay strong and healthy while it is going through treatment. Remember, the treatment is making you weak. It is reducing the strength of your immune system. You may not be getting enough good nourishment because you have no appetite. Your endurance, energy and activity levels are declining. By its very nature you are susceptible to getting the flue, a cold, pneumonia or some other illness as a result of your weak immune system.
You need to take every precaution not to get sick. Stay away from sick people. Small children are germ factories. Especially during the flue season and colder months of the year. Get a flue vaccine and a pneumonia vaccine.Keep your hands clean from germs by frequently washing them or wiping them with hand cleaner. Keep you hands out of your eyes, nose and mouth. Don't touch your face with your hands. When you are out in public and you see people coughing and sneezing, avoid them in the area. The cold months are the worst and you have to be overprotective not to get sick. Do not under estimate the disadvantage your body and immune system have to ward off even common sickness. Recovering from a common cold when you are in treatment can become a major event.
Finally, eat right and eat healthy to strengthen your immune system. Take vitamines and extra protein to help rebuild your cells and strengthen your immune system. Be extra-cautious of the winter flue months and to protect your body so it can endure the abuse it is going through from the treatment. Conserve your energy but exercise. Just don't wear yourself down.
Going through cancer treatment is a battle of its own, don't add to the battle by getting sick. Do everything you can to keep from getting sick. You can't be careful enough.
Going through cancer treatment is one sure way to make you feel sick. But its the side effects of treatment that make you feel sick. I believe cancer treatment is a high-stakes poker game. Treatment kills good body cells and cancer cells. The intent is to kill the cancer with the treatment before the treatment makes you weak and it has to be stopped. Your cancer treatment team will do everything it can to play offense and treat your cancer. You have to play defense by helping your body stay strong and healthy while it is going through treatment. Remember, the treatment is making you weak. It is reducing the strength of your immune system. You may not be getting enough good nourishment because you have no appetite. Your endurance, energy and activity levels are declining. By its very nature you are susceptible to getting the flue, a cold, pneumonia or some other illness as a result of your weak immune system.
You need to take every precaution not to get sick. Stay away from sick people. Small children are germ factories. Especially during the flue season and colder months of the year. Get a flue vaccine and a pneumonia vaccine.Keep your hands clean from germs by frequently washing them or wiping them with hand cleaner. Keep you hands out of your eyes, nose and mouth. Don't touch your face with your hands. When you are out in public and you see people coughing and sneezing, avoid them in the area. The cold months are the worst and you have to be overprotective not to get sick. Do not under estimate the disadvantage your body and immune system have to ward off even common sickness. Recovering from a common cold when you are in treatment can become a major event.
Finally, eat right and eat healthy to strengthen your immune system. Take vitamines and extra protein to help rebuild your cells and strengthen your immune system. Be extra-cautious of the winter flue months and to protect your body so it can endure the abuse it is going through from the treatment. Conserve your energy but exercise. Just don't wear yourself down.
Going through cancer treatment is a battle of its own, don't add to the battle by getting sick. Do everything you can to keep from getting sick. You can't be careful enough.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Cancer and Living
Good Morning Cancer Patients and Survivors;
The holiday season is here. Are you preparing for it? Are you getting ready to spend time with friends and family celebrating the time and being together? It may be hard for you to do when your worrying about your cancer, your treatment success, the next test results or your suffering through the side effects of chemo and radiation. However, you could be doing that anyway regardless of the season. Now is the time to put those thoughts and worries aside and start living in the season. It will take your mind off the agony of cancer and focus your attention on living again, even if for just the season.
Too many cancer patients stop living their lives when they are diagnosed with cancer. They take a very inward focus and decide to stop living and doing the things they did before cancer or even doing new things. Your journey with cancer will run its course whether you decide to keep living your life with cancer or you elect to stop living and suffer through it. Every cancer patient decides this on their own. We recently buried a friend who was diagnosed with bone cancer over 5 years ago. He was mad at the world and stopped living what was once an active life. He lived for 5 years before the end and lost 5 years of living, waiting to die. In fact, he wanted to know when he would die so he could stop waiting.
Don't let cancer and the treatment strip you of your will to live. You just have cancer. You'll know when you're dieing. So don't waist the time you have by not continuing to live your life as fully as possible. Enjoy the holiday season the best you can and cherrish the time you are able to spend with your family and friends. When your asked by others at gatherings, how you are doing, just respond, "I'm getting through it" and then change the subject by asking how they are doing. Even though others want to know how you are doing, you don't want to spend your time at gatherings talking about your cancer.
So cheer up, its the holidays, and a good reason to keep living. Enjoy the time, don't over do it and appreciate the small joys and the opportunity you have to keep living your life. Keep your sense of humor and never ever give up.
The holiday season is here. Are you preparing for it? Are you getting ready to spend time with friends and family celebrating the time and being together? It may be hard for you to do when your worrying about your cancer, your treatment success, the next test results or your suffering through the side effects of chemo and radiation. However, you could be doing that anyway regardless of the season. Now is the time to put those thoughts and worries aside and start living in the season. It will take your mind off the agony of cancer and focus your attention on living again, even if for just the season.
Too many cancer patients stop living their lives when they are diagnosed with cancer. They take a very inward focus and decide to stop living and doing the things they did before cancer or even doing new things. Your journey with cancer will run its course whether you decide to keep living your life with cancer or you elect to stop living and suffer through it. Every cancer patient decides this on their own. We recently buried a friend who was diagnosed with bone cancer over 5 years ago. He was mad at the world and stopped living what was once an active life. He lived for 5 years before the end and lost 5 years of living, waiting to die. In fact, he wanted to know when he would die so he could stop waiting.
Don't let cancer and the treatment strip you of your will to live. You just have cancer. You'll know when you're dieing. So don't waist the time you have by not continuing to live your life as fully as possible. Enjoy the holiday season the best you can and cherrish the time you are able to spend with your family and friends. When your asked by others at gatherings, how you are doing, just respond, "I'm getting through it" and then change the subject by asking how they are doing. Even though others want to know how you are doing, you don't want to spend your time at gatherings talking about your cancer.
So cheer up, its the holidays, and a good reason to keep living. Enjoy the time, don't over do it and appreciate the small joys and the opportunity you have to keep living your life. Keep your sense of humor and never ever give up.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Learning to Tolerate the Waiting
Good Morning Cancer Patients;
I was reminded today when I was standing in a long line waiting to renew my license how I have distilled waiting down to its essence. The cancer treatment journey is filled with waiting. I think the whole process was designed around waiting. If you are not very tolerant of waiting and waiting annoyes you as it used to annoy me, you are going to be in for a series of long waits and miserable aggravations.
One of the first things cancer treatment taught me was how to wait, because you spend enormous amounts of time waiting - waiting to register, waiting to be called, waiting to have your vital signs taken, waiting for blood to be drawn, waiting to be admitted, waiting to have tests run, waiting for test results, waiting for the oncologist to see you, waiting for the infusion nurse to connect you to the infusion pump, and waiting, waiting, waiting some more.
Being good at waiting is an acquired skill. One I acquired and mastered during my journey with cancer. I sometimes wondered as I was graciously waiting, if the reason for the wait was because no one expected me to show up at the appointment time they gave me and were surprised and not ready when I showed up. Since I had begun to recognize I would be doing a great deal of waiting on this journey I figured I had 2 choices - First, get aggravated and complain which would do nothing but waste my energy and aggravate the help - Second, learn how to deal with it. I chose the latter.
The way I began to tolerate it was I began to expect to wait and therefore came prepared to do something with the wait time. I always brought my own materials to read and my cell phone for calls I had to make. When I ran out of things to do that I brought with me I began to watch and observe what was going on. How many people were waiting? What was the average wait time? What was the demographics of those that were waiting? How were the people waiting being treated by the service providers? How many service reps were there and how many of them were waiting on people to be serviced? I found observing what was going on to be much more entertaining than anything I had brought with me to occupy the wait time.
Today I still use this approach to waiting and waiting doesn't bother me. My attitude is - Its like being in church, and as long as you have to be there, you may as well get something out of it. Enjoy the waiting...
I was reminded today when I was standing in a long line waiting to renew my license how I have distilled waiting down to its essence. The cancer treatment journey is filled with waiting. I think the whole process was designed around waiting. If you are not very tolerant of waiting and waiting annoyes you as it used to annoy me, you are going to be in for a series of long waits and miserable aggravations.
One of the first things cancer treatment taught me was how to wait, because you spend enormous amounts of time waiting - waiting to register, waiting to be called, waiting to have your vital signs taken, waiting for blood to be drawn, waiting to be admitted, waiting to have tests run, waiting for test results, waiting for the oncologist to see you, waiting for the infusion nurse to connect you to the infusion pump, and waiting, waiting, waiting some more.
Being good at waiting is an acquired skill. One I acquired and mastered during my journey with cancer. I sometimes wondered as I was graciously waiting, if the reason for the wait was because no one expected me to show up at the appointment time they gave me and were surprised and not ready when I showed up. Since I had begun to recognize I would be doing a great deal of waiting on this journey I figured I had 2 choices - First, get aggravated and complain which would do nothing but waste my energy and aggravate the help - Second, learn how to deal with it. I chose the latter.
The way I began to tolerate it was I began to expect to wait and therefore came prepared to do something with the wait time. I always brought my own materials to read and my cell phone for calls I had to make. When I ran out of things to do that I brought with me I began to watch and observe what was going on. How many people were waiting? What was the average wait time? What was the demographics of those that were waiting? How were the people waiting being treated by the service providers? How many service reps were there and how many of them were waiting on people to be serviced? I found observing what was going on to be much more entertaining than anything I had brought with me to occupy the wait time.
Today I still use this approach to waiting and waiting doesn't bother me. My attitude is - Its like being in church, and as long as you have to be there, you may as well get something out of it. Enjoy the waiting...
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