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Living with Cancer - YANA |
Once you have been diagnosed with cancer, you are probably feeling many emotions, including fear, anxiety, sadness, anger and depression. Your life has suddenly changed, but you are not without the power to maintain or regain your quality of life. You're not alone.
- Factors that will affect you:
- - The type and grade of cancer you have, and its
response to therapy
- The stage of your disease at the time of your diagnosis
- Your mental and physical status before diagnosis
- Your attitude toward your disease, including your willingness to make compromises, undergo therapy, and take advantage of supportive care services
- The quality of support you receive from your family, friends, and medical team
- The extent to which the side effects of your treatment can be controlled
- The ultimate success or failure of your treatment
During the years we've been treating cancer patients, we have learned that beyond the conventional treatments used to fight the disease, treatments such as surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, immunotherapy or any combination of these treatments, there is another very important essential concept called Supportive Care. Supportive care includes nutrition, exercise, mind and body control, such as biofeedback, tai chi, and self-hypnosis, individual or group counseling for the patient as well as family and friends, spiritual guidance and creative pursuits such as art and music.
When evaluating your strengths and weaknesses, and pondering which supportive care services will increase your ability to cope, you should not feel it is a sign of weakness to seek help. On the contrary, it is a sign of strength requiring a high degree of honesty and self-awareness. You must learn to recognize what you need and to take responsibility for getting it. In the process of doing this, you will hone your coping skills and rekindle hope - a powerful weapon in your battle with cancer.
The desired outcome is always to achieve a cure and when not possible, to enable long-term survival with chronic disease. If neither of these results is feasible, the therapeutic goal changes to that of providing appropriate comfort care. In all situations, we believe that supportive care services are not only essential to the quality of life while living with cancer, but also that they contribute to the quality of life even during the events that lead to death.
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