Need some help understanding why hope is so important for cancer patients? Here's a quick video tip!
For more help, visit THE PRACTICAL CAREGIVER GUIDES
Thursday, October 20, 2011
RADIATION AFTER SURGERY CUTS BREAST CANCER RECURRENCE
Someone I love has breast cancer. Newly diagnosed, still shocked and saddened by the news, she's struggled with the decision about cancer treatment. Discussions with doctors and her husband, long hours mulling over her options -- this person I love is just beginning the cancer journey. Should she give up all hope? Should she fear the future?
If I can do nothing more for the many who are in her shoes, let me do this. Let me spread the word that British researchers reported in the Lancet that an analysis of seventeen studies, involving almost 11,000 women who had breast cancers surgically removed and received follow-up radiation treatment, showed a significant reduction in the recurrence rate to 19.3% in the first ten years after surgery -- the original rate was 35%! That means that another 15 women in every 100 survived because of radiation after breast cancer surgery. Imagine 15 more women at the gym, walking on treadmills or enjoying dance classes. Imagine 15 more women at the local coffee house, sipping their lattes and sharing their stories. Imagine 15 more mothers and grandmothers at family reunions, laughing and passing the mashed potatoes. Imagine 15 more women at work, fighting fires, teaching students, caring patients, driving buses and cabs, writing the next Booker Prize novel, or just handing you your change at the grocery store. Those 15 women who survived breast cancer surgery and had radiation as a follow-up lived longer. Where there is life, there is hope. Where there is hope, there is the promise of a cure.
Denise Grady, of the New York Times, reported on the Lancet research:
"Radiation Therapy After Breast Cancer Surgery Cuts Recurrence, Study Says"
You may not think it's a big deal those 15 women survived their first ten years after breast cancer surgery and radiation, but I do. Why? These women are the future of breast cancer treatment -- they are the survivors. Researchers will study them, study the treatments they received, in order to help those of us who are newly diagnosed.
Someone I love has breast cancer, and I want her to know that she has a good fighting chance to survive it with the right treatment. Every day, we learn more and more about how we can use the information we get from cancer survivors to tweak cancer treatments so they work better and people live bigger, better lives. Every cancer patient deserves to have good options. This research analysis is going to change lives. Will it change the life of someone you love?
For more help with cancer caregiving, visit THE PRACTICAL CAREGIVER GUIDES
If I can do nothing more for the many who are in her shoes, let me do this. Let me spread the word that British researchers reported in the Lancet that an analysis of seventeen studies, involving almost 11,000 women who had breast cancers surgically removed and received follow-up radiation treatment, showed a significant reduction in the recurrence rate to 19.3% in the first ten years after surgery -- the original rate was 35%! That means that another 15 women in every 100 survived because of radiation after breast cancer surgery. Imagine 15 more women at the gym, walking on treadmills or enjoying dance classes. Imagine 15 more women at the local coffee house, sipping their lattes and sharing their stories. Imagine 15 more mothers and grandmothers at family reunions, laughing and passing the mashed potatoes. Imagine 15 more women at work, fighting fires, teaching students, caring patients, driving buses and cabs, writing the next Booker Prize novel, or just handing you your change at the grocery store. Those 15 women who survived breast cancer surgery and had radiation as a follow-up lived longer. Where there is life, there is hope. Where there is hope, there is the promise of a cure.
Denise Grady, of the New York Times, reported on the Lancet research:
"Radiation Therapy After Breast Cancer Surgery Cuts Recurrence, Study Says"
You may not think it's a big deal those 15 women survived their first ten years after breast cancer surgery and radiation, but I do. Why? These women are the future of breast cancer treatment -- they are the survivors. Researchers will study them, study the treatments they received, in order to help those of us who are newly diagnosed.
Someone I love has breast cancer, and I want her to know that she has a good fighting chance to survive it with the right treatment. Every day, we learn more and more about how we can use the information we get from cancer survivors to tweak cancer treatments so they work better and people live bigger, better lives. Every cancer patient deserves to have good options. This research analysis is going to change lives. Will it change the life of someone you love?
For more help with cancer caregiving, visit THE PRACTICAL CAREGIVER GUIDES
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
WHAT ARE THE PRACTICAL CAREGIVER GUIDES?
What are the Practical Caregiver Guides and why do they exist? The answer is simple. Family caregivers are not normally trained in how to provide care. They slip through the cracks. They stumble their way through care. Burned out, exhausted, just trying to survive, family caregivers try to cover all the bases, but it's not easy.
Hospital workers are trained. Even home health aides have to be certified. But family caregivers? It's all relative.
The truth is that the more you know about your loved one's disease, the better the care you give. In cancer management, it can be critical. Want an example of some things you should know?
Eating can be exhausting for cancer patients, and many just give up because it's too much effort. It takes energy to chew food. If your loved one is too tired to eat, he or she will lose too much weight. You need to understand how to feed your loved one.
Scheduling activities that work with, not against, cancer treatments improves quality of life for your loved one. You need to know how chemotherapy affects your loved one in order to maximize the energy he or she has.
Still think you don't have a real job to do? The biggest problem for most cancer patients is managing the fear of the disease. What can you do to help your loved one? If you don't understand the toll cancer takes on relationships, you may find yourself feeling lost and alone.
A good family caregiver understands that cancer patients can be affected by the cancer treatments as much as the cancer. In order to help your loved one, you have to believe that what you do can have a positive outcome. But you won't feel that way until you accept that the quality of your caregiving will improve your loved one's chances of managing and navigating cancer.
You want your loved one to have the best medical treatment. Be part of that team. Learn about the disease and strategies to keep your loved one healthier. Take the first step. Have the courage to confront the disease, so your loved one can live better.
For help with your caregiving, visit www.practicalcaregiverguides.com
Hospital workers are trained. Even home health aides have to be certified. But family caregivers? It's all relative.
The truth is that the more you know about your loved one's disease, the better the care you give. In cancer management, it can be critical. Want an example of some things you should know?
Eating can be exhausting for cancer patients, and many just give up because it's too much effort. It takes energy to chew food. If your loved one is too tired to eat, he or she will lose too much weight. You need to understand how to feed your loved one.
Scheduling activities that work with, not against, cancer treatments improves quality of life for your loved one. You need to know how chemotherapy affects your loved one in order to maximize the energy he or she has.
Still think you don't have a real job to do? The biggest problem for most cancer patients is managing the fear of the disease. What can you do to help your loved one? If you don't understand the toll cancer takes on relationships, you may find yourself feeling lost and alone.
A good family caregiver understands that cancer patients can be affected by the cancer treatments as much as the cancer. In order to help your loved one, you have to believe that what you do can have a positive outcome. But you won't feel that way until you accept that the quality of your caregiving will improve your loved one's chances of managing and navigating cancer.
You want your loved one to have the best medical treatment. Be part of that team. Learn about the disease and strategies to keep your loved one healthier. Take the first step. Have the courage to confront the disease, so your loved one can live better.
For help with your caregiving, visit www.practicalcaregiverguides.com
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
CAN NEW RESEARCH IN COLON CANCER BE A REASON TO HOPE FOR A CURE?
If you're caring for a loved one with colon cancer, you may take heart from new research. Two cancer studies have identified unusually high levels of a specific bacterium not usually found in the colon, Fusobacterium, in colon cancer tumors.
The study at the British Columbia Cancer Agency, headed by Dr. Robert A. Holt and his team, used genetic analysis to identify the unexpected connection in Canadian patients, according to a report in the NY Times by Gina Kolata:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/18/health/18cancer.html
Another study at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, led by Dr. Matthew Meyerson and his associates, found similar results in patients from the US, Vietnam, and Spain.
All patients studied had higher levels of the Fusobacterium in their tumors than found in normal colon cells. Dr. Holt found that some of his patients had an average of 415 times as many Fusobacteria as normal cells. Dr. Meyerson's research focused on the DNA aspect. He was unable to determine if the Fusobacteria is the trigger of the colon cancer or the cause of it, but the findings are considered provocative. Why? Because this may allow researchers to develop a vaccine to prevent colon cancer.
One question that cancer researchers will have to answer is whether inflammation, caused by the bacteria, is the start of colon cancer or if it speeds the development of cancer. Both Dr. Holt and Dr. Meyerson admit uncertainty in the cause and effect of Fusobacterium in colon cancer. But at least scientists have a potential culprit to investigate, examine, and follow.
For families with a loved one who has this disease, it can offer hope that somewhere, somehow, at some point in time, there may be answers about colon cancer, and with answers, there can be better disease management, treatment, and hopefully even a cure. Never give up hope!
The study at the British Columbia Cancer Agency, headed by Dr. Robert A. Holt and his team, used genetic analysis to identify the unexpected connection in Canadian patients, according to a report in the NY Times by Gina Kolata:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/18/health/18cancer.html
Another study at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, led by Dr. Matthew Meyerson and his associates, found similar results in patients from the US, Vietnam, and Spain.
All patients studied had higher levels of the Fusobacterium in their tumors than found in normal colon cells. Dr. Holt found that some of his patients had an average of 415 times as many Fusobacteria as normal cells. Dr. Meyerson's research focused on the DNA aspect. He was unable to determine if the Fusobacteria is the trigger of the colon cancer or the cause of it, but the findings are considered provocative. Why? Because this may allow researchers to develop a vaccine to prevent colon cancer.
One question that cancer researchers will have to answer is whether inflammation, caused by the bacteria, is the start of colon cancer or if it speeds the development of cancer. Both Dr. Holt and Dr. Meyerson admit uncertainty in the cause and effect of Fusobacterium in colon cancer. But at least scientists have a potential culprit to investigate, examine, and follow.
For families with a loved one who has this disease, it can offer hope that somewhere, somehow, at some point in time, there may be answers about colon cancer, and with answers, there can be better disease management, treatment, and hopefully even a cure. Never give up hope!
Monday, October 17, 2011
HOW THE MACMILLAN CANCER SUPPORT DOES COFFEE
The world's biggest coffee morning -- how wonderful is that? Who doesn't like a cup of coffee and some schmoozing?
I know that health care in the UK is very different from in the US. There are charitable trusts to financially support cancer programs. What I love about UK cancer groups is that they make a huge push to bring it home to the people. Not only do they make the public more aware of their programs, they offer great connectivity between cancer patients and the rest of the world, the so-called "normal" population:
http://coffee.macmillan.org.uk/Home.aspx
Here's a little secret about events like this. They feel good. They feel human. They serve a real purpose, because they involve something we all enjoy doing -- socializing over coffee. It's part public awareness campaign, part fundraiser, and lots of fun. Not everyone can run a 5K or walk for a cause. But who can't sit down with friends and neighbors for a cup of coffee? It's so people-friendly.
The truth is there is nothing fun about cancer. It stinks. It changes families. It changes lives. It changes the people who have the disease. But when we connect on a human level and we reach out to share, that's when communities form. That's when support becomes real. "I've been there. Let me share with you the tricks I used to get through it."
A lot of people shy away from support groups. Sometimes emotions are just too raw, too close to the surface. People don't want to think about their feelings, let alone talk about them. That's why events like the World's Biggest Coffee Morning make sense. It's about coming together in a fun way to deal with a nasty disease. Hats off to the Macmillan Cancer Support people. This is a brilliant idea.
If you're a cancer caregiver, and you need tips and advice on helping your loved one, visit:
The Practical Caregiver Guides
I know that health care in the UK is very different from in the US. There are charitable trusts to financially support cancer programs. What I love about UK cancer groups is that they make a huge push to bring it home to the people. Not only do they make the public more aware of their programs, they offer great connectivity between cancer patients and the rest of the world, the so-called "normal" population:
http://coffee.macmillan.org.uk/Home.aspx
Here's a little secret about events like this. They feel good. They feel human. They serve a real purpose, because they involve something we all enjoy doing -- socializing over coffee. It's part public awareness campaign, part fundraiser, and lots of fun. Not everyone can run a 5K or walk for a cause. But who can't sit down with friends and neighbors for a cup of coffee? It's so people-friendly.
The truth is there is nothing fun about cancer. It stinks. It changes families. It changes lives. It changes the people who have the disease. But when we connect on a human level and we reach out to share, that's when communities form. That's when support becomes real. "I've been there. Let me share with you the tricks I used to get through it."
A lot of people shy away from support groups. Sometimes emotions are just too raw, too close to the surface. People don't want to think about their feelings, let alone talk about them. That's why events like the World's Biggest Coffee Morning make sense. It's about coming together in a fun way to deal with a nasty disease. Hats off to the Macmillan Cancer Support people. This is a brilliant idea.
If you're a cancer caregiver, and you need tips and advice on helping your loved one, visit:
The Practical Caregiver Guides
Sunday, October 9, 2011
CANCER CAREGIVING AND GUMPTION
A lot of people think that cancer caregivers are just there to drive folks back and forth to cancer treatment. You can call a taxi driver for that service. A real cancer caregiver is much more than that, and it's important to understand what a vital role he or she plays.
Cancer is a scary disease, no matter how you look at it. From the smallest skin cancer to the biggest malignant tumor, the psychological impact of cancer can often do almost as much damage as the disease or its treatment. That's why good cancer caregivers have gumption.
What's gumption? It's common sense, initiative, shrewdness, courage and resourcefulness. These are all the good qualities for a cancer caregiver. You look for ways to help your loved one navigate the cancer maze. Your confidence and faith that you can make a positive difference can often inspire your loved one to try a little harder to survive. It's not about fooling your loved one into believing that survival is possible. It's about convincing your loved one that life is still going to be okay with cancer, no matter what the outcome. That takes gumption.
Good cancer caregivers know that they're afraid for their loved ones, but they also know that they should step up to the plate and be a rock. It's about understanding that you're the shoulder to cry on, the one your loved one counts on to be steady and sure. When you have your own doubts, you take them elsewhere, because you know that your doubts will be a burden for your loved one. It's not that you don't worry, because you always do. It's that you share your fears with others, because you understand that you need to be the strength for your loved one.
Gumption makes good caregivers take advantage of the good times and make them better. Cancer changes everything, so finding the simple things to celebrate requires true spirit. You have to make excuses for enjoying life -- it's a beautiful day, it's a rainy day, it's a snowy day. A cancer caregiver with gumption doesn't care what the excuse is -- he or she finds a reason to laugh, to try something new, to get out and have some fun with the loved one.
Everywhere you look, you hear people describe cancer patients as brave souls who are fighting a terrific battle. The truth is cancer patients are just human beings, doing the best they can with what they've got. They have moments in which they feel confident and moments in which they have doubts. If they have caregivers with gumption, that's the kind of support that can help them through the dark moments.
You don't have to be perfect to be a cancer caregiver, but it helps to have gumption. You'll look for the opportunities to bring quality to life, to give comfort where comfort is needed and courage when courage is needed, to encourage laughter and love to fill the tiny cracks that form in the heart from the pain of having cancer. The truth is we're social creatures and having partners to help us on difficult stretches of the road of life matter. No one should ever face cancer alone. That's why good cancer caregivers have the guts to step up and step in to make a difference in the lives of cancer patients. We're smart enough to know that if the shoe were on the other foot, we'd want this kind of support.
Cancer is a scary disease, no matter how you look at it. From the smallest skin cancer to the biggest malignant tumor, the psychological impact of cancer can often do almost as much damage as the disease or its treatment. That's why good cancer caregivers have gumption.
What's gumption? It's common sense, initiative, shrewdness, courage and resourcefulness. These are all the good qualities for a cancer caregiver. You look for ways to help your loved one navigate the cancer maze. Your confidence and faith that you can make a positive difference can often inspire your loved one to try a little harder to survive. It's not about fooling your loved one into believing that survival is possible. It's about convincing your loved one that life is still going to be okay with cancer, no matter what the outcome. That takes gumption.
Good cancer caregivers know that they're afraid for their loved ones, but they also know that they should step up to the plate and be a rock. It's about understanding that you're the shoulder to cry on, the one your loved one counts on to be steady and sure. When you have your own doubts, you take them elsewhere, because you know that your doubts will be a burden for your loved one. It's not that you don't worry, because you always do. It's that you share your fears with others, because you understand that you need to be the strength for your loved one.
Gumption makes good caregivers take advantage of the good times and make them better. Cancer changes everything, so finding the simple things to celebrate requires true spirit. You have to make excuses for enjoying life -- it's a beautiful day, it's a rainy day, it's a snowy day. A cancer caregiver with gumption doesn't care what the excuse is -- he or she finds a reason to laugh, to try something new, to get out and have some fun with the loved one.
Everywhere you look, you hear people describe cancer patients as brave souls who are fighting a terrific battle. The truth is cancer patients are just human beings, doing the best they can with what they've got. They have moments in which they feel confident and moments in which they have doubts. If they have caregivers with gumption, that's the kind of support that can help them through the dark moments.
You don't have to be perfect to be a cancer caregiver, but it helps to have gumption. You'll look for the opportunities to bring quality to life, to give comfort where comfort is needed and courage when courage is needed, to encourage laughter and love to fill the tiny cracks that form in the heart from the pain of having cancer. The truth is we're social creatures and having partners to help us on difficult stretches of the road of life matter. No one should ever face cancer alone. That's why good cancer caregivers have the guts to step up and step in to make a difference in the lives of cancer patients. We're smart enough to know that if the shoe were on the other foot, we'd want this kind of support.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)