Survivng Cancer is Tough, surviving the cure is just as hard!
I’ve been there, so when I read a story today about how people go through allsorts post cancer, I can only sympathise, I’m still fighting some of my problems.
The story discusses Freddie Cano, he’s cured after find a lump on his neck - he had the full treatment, surgery, chemotherapy, radiation and finally got clear.
But the treatment that vanquished the cancer also destroyed Cano’s salivary glands, so he constantly drinks water to keep his mouth from getting dry. It takes longer to eat, because of scar tissue in his throat that must periodically be thinned. For a time after the treatment, one foot “dropped” when he walked. “The chemo was short-circuiting the brain waves to my feet.”
The dream, Cano said, is “the treatments end and everything is fine again. It doesn’t happen.”
He doesn’t complain about the side-effects of Chemo, heck none of us do - it’s a do it or die situation.
People are starting to notice that cancer survivors often don’t get the care they need to live the fullest lives possible and there are calls in the US for long-term follow-up for adult cancer survivors.
In the US men are 50-50 chance of developing cancer at some point in their lives, while for women it’s 1 in 3.
It’s no longer a death sentence and treatment is available.
Cancer can change your life!
“Some people go a little bit crazy, the second chance of life,” Cano said. “I had a 30 percent chance to survive the next five years, and I’m eight years out.”
But survival comes at a cost. Surgery, powerful doses of chemotherapy and radiation can take a toll years or even decades later, resulting in problems such as secondary cancers, structural changes in the brain, infertility and diabetes.
“The cancer looks like it’s gone,” said Dr. Daniel Karak-la, a head and neck surgeon at Eastern Virginia Medical School who specializes in oncology. “That’s just the beginning of the story.”
And there’s more than just physiological side effects. Survivors also can experience long-lasting emotional problems and a perpetual sense of being lost. Where to find help is not as clear as it was during their active treatment - when there’s a systematic plan, protocols to follow and a team of medical professionals overseeing them.
Some cancer treatments have well-known negative effects. For example, in testicular cancer, the radiation will almost certainly permanently destroy sperm production.
“We talk about that on the first visit so that they can bank sperm” if patient s want to have children later in life, said Dr. Paul Conkling, a medical oncologist at Virginia Oncology Associates in Norfolk.
[…] Read more about how being a Cancer Survivor can be as tough as being a Cancer Patient […]