Chemotherapy is about YOU! (Chemo Survival Guide Part 2)
Photo by limowreck666 via Flickr. (Creative Commons. Some rights retained by author)
If there is ever a time when being a bit selfish is probably a good idea, it is during chemotherapy. Chemotherapy (and this also applies to radiotherapy) is about YOU. What I want to emphasize by this is that getting treated for cancer can be a very difficult process and it’s important that you as a patient focus on yourself primarily during this time. While this is a time that is particularly difficult to those around you, making yourself responsible for the feelings of those around you will only make things more difficult for you. While there are probably a few exceptions to this, I believe a chemo patient should not worry about others around until he or she has dealt with his or her own issues.
Of course, there are different stages during chemotherapy that have different impacts on how a patient feels both emotionally and psychologically. There are also different stages/moods in how a patient may be dealing with a disease (e.g. denial, preoccupation, giving up). However, regardless of differences in chemotherapy symptoms or stages, I am referring to how a patient must deal with the treatment’s difficulties when the times are rough. Chemotherapy is not only a difficult process because of the medicines that are administered, but also because of the financial burden that the disease can cause in some families, the preoccupation with the possibility of death, watching a loved one suffer, and other such things. As a result, your spouse, kids, other family members, and even friends may develop difficulty issues all of their own as they try to cope with your illness. While they may seek your help during difficult times, it’s important that you keep your focus on yourself. Remember, in any fight for survival, you are the most important element. You need to deal with your issues first and possibly ignore others needs altogether until a time when you can actually be more helpful. Trying to help others at this time may simply add more things for you to worry and, as patients with some of the effects of “chemo-brain” know, you don’t need extra things to worry about. You need to prepare for this before you get too far into chemo because some patients get so negative during treatment that the extra worrying may be the final straw they need to refuse treatment and give up all together.
If other people need help, then let them seek it on their own. There are countless professionals out there waiting to help, hundreds of self-help books such as the ones that appear on the Amazon.com advertisements on these pages, and other friends and family members that may be ready to lend a hand. Remember, this is a life and death issue and your survival matters. You can deal with the effects of cancer on others as soon as you are done with treatment. Sure, you can’t really ignore your spouse or kids completely, but other family members and friends can definitely wait. At least that is my opinion from talking to and watching others go through chemotherapy. What does everyone else think?
The next chapter in the Chemotherapy Survival Guide will be Thursday.
The previous post on the Chemotherapy Survival Guide:
NEXT POST IN THE SERIES —-> HERE.
Chemotherapy is a personal experience. (Chemo Survival Guide Part 1)
Photo by penmachine via Flickr. (Creative Commons. Some rights reserved by author.)
For most people outside the world of cancer, chemotherapy is just one particular medical treatment that takes care of all cancers. They do not know about all the different versions of chemo and generally think that only dosage and frequency are changed from one patient to the next. However, this is far from the truth. Chemotherapy is the cumulative name given to quite a lot of medical procedures used to treat cancer. As long as it’s a substance being inserted (through a variety of mechanisms) into the patient’s body to treat cancer, it will be called chemotherapy. Just as there are hundreds of different diseases under the cancer banner, there are a wide variety of chemotherapy treatments. In other words, if three chemo patients were to meet at a cancer treatment center, it is likely that their treatments are completely different procedures.
As a result of this, and complemented by the differences inside each of our bodies, each cancer patient undergoes different experiences with the chemotherapy process (although there are similarities between patients). When most people think of chemo side effects, probably the most common one to come to mind is the hair loss. Chemo patients are supposed to be bald, right? The answer to this question is “No.” While a lot of chemotherapy patients lose their hair (me included) during treatment, a good portion of patients go through it with minimal or no hair loss. Others never suffer from the effects of nausea, another common chemo side effect. It is important for the cancer patient to find information on the treatments and side effects for his/her particular kind of cancer and chemotherapy combination.
I think I learned the most about different chemo treatments while waiting each morning for chemo to start in the treatment center’s waiting room. For about an hour before the chemo treatments started, most of the morning patients would be in the same room talking to each other. You learned the different experiences everyone had with chemo. Some patients would enter treatment once a month for an hour, while others would spend an entire week connected to a machine for eight hours a day. Some patients would have uncontrollable vomit, while others looked as if it was just any other day for them.
The point I’m trying to get across is that, as a cancer patient, you need to understand that your chemotherapy experience will be your own. My chemotherapy is not the same as your chemotherapy or her chemotherapy. Even if two patients shared the same treatments, chances are the reactions would be totally different. You need to understand this as you enter treatment because sometimes patients feel like something is wrong with the treatment when they start getting symptoms that don’t fit what they heard another patient say happened to them. You have to remember that chemo isn’t like taking Tylenol Multi-symptom for a cold. You don’t feel better afterwards. No, chemo is basically poison-taking and your body will react to it in varied and unexpected ways. Of course, you need to inform your oncology professional (nurse or doctor) of your symptoms, but don’t feel like there is something wrong with the treatment when symptoms you never heard of start happening. Remember; don’t judge yourself by how other patients are reacting. You experience is your own and while you may have the worst side effects of any patient in the treatment center, you may be healing quicker than anyone else.
Monday in Helpoon’s Chemotherapy Survival Guide: “Chemotherapy is about YOU!”
Other posts in the CSG series:
The Chemotherapy Survival Guide.
Photo by John Anthony Evans via Flickr (Creative Commons).
Update: I actually posted the wrong start date for this series. It will be July 9, 2009.
Over the past few months, I’ve been asked by more than one friend as to the ways that they can help make chemotherapy a more comfortable experience for their relatives or friends. I thought this would be a great time to post a series specifically dealing with this issue over the next few days. So the next few posts on this website will be sort of a Chemotherapy Survival Guide. I’ll write about some insights I picked up while undergoing four months of intensive chemotherapy myself and some of the pointers that I picked up from discussions with other patients. I’ll start this series July 9, 2009 (expect the first post before noon EDT) and continue on daily (excluding weekends).
Since I write these the same date I post them, if you have any points you’d like me to discuss or have ideas you’d like to share, please do so in the comments. As always, you can subscribe to Helpoon by clicking on subscription options above. This is a Feedburner service powered by Google and at no point is your e-mail shared with anyone else other than Google and Helpoon. It will only be used for the purpose of delivering the e-mail updates to you.
Chemotherapy is a difficult process and I hope I can be very helpful to those that are living or will live through it.
FM
You can also check out this other article, which may help you with chemotherapy:
A new start for Helpoon.
Photo by Chris Gin via Flickr.
Are you wondering what happened to all the posts that were here at Helpoon.com? Well, in short… they’re gone! Although you will see some of them return over time, others are gone for good! It’s all part of Helpoon redesign that is aimed at making the blog be much more helpful than it has been in the past. Expect a lot of improvements and the return of frequent posting in the next few days. If you have suggestions about what kind of articles you want to see here in the future, please feel free to post so in the comments.
I hope you enjoy the new, more informative articles.
FM
11 Things To Do While On Chemotherapy or Radiation Therapy
Radiation Therapy and Chemotherapy are hard processes for cancer patients to go through all by themselves. The long waits beforehand in some hospitals, as well as the very long time some patients spend in treatment, don’t make it any easier. Knowing how to spend your time may be one of the more valuable things that a cancer patient can learn before going to their first treatment session for cancer. With that in mind, I thought I would start a list of things that can be done to pass the time while on chemotherapy or radiation treatments. Maybe it will help some of you to cope with the long waits at some treatment center waiting rooms and during treatment itself. If you know of more ways to pass the time, be sure to post in the comments section.
1) Books Reading may not be easy for some cancer patients, chemotherapy can alter your mind in challenging ways, but a large majority of patients are fine with it. Reading is a great way to pass the time during treatments and while recovering at home. Personally, I took up reading as my pastime of choice during my first chemotherapy sessions. Unfortunately, the unpleasant experience, combined with some unexpected mental side-effects from an anti-nausea medication, made reading difficult. I managed to finish all 800 pages of a novel, but it was a struggle.
2) Puzzle Books Not a personal choice of mine, but I did see many other patients opt for this. If you like puzzles, it’s a great way to pass the time.
3) Jigsaw Puzzles Jigsaw puzzles are a great way to spend time in treatment. Some may require a large surface to work on and it may not be available to you. This particular option was popular among some of the older folks in my chemotherapy treatment center.
4) Magazines Same as books, but magazines can be better since they are short and don’t require a long time or mental commitment. I know of situations where chemo patients have problems with giving something long-time attention. Magazines make it easier by providing the reader with short, varied articles. Sometimes, you just want to look at pictures too, which helps.
5) Portable video game consoles Especially for younger patients, portable video game systems, such as Nintendo’s DS Lite or Sony’s Play Station Portable, can provide endless fun while on treatments and provide a necessary distraction. Care should be had as to not bother other patients with video game sounds. Use headphones or lower the volume to zero. The systems can be inexpensive when compared to their full sized counterparts, but deliver just as much fun. New ones start at $125.00 and used ones are even cheaper. Games are as low as $10 new. Older folks can also benefit from some of the games and you can watch movies on a PSP.
6) Portable DVD player Portable DVD players are definitely another excellent way to pass the time. These things have gotten really cheap and are excellent at distracting patients from the symptoms of treatment. The only drawback is you’ll need a steady supply of movies, but Blockbuster or Netflix can easily take care of that. Many treatment centers are TV equipped, so watching TV will be a possibility and greatly help. I became quite a fan of “Saved by the Bell”, of all things, and I used to hate it when it was originally airing back in the day.
7) Playing cards or board games Of course, this one requires a partner to play with most of the time. If you’re sharing space with other patients, this may be an excellent option. It helps with patients who are accompanied by friends or relatives, as well, as it gives them a way to pass the time while they attend to the patient. This can be a fun and very low priced way to pass the time.
8 ) Paying bills and other responsibilities Some patients who have to take time off from responsibility to be in treatment are affected, not just by disease or treatment symptoms, but by a feeling of irresponsibility that things need to be taken care of and they’re not getting done. Taking some bills to pay with you or other similar easy tasks that can be done while on chemo may be a good idea. It may help you feel useful and give you a sense of accomplishment.
9) Surf the Internet Of course, this can only happen in cancer treatment centers were the option is available. Wi-Fi enabled cancer treatment centers are growing and having the ability to take a laptop with you and surf the internet is great. The internet opens up many possibilities as to what you can do with your time. From working, to playing, to reading, to just watching videos; there really is a lot you can do. Be cautious, though, some treatment centers prohibit the use of wireless devices as it may interfere with some medical devices.
10) Start conversations with fellow patients Fellow patients are going through the same thing you are. While some centers give you an individualized room in which talking with other patients is difficult, in a lot of scenarios you’ll be accompanied by other patients. Talking with them and sharing experiences is a great way to pass the time and helps cope with the disease and its treatments. Be careful, though, some patients do not like to be approached by strangers and others may not be feeling well and talking may make them worse. Personally for me, hearing too many people talk at once in the waiting room before chemotherapy was difficult and even led me to vomiting one time. I know, it sounds weird, but I know of other patients with similar situations.
11) Sleep or Stare at the Ceiling Yep. Sometimes the best way to deal with chemo is by not doing anything at all. Don’t feel pressured to do anything. If sitting there staring blankly at the wall will make you feel more at ease, then it’s the best thing you can do.
I hope all the things I have listed will help some of you cope in the treatment centers. An MP3 player may help you as well. Listening to music and tuning out everyone around may help you feel better. Don’t feel like you have to spend hundreds on an iPod, some good, simple players can be had for around $30.
Anyone have any other suggestions or ideas? Let’s keep this list growing in the comments or post about your experiences.
(c) 2009 Helpoon.com