Post Chemo Life
This is my first week clear of the three week chemo cycle. I am officially finished. Next up for me is a bi-lateral mastectomy and reconstruction in three weeks Everyday this week I have felt my an...
Forum Discussion
Couldn't have put it better @kezmusc.
You're totally on the money @Sister. My oncologist is not yet menopausal. How can she possibly understand the night time viciousness of half hourly hot flushes?
It's one of the reasons Liz O'Riordan's blog is such good reading. I am SO pleased she's putting her experience as a breast surgeon who got breast cancer to good use.
Being told as I was that I'll feel "off colour" and want to just sit on the couch for a few days doesn't really touch the lived experience of fatigue and the first 10 days of any chemo cycle! I do get though that the doctors have to walk that fine line of informing patients while trying not to scare you shitless, at a time when most people are already scared shitless. I would have appreciated a more honest approach though. Something like 'you'll probably feel absolute rubbish but it will pass and remember that you're doing it to maximise your chances of a long life'.
We are so blessed with our healthcare system here. Maybe we expect too much from it? I think a counselling/information session about the emotional effects of breast cancer would be valuable, though picking the point at which to deliver it would be tricky. I was really pleased to find that a Wellness Coordinator is now on staff at the new Eastern Health Breast and Cancer Centre in Melbourne. I think it shows that the medical community is aware that this is an important area of our treatment.
My psychologist told me something interesting the other day. She said there was a study being conducted to see if a diagnosis of breast cancer should be treated as an event that causes Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Apparently the psychological markers are almost exactly the same as PTSD. She said a BC diagnosis is clinically considered as a 'major trauma'. Yet somehow many medicos almost downplay the emotional side effects. That's where breastcare nurses can be so fantastic, straddling the line between the two.
I do consider myself very lucky that my breast surgeon seems to get this more than others. He took the time to comfort me when I was very distressed. He acknowledged my despair but didn't sugar coat the realities.
It would be wonderful if we could all have a team of perfect doctors but that's an impossibility! They are flawed human beings just like us.
I hope everyone is having a good Sunday. K xox
You're totally on the money @Sister. My oncologist is not yet menopausal. How can she possibly understand the night time viciousness of half hourly hot flushes?
It's one of the reasons Liz O'Riordan's blog is such good reading. I am SO pleased she's putting her experience as a breast surgeon who got breast cancer to good use.
Being told as I was that I'll feel "off colour" and want to just sit on the couch for a few days doesn't really touch the lived experience of fatigue and the first 10 days of any chemo cycle! I do get though that the doctors have to walk that fine line of informing patients while trying not to scare you shitless, at a time when most people are already scared shitless. I would have appreciated a more honest approach though. Something like 'you'll probably feel absolute rubbish but it will pass and remember that you're doing it to maximise your chances of a long life'.
We are so blessed with our healthcare system here. Maybe we expect too much from it? I think a counselling/information session about the emotional effects of breast cancer would be valuable, though picking the point at which to deliver it would be tricky. I was really pleased to find that a Wellness Coordinator is now on staff at the new Eastern Health Breast and Cancer Centre in Melbourne. I think it shows that the medical community is aware that this is an important area of our treatment.
My psychologist told me something interesting the other day. She said there was a study being conducted to see if a diagnosis of breast cancer should be treated as an event that causes Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Apparently the psychological markers are almost exactly the same as PTSD. She said a BC diagnosis is clinically considered as a 'major trauma'. Yet somehow many medicos almost downplay the emotional side effects. That's where breastcare nurses can be so fantastic, straddling the line between the two.
I do consider myself very lucky that my breast surgeon seems to get this more than others. He took the time to comfort me when I was very distressed. He acknowledged my despair but didn't sugar coat the realities.
It would be wonderful if we could all have a team of perfect doctors but that's an impossibility! They are flawed human beings just like us.
I hope everyone is having a good Sunday. K xox