Living With Cancer: A Practical Guide

400 Pages·2006·1.36 MB·English

Living with Cancer
Living with Cancer:
A Practical Guide
Dave Visel
Rutgers University Press
New Brunswick, New Jersey, and London
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Visel, Dave, 1938–
Living with cancer : a practical guide / Dave Visel.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN–13: 978–0–8135–3819–8 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN–13: 978–0–8135–3820– 4 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Cancer—Popular works. 2. Cancer—Treatment—Popular works.
3. Cancer—Psychological aspects. 4. Cancer—Patients—Family
relationships 1. Title.
RC263.V57 2006
616.99’4—dc22 2005020074
A British Cataloging-in-Publication record for this book is available from the
British Library
Copyright © 2006 by Dave Visel
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, or by any information storage and retrieval
system, without written permission from the publisher. Please contact Rutgers
University Press, 100 Joyce Kilmer Avenue, Piscataway, NJ 08854–8099. The
only exception to this prohibition is “fair use” as defi ned by U.S. copyright law.
Manufactured in the United States of America
The reason for this book
Lymphoma patient,
my lady,
mother of Scott and Amy,
Kate and Drew’s granny
. . . and in these better
times, project advisor and
content supervisor
Karen
Cancer also teaches us about ourselves.
Contents
Foreword ix
Preface xi
Acknowledgments: The Living with Cancer Team xiii
Quick Starts xvii
I. Introduction: Setting the Stage
1. Now What? 3
II. Orientation: Some Preliminary Introductions and Suggestions
2. Personal Decisions 15
3. The Idea of Patient Partnering 19
4. The Patient’s New World 22
5. Know the Illness 32
6. Learn the Lingo 37
III. T eam Building: People Don’t Beat Cancer;
Teams of People Do
7. Deciding Where to Have Treatment 47
8. Medical Teams 53
9. The Partner 61
10. God 70
11. The Patient’s Personal Organization 74
12. The Patient’s Workplace 80
13. Friends 95
IV. S upporting Resources: An Inventory
and Evaluation of Available Tools
14. Health Insurance 101
15. Public-Assistance Law 108
16. Private-Attorney Services 110
17. Family Money 115
18. Charities 117
19. Support Groups 120
20. Fraternal Orders and Community-Service Groups 124
21. Gifts and Givers 129
22. Public Assistance 132
23. Armed Services 137
24. Raising Cash 140
V. T he Illness: Help a Patient Can Use, and Things a Patient
Should Know, to Make the Best of This
25. The Personal Side of Being Very Sick 149
26. Nine Easy Ways to Shoot Yourself in the Foot 153
27. Treatments 159
28. Nutrition and Fitness 170
29. Implants and Replacement Parts 181
viii C ontents
30. Transplants 186
31. Vaccines 189
32. Nontraditional Healing Practices 192
33. Things They May Forget to Tell You about Chemo 196
34. Taking Your Medicine 203
35. Watching and Waiting 207
36. Always Wear Your Game Face 210
37. Getting “Better” 213
38. Easy Cancer 219
39. Tough Cancer 222
40. Dealing with Pain and Nausea 227
41. Recovering from Surgery 231
VI. Related Issues: Topics You May Need to Know More About
42. Budgeting 241
43. Care at Home 245
44. Clinical Trials 251
45. Personal Health Disclosure Guidelines 259
46. Project Management Suggestions for Partners 261
47. Stuff Happens 263
48. Travel for Medical Purposes 266
VII. Relationships: Critical Elements
of Patient-Partner Relationships
49. Basic Patient-Partner Relationships 275
50. Parent-Child Partnerships 277
51. When the Patient Is Your Spouse 284
52. When the Patient Is a Parent 290
53. When the Patient Is Not a Relation 298
One More Thing . . . 302
Reference Center
A Note on the Reference Center 305
White Pages 307
Yellow Pages 337
Index 365
Foreword
As a medical oncologist and palliative care specialist in a large cancer center,
I care for individuals whose lives have been affected by serious chronic ill-
ness and work to develop more effective strategies for eliminating cancer
and the suffering it causes. Because I try to offer my patients encouragement
as well as treatment, I am always on the lookout for tools that will help them
navigate through diffi cult issues that may arise. Living with Cancer is one
such tool.
Dave Visel has not written this book from the perspective of a health-care
professional or science writer. He does not work in a fi eld related to health This book represents
products, pharmaceuticals, or health information. Dave is a man whose wife, something that I
Karen, was diagnosed with cancer. He did not know what to do about her have long wished
diagnosis or how to do it, but he knew he needed to learn everything about I could give not only
cancer—the disease itself, science, heath-care professionals, health-care sys- to my patients and
their families but also
tems, humanity, friendship, love, and personal coping. The result is a gift for
to my own family,
the rest of us, a useful “What do I do now and how do I do it?” guide for all
friends, and
of us who have been affected by cancer or acknowledge that we are at risk for
neighbors.
being affected by it. This book represents something that I have long wished
I could give not only to my patients and their families but also to my own
family, friends, and neighbors. It is not a book with all the answers, but it
provides a solid foundation upon which one can build an understanding of
what might be needed to deal with cancer.
Why do I want to give this book to my family, friends, and neighbors
rather than to just my patients and their families? The reason is simple—
because virtually everyone I know has some reason to wish that they could
understand cancer better. This is not particularly surprising, as more than
1.3 million Americans are diagnosed with invasive (and thus risky) cancer
each year. About 560,000 persons die of cancer each year; however, there are
also more than ten million cancer survivors among us. As our populations
grow older and live longer, cancer will touch each of our lives in some way.
Cancer has touched my personal life. I was eleven years old when my
mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. She underwent surgery, radiation
therapy, and chemotherapy. It was hard and scary for all of us, but she sur-
vived. Two years later, she had another breast cancer, and her treatment was
again successful. She currently lives with chronic lymphocytic leukemia and
advanced lung cancer. In the interim, her mother died of stomach cancer, her
father died of a brain tumor, and her youngest brother died of pancreatic can-
cer. Within sight of my own home, I have one neighbor with advanced pan-
creatic cancer, two neighbors whose parents died of cancer within the past