You Have Cancer, What Do You Do Now? Don’t Panic, Contact a Specialist, and Acquire Subject Knowledge
It is often seen that we remain blissfully ignorant of the latest information of cancer unless we are in a situation when we have to pay attention to what is the latest buzz in cancer treatments. We generally do not read up medical articles unless we have a fascination for those and needless to say we do not bother to know more about the diseases, their solutions, symptoms or the side effects. This is what happened to my closest pal of twenty nine years.
My friend is a clinical nurse who has specialization in geriatric nursing. She has an incredible knowledge of medical matters. Surprisingly however she was totally ignorant of any information about cancer or of the latest treatments of the disease. That was until she was reported to be suffering from invasive cervical adinocarcinoma. We were both in the dark about cancer and were aware of only the harmful side effects of chemotherapy and the radiation. Now we know much more than we knew at that point of time. I would give you here one of the treatments of cancer that she underwent.
Vaness was diagnosed in December of 2005. Immediately, they took her in for surgery: to remove the offending growths, which were malignant and threatening to spread to her lymph nodes, surgeons performed a radical hysterectomy. Next she went in for a PET scan. A PET scan is a Positron Emission Tomography test done to verify the diagnoses and to enable further consideration of treatment for cancer. The PET and other tests revealed the cancer was in her lymph nodes, reaching as far up as the lungs and extending down to her vaginal area. A reputable surgeon, knowing of her case, which is in the 1 to 10 percentile of cases, called Vaness, suggesting she blow off the standard treatment for cancer and get the affected lymph nodes removed. (We cannot have all of our lymph nodes removed, as they run our endocrine, secretion, and waste and other systems.) Though she was now getting opposing suggestions/recommendations, she opted for the latter: on Valentine’s Day, she had a second surgery.
After the surgery she went for consultations about the chemo and the radiation. The doctor explained to her in great detail the many pros and cons of the therapy and also showed with the help of statistics the possibility of a side effect occurring. In contrast to what we knew, we came to realize that you do not lose hair or bowel control as you expect to. The rates were very low in those regards. We were also made to realize that most of the symptoms were psychogenic. The patient, by his/her thinking brings them on to himself/herself. If you think you would vomit, very soon you would.
Yesterday (approximately two months after initial diagnosis), Vaness, who had had an oncology nurse come to the house to administer an IV that runs the course of one side of the body-through the heart, etc.-was sent to the pharmacy for two medications. Glutamine is thought to boost the immune system with vitamins that help keep her strong; and Compazine, an anti-emetic, is used to combat the nausea brought on by the Amaphostine injection(s).
Today, at 9 a. m., Vaness went in for her first treatment of cancer. She will take chemo, then, on day 1 (for four days in a row), day 29, then weekly. At the same time, she will take palliative radiation treatments five days a week for ten weeks. Palliative radiation relieves symptoms and “improves” quality of life, but does not cureas there is no “cure”.
The two treatments together can be used for a total of ten weeks. After that it would not be used as these will not cure the cancer and instead might kill her. The irony is in the fact that while the treatment is strong enough to counter the disease, it is also strong enough to kill the patient. There is however a percentage who with the help of the doctors, their friends and their own mind have miraculous recoveries and they actually survive to tell the tale. What is heartening is that this percentage of survivors is growing with each passing year.
