Wendy Harpham on Healthy Survivorship

Grief and Acceptance - Part II

Yesterday's post linked to an editorial by two well-credentialed psychiatrists with special interest in end-of-life care. Their studies led them to consider grief as "the state of emotional unrest and frustration associated with wanting what one cannot have."

Grief and Acceptance

Illness is often associated with loss, even when the medical outcome is excellent.

Since prolonged grief is associated with distress and dysfunction, an understanding of healthy ways to deal with loss may propel patients' pursuit of Healthy Survivorship -- and happiness. Reading a 2008 editorial in the British Journal of Psychiatry might further this understanding.

Scan Anxiety and Healing Hope

In my January 21st post, I shared a vignette that illustrates the notion that what you hope for affects whether your hope helps or hurts you.

Now let's look at the challenge of coping with the evaluation of a worrisome symptom. What can Healthy Survivors hope for? 

What are You Hoping For?

Challenges prompt new desires. If in school, we want to graduate. If ill, we desire wellness. While dealing with a challenge, how much hope do you have? Does it even matter?

Ranting and Healing - Part II

In yesterday's post, I shared my reaction to a rant found on a cancer-related listserv. I explained my concerns regarding such expressions of anger, disappointment and frustration.

So what are Healthy Survivors to do if, for example, they learn they had not received important information about aftereffects of treatments they received?

Ranting or Healing

A recent thread on a cancer listserv included the rants of listserv members who were angry they hadn't been better warned about the possibility of developing aftereffects. This is a problem.

The New Me

During my first remission I began work on After Cancer, a book to help patients understand and respond in healthy ways to the medical, practical and emotional challenges of recovery and long-term survivorship. The subtitle was Your Guide Back to Normal.  

But as I struggled with my own aftereffects and then recurrences, I realized my original approach wasn't going to work well for me.

Revoking FDA Approval: Conclusion

The FDA revokes approval of Avastin for breast cancer. What's a survivor to do?

Revoking FDA Approval: Right or Wrong? - Part IX

In my last post, I asked, "Why not, at least, make Avastin available to breast cancer patients who are doing well on it?"

Revoking FDA Approval: Right or Wrong? - Part VIII

The case of the FDA revoking approval of Avastin for the treatment of breast cancer is complicated by the urgency of the need for better therapies. We’re not talking about treatments to decrease the sniffles of the common head cold. At issue is a drug to help patients who are suffering -- and dying -- from metastatic breast cancer.

Revoking FDA Approval: Right or Wrong? - Part VII

Let's tease apart some of the sticky-wicket issues of FDA approvals and revocations. For one, how does the FDA measure success?

Revoking FDA Approval: Right or Wrong? - Part VI

In light of recent events in my personal life forcing uncharacteristic delays between posts, I'll review briefly what I've discussed so far before continuing the discussion about the FDA's recent revocation of approval Avastin for treatment of breast cancer.

Revoking FDA Approval: Right or Wrong? - Part V

Now let's look at the players who influenced the FDA's decision to revoke approval of Avastin for breast cancer. The complex process requires a book-length manuscript to fully explain. Rather than abandon my effort, here are the bare bones:

Revoking FDA Approval: Right or Wrong? - Part IV

My last post provided an outline of the FDA's approval process. I cringed while writing it, knowing 250 words couldn't capture the investment of time, people and capital. 

Revoking FDA Approval: Right or Wrong - Part III

In my November 28th and December 3rd posts I introduced the media storm regarding the FDA's recent revocation of approval of Avastin for the treatment of breast cancer. Today I'll provide an overview of the FDA approval process to help us talk about the controversy.

Managing Uncertainty: Hope

In my October 20 and November 19th posts I provided links to the first two essays of a 4-part series on managing uncertainty. In the November 25th issue of Oncology Times, you can read part 3, titled Managing Uncertainty: Hope.

Here's the problem: Patients' reactions to uncertainty may interfere with Healthy Survivorship.

Holding Note

When I was in practice, after seeing a patient in the hospital I would occasionally write a so-called holding note in the patient's chart. This was a synopsis that indicated I'd return later to complete the evaluation and write a proper admission note.

It was common practice to write a holding note if other patients' urgent needs pulled me away.

Revoking FDA Approval: Right or Wrong? Part II

To judge the FDA's recent revocation of approval for Avastin for breast cancer, let's go back to basics. What is the job of the FDA?

Revoking FDA Approval: Right or Wrong?

Recently the FDA revoked approval of a best-selling drug, Avastin, for treatment of breast cancer. Ever since, arguments for and against the removal have been voiced in blogs and major media by a wide variety of people with different points of view. Let's look at some of the issues in the context of Healthy Survivorship.

Managing Uncertainty - Part II

Here at the 2011 Life Beyond Cancer Retreat in Austin, Texas, a recurring theme in workshops and during meals has been the challenge of living with a heightened sense of uncertainty.

Resource on Life After Treatment

The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) recently published Cancer Survivorship: Next Steps for Patients and Their Families, a booklet intended to help patients adjust to life after completion of cancer treatment.

Searching for Hope - Part II

In a provocative 242-word essay -- Interruptions --  that prompted my November 13th post, Lucy Stanovick fishes for information about how hopeful her oncologist feels regarding her recovery. Is her doctor trying to cure or contain her cancer? Or just to keep her comfortable?

Searching for Hope

In a poignant and provocative essay published on the Metavivor website, Lucy Stanovick illustrates one of the challenges Healthy Survivors face when trying to find hope in the setting of unfavorable odds for survival.

Elephant in the room

I just read a gem of a book by breast cancer survivor Bob Riter, Executive Director of Cancer Resource Center of the Finger Lakes: Elephant in the Room: Practical Advice When the Diagnosis is Cancer.

U.S.-style Abandonment of Care: Lost in Translation

Dr. Michael Link, current President of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), used his September 26th blog post to promote "delivery of what we know" to the world's cancer patients. In his October 10th post, Link brings the story home to America, sharing "vignettes from the world of oncology [that] highlight the additional obstacles to delivery imposed by our deplorable system of medical care."

A Long Road Back to Normal

When After Cancer: A Guide to Your New Life was first published in 1995, the issues of life after cancer were not on many people's radar. Back then, mainstream survivorship was focused on helping patients deal in healthy ways with a diagnosis, evaluation and treatment.

Cancer Sensibility Foundation

Surgeon Melanie Bone founded a new resource for people with breast cancer: Cancer Sensibility Foundation.

Calming Fear of Recurrence Video

Thanks for letting me know the YouTube link on yesterday's post was broken. To view the video on the Dana Farber Cancer Institute's site, click here. As I said yesterday, this 6-minute video can help Healthy Survivors understand and calm the fear of recurrence.

Calming the Fear of Recurrence

Fear that cancer will return is a near-universal fear of patients whose cancer is in remission. This fear can interfere with getting good care and/or living fully. For Healthy Survivors striving to calm this fear, a 6-minute video may help.

Judging Steve Jobs

Millions of words, both written and spoken, have been devoted to the recent death of the charismatic co-founder of Apple. How is a Healthy Survivor supposed to respond to all the talk about Steve Jobs' treatment decisions?

Metavivor Healthy Survivors

What we call ourselves impacts how we see ourselves. So I was intrigued but not surprised when I heard a new word to add to my survivorship lexicon: metavivor.

The Cancer Card

When I was dealing with a hassle of ordinary life, someone asked me, "Why didn't you play the cancer card?"

Managing Communication

An interesting press release from the University of Texas supports my long-standing contention that it is better to ask a patient, "How are things?" than to ask "How are you?"

Abandonment of Treatment

At a recent meeting I met Michael P. Link, MD, the current President of ASCO (the American Society of Clinical Oncology) and a professor of Pediatric Oncology at Stanford University School of Medicine. Our conversation nurtured my hope.

Managing Uncertainty Part I

Many patients struggle with uncertainty about what's happening now, what will happen in the future, and what they should do. Having dealt with illness-related uncertainty on both sides of the stethoscope, I've developed an approach that has helped me deal with my heightened sense of uncertainty in healing ways.

Oct 18th: Hope of Life

This is my annual October 18th post, set to go live right after midnight, so I can begin celebrating on time, even while I'm sleeping.

Easy to Forgive

I'd like to pass along some wise, low-tech advice for dealing with a family health crisis or family member's chronic illness: Be quick to forgive.

Your Medical Mind

My recent posts have discussed some of the difficulties of modern medical decision-making in the context of PSA testing for prostate cancer. A new book by Harvard oncologist Jerome Groopman and Harvard endocrinologist Pamela Hartzband offers help to Healthy Survivors: Your Medical Mind: How to Decide What is Right for You.

Does PSA Testing Save Lives or Not? - Part III

While the furor over PSA testing plays out in the media, my sympathies lie with men newly diagnosed with prostate cancer . At the end of the day, the patient has to decide what to do.

Does PSA Testing Save Lives or Not? - Part II

Yesterday's post highlighted the controversy about screening healthy men for prostate cancer using the PSA test. The media does the public a disservice by claiming such testing does not save lives. It does. The issue is: at what price?