Which is most challenging: The day you are diagnosed with cancer? The day you begin treatment? The days in the middle of treatment? The days after you complete treatment and begin your recovery?
It is a bit of a trick question, because it depends on the person and the circumstances. But for me over the past 19 years of remissions and recurrences, I have found the interval between learning I have cancer and making the final treatment decision the most stressful. Here's why:
- I am not doing anything to treat the cancer.
- I have to think about the risks of each treatment option.
- I have to think about the statistics regarding complications and death.
- I feel the burden of responsibility regarding the most important decision of my life.
From Diagnosis: Cancer. A Guide to the First Months of Healthy Survivorship (page 28): "Actually, the most powerful steps you can take toward getting better are to become informed about your treatment options, and to invest the time and effort needed to make wise treatment decisions with your doctors. When you make informed decisions, you'll never look back saying, 'I wish I knew then what I know now!'"
For me the hardest time was the first 12 months after treatment was over. I had lost my tether and my guide. I had been getting all kinds of treatment and suddenly there was nothing. Yikes!
Posted by: Kate | November 04, 2009 at 01:14 PM
Dear Kate,
Yes, recovery following completion of treatment is accompanied by a host of new challenges, not the least of which is feeling unmoored.
Thankfully, Healthy Survivors have access to far more resources for navigating this new territory compared to the early 1990s, when I was blindsided by the difficulties of feeling normal again after cancer.
Email me if you have questions or needs that I might be able to address. With hope, Wendy
Posted by: Wendy S. Harpham, MD | November 04, 2009 at 01:28 PM