Wendy Harpham on Healthy Survivorship

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.

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?

2011 Cancer Resource Guide

Cure in association with the American Cancer Society has published a superb booklet for people with cancer: the 2011 edition of their Cancer Resource Guide.

Healing After A Doctor Visit Gone Awry

Although I didn't have a magic answer for the patient in my last post who emailed me about her doctor visit gone awry, I was able to offer her some thoughts about moving forward as a Healthy Survivor.

Fundamental Challenges of Life After Cancer

Sometimes it helps everyone if the most basic challenges of a situation are clarified. So today I'll distill the essential challenges that people face after completion of cancer treatment:

Free Toolbox

We are not born knowing how to become Healthy Survivors. We aren't taught in school how to get good care and live as fully as possible when living with, through and beyond cancer or other serious illness. I wish we were.

Understanding Post-Treatment Survivorship

If a picture is worth a thousand words, this 17-minute video by Eric Slade Productions is worth at least an undecillion (1 followed by 36 zeros). 

The Waiting

In a NYTimes essay titled The Waiting, David Rakoff writes about the waiting patients are forced to endure.

What Not to Say to a Cancer Patient

The Dallas Morning News ran a story on the front page of today's Health section entitled, What Not to Say to a Cancer Patient.  For the article, special contributor Melissa T. Schultz interviewed me, two other survivors (scroll through photographs) and Dr. Walter Baile of University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC).

Diane Rose, Model Healthy Survivor

A picture is worth a thousand words. But what if you can't see the picture? It didn't stop Diane Rose.

The 5 Rs to Healthy Survivorship

For smokers, snubbing out their last-ever cigarette is a key element of "getting good care" in their pursuit of Healthy Survivorship. But smokers often feel miserable while quitting, enough that most relapse.

Treating Chronic Pain

A NYTimes article about ways to manage the costs of treating chronic pain also offers Healthy Survivors some tips on managing chronic pain itself.

A Fighting Spirit

A NYTimes op-ed piece entitled A Fighting Spirit Won't Save Your Life concludes, "Linking health to personal virtue and vice not only is bad science, it’s bad medicine."

When a Healthy Survivor Feels Like Quitting

My 1/14/11 post refers to a post -- Why We Quit -- by a Buddhist physician who believes we quit when we can no longer avoid paying attention to the idea of quitting. He recommends building resilience by "trying again, no matter what the reason you failed before."

Sacrificing for Healthy Survivorship

In some situations, your best choice is one that still involves some hardship, loss and/or pain. Perceiving such difficulties as a sacrifice can help patients on the road to Healthy Survivorship.

A Healing "Best"

Healthy Survivors (1) get good care and (2) live as fully as possible. The second criteria can pose quite a challenge in the face of losses, especially if you feel you are no longer at your best. 

Mindful Exercise

In Healing Walks for Hard Times, Carolyn Kortge, a breast cancer survivor, encourages readers to integrate mindfulness into their walks.

20 Years Later: Why Me?

The details of certain awful moments stay fresh in your memory, such as where you were and what you were doing when the planes hit the World Trade Centers on the morning of 9/11/2001.

For me, one of those painful moments occurred on a Tuesday morning in 1990. Twenty years ago today, my oncologist walked into my hospital room and gently told me I had cancer.

This anniversary stirs two main emotions.

The Weed of Cancerous Tumors

When it comes to understanding cancer relapse, what is the significance of a cancer stem cell? According to a recent article by oncologist Siddhartha Mukherjee, maybe everything.

Pushing Past the Pain

"Can you train yourself to run, cycle, swim or do another sport at the edge of your body’s limits, or is that something that a few are born with, part of what makes them elites?" So asks New York Times journalist Gina Kolata. 

This topic touches on something of interest to me as a Healthy Survivor, namely, Pushing Past the Pain, as Champions Do.

Costs and Benefits of Counseling

In Razing and Rising, I mention that Healthy Survivors "seek guidance and support." What if you've never needed professional counseling before?

Emotions After Cancer

When I was first diagnosed, my medical background made me more prepared than most for the physical and emotional challenges of cancer treatment. What blindsided me were the medical and emotional issues that arose after completion of treatment.

Not Waiting for Answers

How can Healthy Survivors get good care -- the first criterion of Healthy Survivorship -- if the data needed to make sound choices in their particular situation is not yet available?

Doing My Best Post-Radiation

Recent posts (June 22, 23, 25 and July 4) have dealt with the risk of carotid artery disease following irradiation of the neck for cancer. I made suggestions without explaining the back story that led to my conclusions. Let's look at how I came to my conclusions.

Late Effect of Radiation - Qualified

We need to revisit a prior post, so I can qualify what I said. On my June 22nd post, I mentioned the high incidence of changes in the carotid arteries in patients who received radiation years earlier. But I didn't provide any details.

Reacting to Post-radiation Risks

How did I go from rattled to relaxed in a matter of hours after learning about my risk of carotid disease due to radiation therapy I received 18 years ago? First, by putting the piece of information in perspective, as outlined in my last post. Second, by making a plan of action.

Dealing with Post-radiation Risks

In yesterday's post, I shared how I learned about my increased risk of carotid artery disease due to my past radiation therapy. So how did I get from rattled to relaxed? My thoughts went something like this:

Late Effect of Radiation

Many of my friends and family assume that the further away I get from the mini-mantle irradiation I received in 1992, the more I can relax about my developing any complications of that treatment. Not so.

Cancer Survivorship Research: Recovery and Beyond

What a three days I've had here at the 2010 Biennial Conference. While packing my suitcase for the return home, I'm thinking about all I've heard.

Wendy in Washington

Tomorrow begins a conference entitled "Cancer Survivorship Research: Recovery and Beyond." And I have a job to do.

Letting Go

Illness and injury have a nasty habit of causing losses. Can such loss be good?

A Work in Progress

When I was a child, I thought people over 40 years of age were very old. I believed they were done growing up and knew everything one needs to know. Wrong.

Now over 50 years old, I often say, "I'm a work in progress." 

10 Rules for Good Medicine

I've been following a provocative blog, Musings of a Distractable Mind, hosted by primary care physician Dr. Rob Lamberts. His recent post entitled "10 Rules for Good Medicine." offers food for thought about modern healthcare. Here is a sampling, with my commentary added:

Life is Good

What would you say if you got a flat tire on your way to an interview for your dream job? Or if you (or your wife) began bleeding two weeks after in-vitro fertlization? Or if you learned you or a loved one needed more chemo?

Does "Life is good!" come to mind?

Letting Go

A prolific blogger on survivorship has decided to pull back from her popular blog. She still has cancer. So why now?

Broken Heart

In Wiesel on Hope, I unintentionally omitted one insight offered by Elie Wiesel. He said, "No heart is as whole as a broken heart." What did he mean? And what does a broken heart have to do with Healthy Survivorship?

Berk is Back

You were introduced to Dr. Bradford Berk on my Feb 19th post, The Comeback Physician. I'm happy to share the update reported in the current Rochester Review: Berk is Back.

Let me draw your attention to one of Dr. Berk's key messages:

Patient 2.0

Patients obtain medical information not only from their healthcare team but also from the Internet. Time Magazine's Bonnie Rochman discusses one potential benefit of this phenomenon in a fascinating article entitled, "When Patients Share Medical Data Online."

Redeeming Help

How do you help patients who hate to ask for help?

Scheduled Follow-Up, Unless...

Imagine your physicians just finished evaluating your problem. Maybe they ordered some tests. Then they prescribed some therapy. Before you leave, their office scheduled you for a follow-up visit in a few weeks. When should you not keep that appointment?

I'm So Sorry

The past two posts share bits and pieces of the story of Dr. Bradford Beck, a cardiologist and CEO of a major hospital who broke his neck last May. Today I want to focus on what he said to his wife, Mary, when she rushed to the scene of the accident and found him lying in the road.

The Comeback Physician

The cover of Rochester Medicine has a photo of the handsome CEO of my alma mater. Dr. Bradford Berk was a successful cardiologist and CEO of the University of Rochester Medical Center. An avid athlete, on May 30, 2009 he was thrown from his bicycle after the driver of a car unintentionally pushed him off the road.

Update on Radiation-based Medical Scans

On January 26th I blogged about the risk of patients being accidentally injured by overdoses of therapeutic radiation therapy. I brought it up for many reasons, one of which was to lead into a post of mantras for dealing with bad news. Another was to point out that "bad" news can lead to good news.

Hear! Here!

A natural response to people who confide that they've been diagnosed with a disease (or that they are afraid of dying, are worried about getting through treatment, or are feeling any other unpleasant emotion), is to empathize and try to lift their spirits.

Unfortunately, the response that comes naturally may not be the most helpful to someone who wants to be a Healthy Survivor.

Too Upsetting

Healthy Survivors use language that helps them get good care and live as fully as possible. In the case of challenges, it is usually better to say "very" instead of "too." For example, "This newspaper article is too very upsetting."

What if a topic really is "too" upsetting? What's a Healthy Survivor to do? 

Mantras for Upsetting News

Yesterday's post introduced a front-page NYTimes story about the risks of receiving the wrong amount of radiation when undergoing treatment for cancer.

A Lifesaving Tool Turned Deadly

In Sunday's NY Times cover story, "Radiation Offers Powerful New Cures, and Ways to Do Harm," Walt Bogdanich reports on the risk of patients being accidentally injured by overdoses of therapeutic radiation. Computer glitches and inadequate oversight lead to mistakes that cause patients serious harm, including death. How are you supposed to respond to such news reports in the context of Healthy Survivorship?

A Silent Epidemic

Imagine a 75-year-old man at a new-patient appointment with a young physician. The patient is meticulously dressed and groomed, and he walks somewhat awkwardly with a cane. His medical history is significant for a fall five months earlier that resulted in two fractures of his pelvis. The fractures are healing nicely, but he now needs help with a problem that developed as a consequence of his treatment.