Wendy Harpham on Healthy Survivorship

Palliative Care Doctor Refuses Palliative Care

A NYTimes story of Dr. Pardi's dying illustrates that it is difficult to project what you will think or feel when faced with a grim prognosis.

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."

Healthy Survivorship 101

Problems can arise when people have lengthy and passionate discussions without realizing they are talking about two (or more) different things. So to keep us all on the same page, periodically I will provide a refresher post about the basic tenets of Healthy Survivorship.

What are we talking about when we say "Healthy Survivor" or "Healthy Survivorship"?

Facing End-of-LifeTalks, Doctors Choose to Wait

In last week's Science section of the NYTimes, Denise Grady reported on a recent study in which most of the doctors who responded to a survery indicated they would wait until their terminally ill patients felt worse or were out of options before talking about end-of-life care, such as hospice.

I was moved to write a letter to the editor (p.D4 or click here) when I read one of the possible reasons cited: fear that patients will lose hope or that physicians will “yank away” hope by talking about end-of-life wishes.

Watch and Wait

When patients with serious diseases are being cared for expectantly, they often scoff at the standard medical discriptors: "Watch and Wait" or "Wait and See." For them, a phrase that better captures the experience is "Watch and Worry" or "Worry and See," circumstances not conducive to Healthy Survivorship.

Watch and Wait

Imagine being diagnosed with a life-threatening disease. Now imagine being told by consulting physicians that you should not begin any treatment yet. Instead they advise you to "watch and wait." They explain that only if your disease progresses or causes other problems should you consider starting treatment.

The Hope of "Yet"

Sometimes one little word can lift you from disappointment or even despair.

Tell Me What's Wrong, But Don't Complain.

Patients sometimes get into trouble because they don't want to complain. I'd like to suggest a simple solution.

"Good" and "Bad" Thoughts?

When patients refer to "good" and "bad" thoughts, I often wonder exactly what they mean.

Healthy Hope

During this week's interview, I introduce the notion of "healthy hope" and illustrate how this hope evolves as your circumstances change and your outlook matures. Here's another example:

The Art of Survivorship

Last evening I was interviewed by Betsy de Parry on Lymphomation Live, a weekly webcast sponsored by Patients Against Lymphoma. In this show entitled "The Art of Survivorship," we discuss how knowledge, hope and action help people become Healthy Survivors. The information and advice are addressed to patients dealing with any medical challenge (not just cancer) who want to get good care and live as fully as possible.

The hour-long interview is available online by clicking here.  I hope it helps.  With hope, Wendy

"Disease" or "Illness"?

What's the difference between a disease and an illness?  In medical contexts, plenty.

When "And" Means "Or"

Facing Facts, At Least Briefly generated some discussion about patients who don't want to know if they are dying because they don't want to ruin their quality of life. This leads to a more general quandary: What if getting good care makes it impossible to live fully, and what if living fully makes it impossible to get good care?

Stepping up to Healthy Survivorship

Three steps lead to Healthy Survivorship: knowledge, hope and action.

Step One: Knowledge. Unlike learning how to tie one's shoes, learning how to be a Healthy Survivor is a never-ending study session. Why? Because knowledge about preventing, diagnosing and treating medical problems is evolving. Because bodies are aging. Because one's understanding of how to deal with stress, change and loss - as well as with relaxation, sameness and gain - grows with each experience.

The Tragedy of False Hope

Jerry Adler's piece, No Way to Treat the Dying, in Newsweek touches on a sensitive topic: false hope. Adler shares the heartbreak of a widower whose wife died of metastatic cancer. After her oncologists told her they couldn't cure her disease, she underwent treatment by an alternative practitioner who offered her the hope of cure.

Randy Pausch, A Model Healthy Survivor

If you haven't seen the video, "The Last Lecture" by Professor Randy Pausch, try to carve out 75 minutes from your schedule to hear what this model Healthy Survivor has to say about life.   

A New Place to Explore Healthy Survivorship

Here it is: A new place to think, talk and ask about Healthy Survivorship. As a physician-survivor, I've been writing about survivorship almost every day since my cancer diagnosis in 1990. My blog offers you a place to share experiences, questions, insights,and advice about survivorship. Whether you are facing cancer or other medical challenges, let's talk about what it takes to be a Healthy Survivor.

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