After Cancer Care

CHAPTER ONE

WHAT NOW?

YOU'VE JUST FINISHED TREATMENT FOR CANCER, AND YOU HAVE BEEN TOLD THAT you are cancer-free. After months or years of treatment--including major surgery and rounds of nauseating chemotherapy and scarring radiation-- you've achieved your goal. You can go back to your old life as though none of this ever happened! Or can you?

When you go through treatment for cancer, there is a clear end goal: remission and beating your disease. But when the day comes that your oncologist bids you adieu, with just an appointment card for a 3- or 6- month follow-up appointment, that farewell can feel . . . anticlimactic. He's done what he can for you, and your cancer is in remission. You are essentially healthy again. Oh, you'll be coming back to see him once in a while for a checkup, but you can finally pick up your normal life and move on. This is a joyful moment!

But once the initial relief wears off, many patients find that instead of feeling ecstatic, they feel uncertain, frightened, and out of control. They've heard so many stories of recurrence, and they've heard the prognosis after recurrence can be dire. Instead of providing an action plan to fend off the threat of a relapse, few oncologists offer anything in the way of advice or care following the end of treatment. After fighting for your life with a team of experts, you are on your own with no compass to guide you.

For some patients, the time following their treatment for cancer can be more emotionally fraught than the time during treatment itself. During treatment, they are focused on getting better, and they have a team of passionate professionals working toward that goal. Co-workers rally around them, and friends and family show up with casseroles and offer rides. Everything is focused on killing the cancer.

When treatment is over, the team of professionals disappears. The need for rides and casseroles also disappears. Physically, you feel much better, and it's high time you got back

GERALD M. LEMOLE, MD, is a board-certified surgeon, thoracic surgeon, and integrative doctor. The author of Facing Facial Pain and The Healing Diet, he lives in Huntingdon Valley, PA. PALLAV MEHTA, MD, is the Director of Integrative Oncology and Director of Practice Development at MD Anderson Cancer Center at Cooper. He lives in Philadelphia. DWIGHT L. McKEE, MD, is board certified in internal medicine, medical oncology, hematology, nutrition, and integrative and holistic medicine. He lives in Aptos, CA.