When cancer treatment ends
It’s hard for those of us who have undergone treatment for any kind of cancer to trust that our cancer is truly gone, even if that is what the doctor has just told us.
When treatment ends, you begin a new chapter in your life, one that can bring hope and joy, alongside other feelings you may not be expecting. You are ready to put the experience behind you but it takes time before your confidence in your body and recovery is restored and your fear of recurrence begins to fade. Initially it can feel very much like you are in limbo – no longer a cancer patient but not quite ready to embrace being a survivor. You can feel like you are standing on a bridge caught halfway between the old and the new.
Finishing treatment is of course a huge relief, but it also brings other stresses and concerns which you may not be prepared for. You have been seeing your medical team and undergoing treatment regularly; now, suddenly, you are sent on your way and your hospital visits are scheduled every 6 months to a year. This is a good thing of course, but you can feel very alone, anxious and lost without the medical and psycho-oncology support you have come to depend on. At the time I felt like I was cut adrift, standing on that bridge.
I remember feeling overwhelmed with sadness at times and emotionally exhausted and frequently tired in the weeks and months following the end of my cancer treatment. This was in part down to the lingering side effects of treatment, but also a normal reaction to having gone through a challenging life experience. Not only had my body been assailed by cancer and its treatment, but my emotions and my spirit too. My outlook on life and indeed my whole way of life had changed and the next challenge would be in moving on with my life and integrating the cancer experience into how I lived that life.
JBBC
Having done some recent PG training in psycho-oncology, this brilliant post epitomises the very essence of my studies.
The sense of uncertainty probably characterizes the journey with cancer more than anything else. Where life may once have been taken for granted, that luxury no longer exists. On completion of treatment, patients undergo a process of learning to live life with the possibility of the recurrence of cancer. This fear usually recedes with time as significant milestones are reached but it never fully goes away. Re-establishing hope for the future can take time.
Many people report that the biomedical model of care does not fulfil their emotional needs and increasingly complimentary therapies, together with other psychosocial interventions, are being considered as essential elements of any treatment plan. The field of psycho-oncology is still relatively new but much progress is being made in humanizing the care of a person with cancer.
I was a volunteer in ARC Cancer Support Centre for several years and if you haven’t already availed of their services, I highly recommend them to you.
http://www.arccancersupport.ie/index2.html
(I noted your reference to the centre in your next post.)
LikeLike
Hi Steph, I seemed to have missed this comment when you posted it. Thanks so much for your comments which I found fascinating. I am very aware of Arc’s wonderful work and although I didn’t attend it personally, I did avail fully of the services of Lios Aobhinn Cancer Support Centre, which is attached to St Vincent’s Hospital, where I received my treatment. It provided a life line for me at the time. I don’t want to give the impression that I am still struggling four and a half years later. I have moved on hugely in my life but I want to help others wherever I can by providing timely information. I view the experience of cancer as a life changing event and I suppose my struggle, although struggle is perhaps too strong a word, is chiefly with how you integrate this experience into the rest of your life. I do firmly believe though that the area of survivorship is not very well addressed here and it is an area I would love to see more research and programmes emerging from. I am very interested to hear about your psycho-oncology training – an area I am fascinated with….can you tell??? 🙂
LikeLike