Cancer Survivorship: An Overview
Watch as clinical oncologist, Dr Robert Miller, gives an overview of cancer survivorship. He begins with a definition of the term (something which I know generates quite heated debate) which states that survivorship begins at the time of cancer diagnosis. He moves on to a description of the phases of cancer survivorship, from initial diagnosis, through treatment, to what he terms “getting back to normal” when treatment finishes. This raises a question of what getting back to normal means for us. Can we ever truly get back to normal? Or do we learn to adjust to a new normal?
This video is a very brief overview of the topic of cancer survivorship. It is a multi-layered, multi-factorial and multi-storied experience and no one can express it as well as the patient can.
As always, I value your insights on this topic and hope you will share your thoughts in the comments below.
Marie,
I think this is a great question, and one that is, like all parts of the cancer journey, highly individual.
I remember before I had my first baby, when people said my life would never be the same, it kind of freaked me out. I mean, there were a lot of things I liked about my life- would I lose them all? Of course, it was true (as soon as he was born, I couldn’t remember life without him!), but I just needed to do it to understand what they meant, and to know that it would be ok.
So it is with breast cancer – I think when we talk about the “new normal” to women first diagnosed, it can be pretty frightening. When I was going through diagnosis and treatment, all I wanted was to “get my life back”, which to me meant to get beyond tests and treatments (and the constant and often debilitating distress that accompanied them) and get back to caring for my family, enjoying things I loved, and doing the things that made up my “normal” life. I couldn’t have known then how I would be forever changed by the experience (we can never really see that, can we?, except in retrospect) but I needed to know that there was life worth living on the other side of that crazy time.
So I think it’s important for our sisters starting the journey to know that, regardless of the stage of her disease, it will not always be this hard. It will not always feel like the first awful, shaky days of diagnosis and the dark, difficult days of treatment. The human capacity to come to a place of acceptance, and even joy and peace, in the face of change and grief and uncertainty, amazes me every day. Finding that “new normal” means something different for each person, but our goal as advocates, educators, and travelers on the journey is to help each other come to the best sort of survivorship that we can muster, surviving and thriving too.
Thanks for posting and starting the dialogue on this important topic! Be well~
Beth
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Beth, thank you so much for taking the time to leave such a thoughtful and insightful comment. I too feel that as you do that the human capacity to come to a place of acceptance, and even joy and peace, in the face of change and grief and uncertainty, amazes me every day! We muster a strength we never thought we had to get through the dark days. And it is so true that our journeys back to ourselves take many different paths and we owe it to each other to offer friendship and support in whatever way we can. Thanks again!
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Interesting. He summarizes things well enough. I do wonder where survivorship fits into this concept for those diagnosed with metastatic or recurrences…but much of what is said here is fair. Perhaps the video is safe, in that he can say all this with a certain detachment of objectivity. Whereas if it was from someone who had cancer, there would be that intense emotional component. I reckon there are times & places for both types of information.
Getting back to normal? That takes way longer than anyone realizes, I think. Normal for me has become the purpose I carry between scans. It’s also finding joy again. Even if everything else changes, joy is really what I’d like to hang onto and celebrate as normality, which can be so difficult to find at times. But normal for others . . . I cannot begin to say. It’s so much down to the individual.
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He’s definitely right about the different phases. Of course everyone is an individual and we all react or cope differently, but as you move along from diagnosis to treatment to post-treatment, you really notice the step changes
I’m glad he didn’t use the word “journey” – I hate that word. It seems to trivialise the whole process that is cancer diagnosis, treatment and afterwards.
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