Dr. Daniel - The Cancer Directory

People with cancer always say that the moments of peak vulnerability are when they:

• visit their doctor

• wait for test results

• receive bad news

• go through cancer treatment

• stop the cancer treatment.

It is important to arrange to have special support available to you at these times. Take people with you to your appointments. Ask your medical team to get results to you as quickly as possible. Protect yourself at times of receiving bad news, cancelling social and work commitments as needed so that you can take the time to work out what it means to you before having to deal with everyone else’s feelings.

Longer term, have a good proactive Health Creation strategy in place for when the treatment stops. Find out about alternative medicine routes, too, in case there is no medical treatment available for your condition, or for times when the medical profession can offer no help.

In this chapter, you have been advised to:

• Have support when you receive the news of your diagnosis, taking action to find the results yourself if you have been waiting for more than a week for results.

• Be aware of the powerful effects of shock and be very protective of yourself.

• Avoid having treatment or making big decisions while still in shock, asking for more time to consider your treatment options.

• Seek help from counsellors or other support services before you tell the news to others. You’ll need to express your emotions.

• Take advantage of the support available. You are not alone!

• Develop a strong belief in your treatments, your self-healing ability and the power of spiritual healing.

• Gather a strong emotional-support network behind you comprising friends, therapists and a support group.

• Use hypnotherapy, visualization and affirmation to empower your treatments and recovery.

• Find counselling help to enable you to express your feelings, decrease your stress, heal past emotional wounds, and start living a lifestyle that is truly fulfilling and exciting.

• Bring yourself out of isolation, depression, stress, fear and anxiety by changing negative beliefs and coping styles for positive ones, getting professional therapeutic help until you are strong and positive.

Becoming clear about what you are dealing with and the choices you have is hard when only recently diagnosed and when you are still in shock and emotional turmoil. The aim of this chapter is to facilitate the process, and to offer as much guidance as possible on when and how to make what types of decisions.

Getting the right treatment depends on:

• getting a clear diagnosis

• working well with your doctors

• information gathering to find out what treatment is available

• weighing up your options from all aspects of integrated medicine, and being clear as to what benefits are actually on offer

• making treatment decisions and having a plan that integrates the best of all treatment approaches.

Remember that an important part of the Hippocratic Oath, taken by all doctors, is a pledge first to do no harm. Bear this in mind when deciding what cancer treatments to undergo. Try not to use medical treatment just to treat your fear, or that of your supporters or doctors. There are much better ways to deal with fear, such as through healing, counselling, relaxation, meditation and loving support. Only subject yourself to harsh medical treatment if the result will be a definite improvement in your physical state and prognosis. Watch out for being oversold on the benefits of medical treatment especially if your cancer has been resistant to earlier treatment. Often, people say their doctor has given them a 35 per cent chance of the treatment working – but this may actually mean a 35 per cent increase in disease-free time (the time till symptoms reappear compared with having no treatment) and not a 35 per cent chance of cure. While it is understandable for doctors unaware of alternative routes to put pressure on patients to have medical treatment, sometimes this pressure is out of proportion to the true benefits and personal costs of receiving such treatment.

A great many of us, when looking at a possible symptom of cancer or cancer recurrence, simply cannot face going to the doctor to hear the diagnosis, and just sit in a kind of limbo hoping it will go away. Some people in this situation will seek out alternative cancer treatments or embark on a holistic health regime to be on the safe side.

While the fear of having and facing a cancer diagnosis (or re-diagnosis) is entirely understandable, not getting a proper diagnosis means that you may live for years thinking you have cancer or a recurrence – and even treating it – when you do not. Alternatively, it may mean that you can lose the opportunity to treat what could be cancer or pre-cancer in its early, potentially curable, stages.

However you choose to deal with the diagnosis once you have one, getting the support you need to go through the diagnostic tests is very important. Having an accurate diagnosis and staging of your illness means you can then make an informed decision about what you are going to do. This puts you back in control.

The symptoms to look out for which could be cancer include:

• a new or unusual lump anywhere on the body or in the abdomen

• a change in the appearance of a mole

• a sore on the skin or in the mouth that won’t heal

• persistent coughing, hoarseness or blood in the sputum/spit

• prolonged constipation or diarrhoea, or blood in the stool

• difficulty in passing urine or blood in the urine

• unexplained weight loss

• unexplained fatigue

• difficulty swallowing and unexplained nausea

• severe headaches and odd neurological symptoms (such as weakness or numbness)

• unexplained abdominal swelling

• vaginal bleeding between periods and any vaginal bleeding after the menopause.

Of course, all of these symptoms can also result from much less serious conditions than cancer and, more often than not, a doctor will be able to reassure you that nothing is seriously wrong. However, it is important to wait until all of the appropriate diagnostic tests have been done. Too often, GPs give reassurance on the basis of a clinical examination in their surgery, only to be proved wrong at a later date. GPs expect patients to come back if symptoms persist, so it is important to trust yourself and keep going back if you think something is not right. Although most people are sent for tests immediately, far too many visit their GP over and over again before they are sent for the appropriate X-rays, blood tests or other investigations. They can then discover in the end that their intuition was right – that something is seriously wrong and that a cancer that could have been treated easily as a primary has now spread to other parts of the body. So, please be alert to whatever messages your body is giving you.