Courses help cancer survivors face the future. (treatment, time)

[Baldrick]

An interesting article.

BBC News - Courses help cancer survivors face the future

"More and more people are surviving cancer in the UK due to improvements in treatment and diagnosis.
But surviving the disease is not the only hurdle to be overcome.
Many survivors struggle with long-term health problems caused by their treatment and others need psychological support to cope with the fear of the disease recurring, as well as problems with self-esteem and body image."

[SD4020]

This is one of the things I struggled with. It is part of why I want to advocate and support survivors. We need more of these programs.

[charolastra00]

I wish there were more of these. My hospital offered one, but it was all women 60+. There's nothing wrong with that (and a 60 year old with cancer has ever reason to believe they could have 20 years of survivorship ahead of them!), but it was very hard being in a room of people talking about their grandchildren when chances are good that I won't even be able to have children of my own!

Survivorship, for me, is even harder than facing cancer. Like SF4020, I think I've become more of an advocate because of my own struggles. I have every reason to believe that I have 60, maybe even 70! years left in my life. I used to feel excited about those possibilities - but now I feel like cancer is lurking in every corner. The financial burden is always there. The social implications of a relapse, or just having had cancer in general, is much more overwhelming than expected. I feel judged because of the weight gain and the harder time doing things. I just had to launch into a whole thing with my landlord and downstairs neighbor over parking because my neighbors were making it difficult for me to park - so I was walking over a block for on street parking and really struggling. There's just a lot of struggle and few people who are trained to help guide us through it. I'd love to see more classes offered for a larger range of people (ie not just the elderly and breast cancer survivors) in helping them deal with survivorship.

[christina0001]

charo I can completely relate. They have cancer support groups at my cancer center but I am sure it is all older people. I'm the only cancer patient I've seen here that looks to be under the age of 55 or 60. I think these supportive programs are great. Some of the places the women in my online support group go to for treatment, have pre-treatment "cancer classes" a person can take to familiarize themselves with what will happen, and I think that would have been helpful too.

[GotBackHome]

I'm a big fan of forums! when I went through my double knee-replacements (not my first knee surgeries by far, but definitely the biggest), I had the support of a fabulous international forum. any time I went online, someone was there. and they'd been through just about everything!

So when DH was dx'd I again turned to my computer. He's a loner and doesn't really want 'company' - but I do. I want some place I can ask questions and find out from people going through the same thing. I started here, and was encouraged to find a specialty forum which I have (if you have colo-rectal cancer, the colon club has people of all ages going through all levels of things! nothing is taboo, and they are great people). It's not the same as a group you see faces of, but then sometimes a little distance can be a good thing - I don't always want to be seen when I'm typing with tears streaming down my face because I'm scared to death of losing DH . In specialty forums you are much more likely to find a wider age range.