That is one of my favorite words, Survivorship! We all want to have a long, quality life and for those of us that have faced some medical issues, it has become a front and center issue. We need to live healthy to be healthy. Maintaining a healthy weight, eating a healthy diet, getting adequate physical exercise as we all want to reduce the chance of recurrence. Survivorship starts the moment of diagnosis and we no longer just look at a point of survivorship as being 5 years free of cancer and then you are homefree and that is no guarantee of disease-free survival. We need to look at late effects of cancer treatment, of follow-up and tracking the patient and even post traumatic stress and individual needs to help patients achieve a quality and longevity of life. It is important to look at strategies to help raise awareness of medical, functional, and psychosocial outcomes of cancer and its treatment. It is important that we look at improving life for the cancer survivors and look at fair employment practices and health insurance, and continued research as well as promoting advocacy and leadership. During the transition phase from active treatment to survivorship, we have to keep in mind the multidisciplinary team that have been administering to this patient and to try and coordinate care after completion of treatment. How often I have heard patients say, I don't know who to call for what and many can't afford numerous co-pays to track down which caregiver they should be addressing their concerns to. As a former patient, I also felt that once the treatment was done, I should be happy to be alive and go about my normal business but nothing could have been further from the truth and my normal was totally different than it had been before. Think of all the multiple health reports that a patient has to shift through as well as the insurance issues that need to be addressed. Also in the thought process must be ongoing surveillance and compliance from the patient to do so. Survivorship means helping cancer survivors and their families to pursue the life that they want and have a quality to it and that can be accomplished through a program for the survivors. Make it a good day. S
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AuthorMy name is Sue Kilburn and I am a clinical nurse breast cancer educator at the Yolanda G. Barco Oncology Institute in Meadville, Pennsylvania. Archives
March 2015
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