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Anxiety is a real and true problem for about 40 million American adults—and lots of them are not even part of the nation’s cancer cohort. For many people with cancer, trying to eject the big C from the front of their minds is tough to do. After weeks or months of treatments to get to remission, or receiving a chronic cancer diagnosis with a wait-and-see approach until treatment is needed (what one of my friends terms “medical limbo”), it is certainly a challenge to get past the anx...
What is my actual diagnosis? Find out your exact diagnosis. Ask your doctor to write down the exact name of your sub-type and take the paper with you. For example, knowing you have “a B-cell lymphoma” isn’t good enough. Follicular and diffuse large B-cell are both B-cell lymphomas but with very different prognoses and treatment plans. Leukemia also has different sub-types. Knowing your specific sub-type helps you understand what disease you are dealing with, how aggressive it is, and wh...
Unplanned weight gain is not usually discussed as a side effect of cancer treatment, but when it happens, a patient can experience other possible negative effects. For cancer patients, weight gain is usually not a result of increased muscle, which can be a good thing, but of increased fatty tissue, which may lead to chronic inflammation. Excess body weight is linked to an increased risk for other serious medical conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and circulatio...
What is AML? What research is underway? And what resources are available to patients? The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society recently joined up with Patient Power and the MDS Alliance to host an AML Awareness Day and answer those questions. The April 21 webcast was moderated by Carol Preston, host of Patient Power, an online portal offering cancer information for both patients and professionals. Preston is also a chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) survivor. The panelists were Ellen Ritc...
Cancer is disruptive at any point in one’s life, but especially so if the diagnosis comes in your 20s or 30s when you may be trying to create an independent life, work towards school or career goals, and find a partner. Many young people look forward to starting a family, while others spend time with friends and enjoy not having such heavy responsibilities. A diagnosis can be a serious disruption and leave you searching for ways to create the life you want.You hope that once treatment...
My daughter Mackenzie was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in January 2014. Despite being the most common form of childhood cancer that has a very prescribed protocol with better-than-most survival rates, the diagnosis petrified me. My nine-year-old had cancer. Nothing could have prepared me for all that would mean in the next two years, but there were a few things that helped my family navigate this new world. I share the following in hopes that it will help...
Why is your weight the first thing people often notice about you? What’s so important about being weighed each time you have an appointment with your health care team? Well, a healthy weight is crucial during cancer. Body weight is one of the vital signs or body measurements that are monitored during cancer treatments. Just as blood pressure and pulse reflect your health at one point in time, your body weight pattern too gives insight into your health. Changes in your weight may come fr...
In the New Year, you may be looking to turn over a new leaf. One goal may be to improve your nutrition. Many cancer survivors struggle with food issues. In fact, research shows that up to 80 percent of people with a cancer diagnosis are expected to experience malnutrition at some point during treatment. Even before a diagnosis, as many as 40 percent of people with cancer experience unhealthy weight loss. Unhealthy weight loss can lead to decreased response to treatment, delays in treatment, a...
So you’re in remission and you can officially call yourself a cancer survivor. Congratulations for making it through the hardest part of the journey. Now you may be thinking “What comes next?” Most people don’t think about survivorship until they finish treatment. And it’s only much later, when there hasn’t been a recurrence and they’re not thinking about the cancer so much, that they really contemplate long-term survival. At that point, there can be many questions: What can ...
When I was first admitted to the hospital, a nurse told me that I was lucky to have my kind of cancer. Half of me said “Screw you!” and the other half said, “You’re right.” Today, I am nearing the 2 ½ year anniversary of my chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) diagnosis. My blood is in remission from the disease, and my bone marrow is almost there, too. Cancer feels very far away from my daily life—when I take my pills, I don’t think “Ho hum, taking my oral chemotherapy!”. Th...
