 Senior Patient Advocate Patient Advocate (old timer, 2000 posts)
Joined: Sep 2006 Posts: 8,311 | Pam,
Without knowing all the side effects your husband is experiencing I can only imagine what he is experiencing is totally normal and he needs to understand that. He also needs to understand that it will be tough until about the 2nd to 3rd week POST Tx and then he will start to recover. His life will change somewhat due to the side effects that usually remain after our recover is complete but most likely he will be cancer free. Please remember that without this Tx he would have died.
The mental aspect of this and probably all cancer is often ignored or at least pushed far into the background by our treating doctors and we, the patients and caregivers, are left to deal with that by ourselves. We are seldom equipped to do that and it often causes problems throughout the treatment and beyond so I definitely agree that consulting a mental specialist, especially one that has experience with cancer patients, is a wise thing to do. I think it should be SOP with all cancer patients to have a mental specialist as part of their treatment team.
David
Age 58 at Dx, HPV16+ SCC, Stage IV BOT+2 nodes, non smoker, casual drinker, exercise nut, Cisplatin x 3 & concurrent IMRT x 35,(70 Gy), no surgery, no Peg, Tx at Moffitt over Aug 06. Jun 07, back to riding my bike 100 miles a wk. Now doing 12 Spin classes and 60 outdoor miles per wk. Nov 13 completed Hilly Century ride for Cancer, 104 miles, 1st Place in my age group. Apr 2014 & 15, Spun for 9 straight hrs to raise $$ for YMCA's Livestrong Program. Certified Spin Instructor Jun 2014.
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