How to Conquer the Fear of Cancer Recurrence

Fear of recurrence is the number one reported fear of cancer survivors. A cancer patient laments, “I thought that once I completed cancer treatment I could go on with my life. Instead, I have found myself hypersensitive to every ache and pain and dreading my follow-up visits to the oncologist.”

This cancer survivor’s confession is all too common. Having escaped a death sentence, many survivors are now serving a new life sentence in a prison of fear. The fear of cancer recurring has robbed them of their joy and energy. To heal completely, survivors often find that they have to relearn how to live. This should be a major goal of a Navigator—helping patients gain a new perspective on life after cancer.

Having cancer is similar in some ways to other traumatic experiences such as the death of a family member or being in a car wreck. Facing the suddenness and severity of life and death issues changes something deep within. One thing that changes is one’s outlook on life. One survivor said it was like “repricing everything around her with new price stickers.”  Surviving cancer makes one conscious of what was almost lost and what can never be regained. This awareness makes some afraid that they may again face the trauma of cancer. Some survivors develop Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), a state in which life is significantly altered by these fears.

In the same way, someone does not stop driving after a car wreck or having friends after someone they love dies, a person cannot stop living and working towards a positive life after cancer. A survivor must find ways to overcome their fears and return to a sense of “normalcy.”  However, what one decides is normal will have to be redefined because cancer has changed the way they see things.

Cancer interrupted a life already in progress. Old dreams and goals may have died along the way. It’s important that survivors grieve for those very real losses. Those with a heightened sense of fear may not have sufficiently dealt with the trauma that cancer caused in their lives. Since they are dealing with both present fears and issues from the past, their coping measures may not be sufficient. Identifying their losses and making peace with them will help them live a fear-less life.

Navigator Tips for Helping Patients Overcome Their Recurrence Fears

Challenge Survivors To:

  1. Identify exactly what you fear and do all that you can reasonably do to prevent it. Make a plan to improve your health. Write your planned changes down so you can review them and work your plan.
  2. Schedule and keep regular check-up appointments to monitor your body.
  3. Write a letter to fear. This may sound silly, but it works. Write it with a “revengeful attitude” and tell FEAR that you will no longer listen to its constant taunting. Tell fear how you chose to think, believe and live instead. Without an “instead” plan you will rubber-band right back into fear.
  4. Try an experiment. Write down every little thing you enjoy and are grateful for. See how you feel after five full minutes of writing. Schedule time to be reflective and grateful every day. Develop your attitude of gratitude. Plan to start writing short notes to people who touched your life for the better. Tell them now grateful you are for what they did and for what they mean to you.
  5. Develop an emergency kit. This kit can be a letter to yourself reorienting you on how you want to live and what you will think and believe. Ask a friend to be your emergency kit. Teach them to let you vent and then remind you of your chosen beliefs.
  6. Make a plan for what you will do if cancer does recur and how you will live if it happens. This sounds hard, but when you face this mentally and make plans there is a sense of power knowing you have plans, no matter what happens.
  7. Determine to live a positive, faith-filled life. It is has a positive effect on your immune system. Build, buy or make something that reminds you of your choice to live positively in the present.

Fear paralyzes a person. Conquering the fear of recurrence is essential for a cancer patient to reenter life as a triumphant cancer survivor. Many survivors are living life free of disease, but prisoners of their fears of recurrence. Navigators can be the catalyst to help change her perspective of recurrence into a manageable fear. Navigators can coach the patient on how she can transform her fear into knowledge and empower her to live life as successfully after cancer as she did before cancer.

These are some of our suggestions that our Nurse Navigators and patients alike have found helpful. What other steps have worked for you?

 

 

Dr. Ruth O’Regan: Featured Speaker at Educare Training this September

For those of you visiting our Blog for the first time, we want to let you know that we have an exclusive, annual Breast Health Navigator Training at Emory University Conference Center in Atlanta. This year’s training takes place September 17- 20.  EduCare has been training Navigators for 18 years and over 2,200 nurses have attended the training.

This year’s training promises to be our best yet.  We say this because we are very excited to have, Dr. Ruth O’Regan, practicing Oncologist at the prestigious Emory Breast Center, who will teach the oncology treatment modules. Dr. O’Regan currently serves as an Associate Professor of Hematology and Oncology at the Emory Winship Cancer Institute and is the Director of Winship’s Translational Breast Cancer Research Program.

One of the most challenging roles of a Breast Health Navigator is understanding and discussing cancer treatments with a patient after surgery.  Drugs for chemotherapy are constantly changing, as is the delivery of radiation therapy.  New gene testing and targeted drugs are now a mainstay of oncology treatment.  The body of breast cancer treatment information is large, often complicated, and changes rapidly.  For nurses without an oncology background, cancer treatment navigation may be intimidating. Determining what is important to understand among the vast array of options is essential for effective patient navigation.  Because patients look to their Nurse Navigator to help interpret a physician’s treatment decision, a Navigator needs to feel competent to answer basic patient questions about chemotherapy, hormonal therapy, radiation therapy and the management of their side effects.

Dr. O’Regan brings her front-line, hands-on experience, to prepare Breast Health Nurse Navigators for the role of educating, supporting and navigating breast cancer patients through treatment.  She will condense the vast body of breast cancer information into the basic essentials that you, as a Navigator, must know to educate and empower your patients.

Starting with how treatment decisions are determined for a patient, Dr. O’Regan will:

  • Explain the most recent guidelines and treatment essentials a Navigator needs to understand to support a patient throughout chemotherapy, hormonal, and radiation therapy treatment.
  • Discuss the emotionally charged issues of fertility preservation for young women and treating a woman who is pregnant.
  • Teach Navigators the signs and symptoms of recurrence and the latest practice standards for the treatment of recurrent breast cancer.

We know you will benefit greatly from Dr. O’Regan’s expertise on these topics, and we can’t wait to have you join us in Atlanta. You can register for our conference here. We’ll also be glad to answer your questions in our comment section, or if you prefer, call us at (843) 760-6064 or reach out to us online here.

Nurse Navigators Ease the Journey of Uncertainty

Cancer transforms a person’s life from one of general well-being and confidence to one of enormous anxiety and uncertainty about the future. A pervasive sense of uncertainty characterizes the journey more than anything else.”  Dr. Jimmie Holland

Shocked, helpless, numb, confused, hopeless and seeking direction as to what she needs to do next describes the patient after hearing she has a breast cancer diagnosis. The patient, who most often is feeling physically well, has just heard words that will forever change her life. The diagnosis has just given her an entrance ticket into the world of cancer treatment—a world of unknowns, a scary place filled with many physical and emotional challenges. These challenges create a mental journey that is characterized by an evasive feeling of uncertainty.

Uncertainty is described in the dictionary as: doubt, unpredictability, indeterminacy and indefiniteness. After a cancer diagnosis, most patients feel that their body has betrayed them. Can they dare trust their own body again, or will it betray them again?  This is combined with the uncertainty of treatments. “What is the best treatment?  Will treatment work?  How can I get answers to my questions?  How long will this last? Will my cancer come back? Does anybody care about what happens to me?”

It is at this time of uncertainty that the Cancer Navigator comes into the patient’s life to help them deal with their overwhelming sense of uncertainty. As a trained Cancer Navigator, you can step into their world of fears and act as an anchor to hold on to. You come to their emotional rescue as a knowledgeable person who will navigate them through the unknowns of cancer treatment. You are a trained guide. You know the general direction of their treatment path. You know the various stops along the journey of treatment—surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy—and what they require. The overwhelming good news for the patient is that you are committed for the entire journey.

In a sense, you are like a GPS helping to map out their predicted journey. Like a GPS, if they get off course, you are there to help them find their way back or to find a suitable detour that will still get them to their destination. Just as a GPS serves as a sense of direction and safety when we are on a trip, we serve as a prepared guide for their cancer journey ready to offer directions without demands.

As a Navigator, your very presence and commitment for the journey reduces a patient’s uncertainty to a manageable level. You calm their emotional anxiety and reduce their fears with your navigation skills. Your presence is as valuable as any medical intervention to their recovery.