Category: Health care

The havoc called breast cancer

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 15 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas     ♥    Heart Sisters (on Blue Sky)

“Havoc”  /hævək/  Oxford Dictionary definition: “a situation in which things are seriously damaged, destroyed or confused.” 

October is officially Breast Cancer Awareness Month – and this month, it’s also my first time as a person diagnosed with malignant breast cancer. So I’m feeling more aware of breast cancer than I’ve ever been. (Think: six rounds of chemotherapy, 11 more scheduled rounds of immunotherapy infusions, countless scans, blood tests, oncology consults, a port surgically implanted in my chest, plus the mastectomy booked for November 25th.  Oh, joy. . .)  And I’m telling you right now, enduring chemo side effects has been even more brutal and debilitating than I could have imagined, a genuine quality-of-life nightmare in action. The powerful chemo drugs that are pretty effective at killing off fast-growing cancer cells are the same drugs that are also killing off my healthy cells, wreaking havoc on my body now and perhaps for months or even years to come. Buckle up, buttercup. . .  

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False hope vs. real hope for patients

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 7 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas    ♥   Heart Sisters (on Blue Sky)

My former colleagues in palliative care often spoke about the concept of hope as being a fluid, ever-changing state of being for patients and their families, meaning that hope can change over time. When we’re suddenly face-to-face with a frightening medical crisis,  we hope at first that maybe the diagnostic tests were wrong. When the diagnosis is confirmed, we hope that this treatment/this procedure/ this drug will be the cure. But if we’re not cured, we hope that our symptoms can be managed so we don’t suffer. If we do get worse, we hope that our suffering won’t become a burden to our families. Then we hope that after we’re gone, our loved ones will be taken care of.

There was never talk about “no hope”.  There is always hope.  But our hope changes.  Continue reading “False hope vs. real hope for patients” →

Words matter – especially in medicine

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 11 Comments
by Carolyn Thomas   ❤️   Heart Sisters (on Blue Sky)

An editorial in The Lancet (a medical journal that’s been published for over 200 years) has revisited a subject that’s been niggling at me and many other patients: what the editorial authors called blame-ridden language – which they describe as being “pervasive throughout medicine.”(1)

For example, why do doctors include chart notes like :“Patient claims her pain is 10/10” ?  Choosing the word “claims” somehow implies that the patient is lying. In the real world, we would say:  “She is experiencing 10/10 pain”.  Continue reading “Words matter – especially in medicine” →

Patients, twisted thinking and cognitive distortion

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 7 Comments
.                         .      My granddaughter Everly Rose – and her Baba’s newly bald head!
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Carolyn Thomas   ❤️   Heart Sisters (on Blue Sky)

The freshly-diagnosed patient has plenty of opportunity to start thinking thoughts that are bizarre and often frightening. Any new life-altering medical condition (like the misdiagnosed widow-maker heart attack I survived back in 2008) can throw us off-balance, both physically and emotionally.

And hearing yet another new diagnosis will likely feel worse than any others.  We rarely if ever see it coming. I’ve been learning this first-hand ever since April 1st when I was diagnosed (surprise!) with a malignant tumor in my right breast.

Learning about that new diagnosis (invasive ductal carcinoma) felt utterly surreal at first – mostly because cancer is so different from other diagnoses in two important ways:

Continue reading “Patients, twisted thinking and cognitive distortion” →