SEEK HELP
Unless you have a medical degree, you are understandably out of your element. Ask questions
and keep asking until you understand the answers. Write down the answers. No, they will not
think you are stupid. They work for you, remember?
GIVE HELP
You will feel better when you help others feel better. You have important experience and
unique wisdom to share with a support group, even from day one of your treatment. No one can
quite understand what you are going through like others who are struggling through the same
challenge. Participate in any studies that are pertinent to your condition. These studies are
usually nothing more than a brief phone interview. Your efforts will contribute to saving
others from going through this same experience.
KEEP RECORDS
It’s a bad idea to keep all pertinent phone numbers, chemo schedule, and various medications
on scraps of paper. It is astonishing how quickly you will gather up important information.
Buy a three-ring binder. Divide it into “lab reports,” “calendar,” “phone numbers,”
“questions,” etc. Stick a funny cover or cartoon on it. When you are all well again, file it.
FIND YOUR CENTER
If you have practiced meditation, breathing exercises, Ti Chi or yoga in the past, stay with
the practice so long as your doctors approve. Continue anything you do that absorbs you
completely like playing a musical instrument, needlework or painting.
Unless you have a medical degree, you are understandably out of your element. Ask questions
and keep asking until you understand the answers. Write down the answers. No, they will not
think you are stupid. They work for you, remember?
GIVE HELP
You will feel better when you help others feel better. You have important experience and
unique wisdom to share with a support group, even from day one of your treatment. No one can
quite understand what you are going through like others who are struggling through the same
challenge. Participate in any studies that are pertinent to your condition. These studies are
usually nothing more than a brief phone interview. Your efforts will contribute to saving
others from going through this same experience.
KEEP RECORDS
It’s a bad idea to keep all pertinent phone numbers, chemo schedule, and various medications
on scraps of paper. It is astonishing how quickly you will gather up important information.
Buy a three-ring binder. Divide it into “lab reports,” “calendar,” “phone numbers,”
“questions,” etc. Stick a funny cover or cartoon on it. When you are all well again, file it.
FIND YOUR CENTER
If you have practiced meditation, breathing exercises, Ti Chi or yoga in the past, stay with
the practice so long as your doctors approve. Continue anything you do that absorbs you
completely like playing a musical instrument, needlework or painting.