Tip 15

Cancer Tip 15 – Get some counseling. This cancer thing is not like having the flu. It’s a big deal with lasting psychic changes – at least for me. Up ‘till my diagnosis I never had much time or use for physiologist or mental health stuff. I’m a “tape it up, you’ll be fine” kind of guy. But a holy smoke was I wrong. This whole life and death struggle, the dangerous predicaments (from neutropenia, to neuropathy), the implanting of medical devices, the self-injections, and the 50/50 survival rate for chubby middle-aged guys took my breath away. Patients and caregivers have to surrender control to a group of medical professionals they just met and hope they’re not knuckle heads. It’s helplessness defined. I can only speak for me, but I found counseling (and my teddy bear) invaluable to help me through it all. I still go to group every other week and I went to therapist a couple of times, but I had to fire him (sack for our British friends) because he had no respect for time. The point is cancer treatment and cancer survival are not do-it-yourself operations. None of us know enough and we’re all wandering blind.