Nausea and vomiting are so common among those on chemo that they are usually the first things an oncologist will mention to a patient. Other gastrointestinal problems, including diarrhea and constipation, go with the territory. Sometimes, these become issues of huge proportions, causing rapid weight loss or weight gain, chronic indigestion and heartburn, malnutrition, dehydration, and other complications associated with the gastrointestinal system.
The Other Part of Healing
As we have seen, chemotherapy is only a part of the healing scenario for a cancer patient. Certainly, it is an essential element for those who have chosen a conventional route to treat cancer. But, while chemo is a powerful attacker of cancer cells, it is not a cure-all for the disease.
The other part of healing from cancer is the challenge of staying healthy through the span of chemo treatments and remaining in good health after those treatments have run their course. It is no small challenge for the cancer patient, particularly in the run-down physical and emotional state left in the wake of the chemo drugs.
What is required to stay healthy is, in the first place, a willingness to engage in the healing process. Many cancer patients simply turn their healing program over to their oncologist and assume that the doctor will take care of everything necessary to return to good health. This is the doctor-as-garage-mechanic attitude: I take my body into the shop, the doctor fixes it, and I go home. It is a mistake that could be fatal—and sometimes is literally that for thousands of people with cancer.
In our culture, we might even say that the role of the doctor has less to do with creating good health than in managing disease. We ask an oncologist to treat our cancer, but that does not automatically mean that we are asking the doctor to restore us to vibrant well-being. In fact, with our medical system of disease management (as opposed to health fostering), it actually would be presumptuous of us to expect more of our physicians than what they offer. And what they offer is considerable, if we want to eradicate cancer from the body.
Engaging the process of healing means that we do not rely on doctors alone to give us good health. They do their part by trying sincerely to rid the body of a rapidly growing disease. The rest is up to the cancer patient. This is not an easy thing to commit to, but unless one does, there can be no real healing.
So, what does the cancer patient do to fill in the blanks left by a system that goes only as far as managing the disease—in this case, destroying cancer and removing it from the body?
First, as I said earlier, is to decide to undertake one's own healing and not assume that a doctor or a nurse or a hospital staff member is going to do it; they won't because that is not what they do, it's not their job.
Next is to try to get as much information as possible—good, reliable, authoritative information—to form a structure for a healing program. I am writing this book to help provide just that.
Finally, a cancer patient will need to have a dedicated caregiver. This is so important that I am going to say more about it in a separate section that follows. All the good resolutions a person with cancer makes will come to naught without the help of someone who is physically and mentally on top of things.
The All-Important Caregiver
There is such a thing as “chemo brain,” or “chemo head.” Do a search on the Internet for these terms and thousands of sites will come up. Although this has been a problem for cancer patients since the dawn of chemotherapy, the issue has only recently been named. It is now recognized as something that happens to most patients in chemo treatment, and it is being studied to see how it might be dealt with medically.
I mentioned this above as one of the side effects of chemotherapy. But it bears repeating in discussing the role of the caregiver. There is a wide range of estimates of how many people get chemo brain. Some experts tell us that, among people who receive chemo, between 15% and 70% will experience brain symptoms. Others put the upper limit of the range at 50%. Working with these numbers, the risk of chemo brain can be higher than 1 out of 2 or as low as 1 in 6.
According to the American Cancer Society, patients with chemo brain experience these symptoms:
They forget things that they usually have no trouble recalling (memory lapses).
They have trouble concentrating (can't focus on what they're doing, have a short attention span, may “space out”).
They will have trouble remembering details like names, dates, and sometimes larger events.
There will be problems in multi-tasking, such as answering the phone while cooking, without losing track of one task (they are less able to do more than one thing at a time).
They take longer to finish things (disorganized, slower at thinking and processing).
There will be problems remembering common words (unable to find the right words to finish a sentence).
The American Cancer Society goes on to say that:
“For most people, chemo brain effects happen quickly and only last a short time. Others have long-term mental changes. Usually the changes that patients notice are very subtle, and others around them may not even notice any changes at all. Still, the people who are having problems are well aware of the differences in their thinking. Many people do not tell their cancer care team about this problem until it affects their everyday life.”
Many cancer patients are embarrassed about chemo brain and try to cover up their forgetfulness and fuzzy thinking. At the heart of the matter is how the condition, temporary or not, can affect a patient's care. All too often, chemo brain will interfere with treatment because a patient forgets to take medications or gets confused about other aspects of treatment, including missing doctor appointments.
The need for a caregiver should be obvious, given the prevalence of chemo brain. Even a cancer patient who is not plagued with the extremes of this problem will have trouble remembering everything that has to be done during treatment, including the number and timing of medications, meetings with the oncologist and other medical specialists, getting scans and blood tests, fasting before certain examinations, filling prescriptions, and so on.
I believe that caregivers are a special breed of people, and their work is a spiritual practice. If a cancer patient is lucky, there will be a life-partner, family member, or friend who will be there to help. Assistance is necessary not only for the strictly medical reasons I mentioned, but also to keep track of the health-building program that augments chemotherapy. Without a trusted helper working side-by-side with the cancer patient, the healing journey will be long, arduous, and perilous. With the caregiver sharing the responsibility for recovery, that journey becomes a shared experience of combined intention, a comfort for each, and even a joy.
Adopting a Healing Lifestyle
And finally, before outlining the details of the program I have put together to help cancer patients and their caregivers, let me say something about a healthy lifestyle.
Cancer, like all life-threatening diseases, can be a wake-up call to live in a different way. Medical issues do not appear out of nowhere, even though they may seem to ambush and descend upon us at the least likely moment. The truth is we do much to bring about ill health on ourselves, whether consciously or unconsciously. The origins of cancer are myriad and often deeply mysterious, for the most part. But surely our lifestyle has much to do with our health and well-being.
When a diagnosis comes, many cancer patients will automatically go into denial about taking responsibility for their sickness. For some, the sentence of cancer—and it might even be a death sentence—has been levied upon them for no reason at all by an angry or capricious God, universe, force, or whatever. They see themselves as innocent victims of the disease, faultless for having contracted it.
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