How to Balance Cancer Treatment and a Good Quality of Life
If you are a cancer patient, you understand how difficult it can be to maintain a good quality of life while going through cancer treatments. In some ways, it can be like taking on a new job on top of everything else you already do – there are appointments to make, prescriptions to refill, side effects to manage, and a host of worries that are new to you. It can feel overwhelming and your quality of life in the day-to-day can suffer.
To ensure that you can manage cancer and everything that comes along with it, it is helpful to understand all the ways in which cancer can impact your life. Some of the ways are obvious, but others are less so. Knowing what to look and prepare for can help restore a sense of control in a situation that feels very much out of your control.
There are four aspects of our quality of life, each impacting a different part of ourselves:
Physical Function – this refers to things related to our physical bodies. Cancer treatments can change how you look (hair loss and weight loss or gain) and how you feel (pain, nausea and fatigue are common) and sometimes even how you think (cognitive changes often called “chemo brain”).
Social Interactions – it is easy to become more isolated during cancer treatments. A changing immune system, depending on where you might be in your chemotherapy, means that meeting with others is harder when you are more vulnerable to infection. Relationships can suffer from the stress and roles may shift if you can no longer work or parent in the same way.
Psychological Well Being – a cancer diagnosis can bring about an overwhelming sense of worry, fear, anxiety, or depression. Coping skills get put to the test and may not always be enough to manage the stress of a major illness.
Spiritual or Existential Concerns – it is common to question your faith during something as life altering as cancer treatment. Some people feel anger and do not know what or whom to blame. For people who are not spiritual or religious, trying to grapple with big questions like why or the meaning of life can be difficult.
It is important to understand that each of these aspects of quality of life can impact one another as well. For instance, if you do not recognize who you see when you look in the mirror because of hair loss related to chemotherapy, you might be less likely to get out and see others. That can lead to social isolation, which can worsen the fear or depression that a cancer diagnosis may cause. Another example is if you are a religious person and feel let down or angry about your diagnosis, the guilt of that anger may cause you stress or you may stop worshipping, which cuts down on your supports and social interactions.
Dr. Srilata Gundala, founder of Hope & Healing Care Centers in Hinsdale and Lombard, Illinois is a hematologist/oncologist and works with her patients to achieve a balance during their cancer treatments that help them function as well as possible, “Cancer treatment can be a devastating time for patients and their families, but there are things that can be done to help them and support them. Treatment is temporary, it has a beginning and an end. Helping patients identify resources to help them through this period is always one of our goals.”
There are a few things cancer patients can do to help them optimize their quality of life during treatment, which can keep disruption to more manageable levels:
Keep a log to better understand any side effects you may feel. This may help in being able to plan and reserve your energy for the things that are most important.
Support groups may help both decrease isolation cancer patients feel and increase knowledge about how to cope during treatment.
Modify favorite activities during treatment, when possible, rather than eliminate them. If you are a golfer, play four holes or nine rather than eighteen, or focus on perfecting your putting game. If you enjoy bike riding, see if you can rent a recumbent bike for a few months. If you are a hiker, stick to paved trails.
Many people who have successfully come through cancer treatment agree that they have achieved a new ability to identify and know what is important to them. Having to prioritize what is most meaningful, whether that is a relationship or a job or a favorite activity, provides a clarity that might not have existed before cancer.
Written By: Sheila Quirke, MSW
Reviewed By: Srilata Gundala, MD
