In Why Don’t I Feel Hope? I talk about hopelessness as a physical problem. If changes in the brain block the proper firing of brain cells needed to experience hope, willpower and/or spiritual faith may not be enough (just as a severed spinal cord makes it impossible to move the legs)—no matter how much patients want to feel hope.
Read moreA Practical, Comforting Primer for Newly Diagnosed Patients
Jen Singer is an accomplished medical writer who wrote a book you can judge by the cover. This remarkable 78-page primer guides people through the transition from “healthy” to “sick.”
Read moreWalking with Hope
My dream was for every patient to get free personalized exercise training and support. With hope of making a real difference now, I’d set the bar low: Write something that motivated patients to walk at least 10 minutes twice a day while in cancer treatment. The challenge was….
Read moreDo you have a problem or a dilemma?
If a challenge upsets you, it may help to distinguish whether you have a problem or a dilemma.
Read moreWhy Realistic Hopes are Healing
You could argue that false hope makes patients feel good and stirs the same placebo effect as realistic hope. Those are both healing benefits. Why my insistence that Healthy Survivors nourish realistic hope?
Read moreA Risk of Empowering Patients--Part II
Not all patients embrace the idea of patient empowerment. In particular, some patients don't want to be actively involved in their treatment decisions. Others don't want to hear lists of things they should be doing to optimize their outcome. Why?
Read moreMaking the Best Medical Decisions - Part III
Are you a believer or a doubter, when it comes to modern medicine?
Read moreMaking the Best Medical Decisions
Making the best medical decisions for you is vital to Healthy Survivorship, and not only because doing so optimizes your chance of the best outcome. If you end up with a disappointing treatment result, your prior decisions affect--and may determine--your happiness....
Read moreWeb-based App May Help Improve Survival
What if an app could help improve (1) patients' survival, (2) patients' quality of life and (3) the cost effectiveness of cancer care?
Read moreThe Difficulty of Reporting Minor Symptoms -- Part II
What's challenging about reporting minor symptoms? They're less frightening. Shouldn't they be easier to report? Like many long-term survivors (LTS), I've felt torn between...
Read moreThe Difficulty of Reporting Minor Symptoms
After someone has been through cancer treatment and recovery, a new mild symptom is no big deal, right? Well, maybe. In the next few posts, we'll explore the difficulty of reporting minor symptoms in long-term survivors (LTS) who want to be Healthy Survivors.
Read moreAccepting Uncertainty
"Doctor, will my illness return?" If the answer is "maybe," the uncertainty can cause suffering in patients who are doing well now. Since you can't live as fully as possible (the second criteria of Healthy Survivorship) if you are overly anxious, let's talk about how to accept the uncertainty, both intellectually and emotionally.
Read moreDisease and Uncertainty
n "When Do You Give Up on Treating a Child" Esther Levy concludes, "'There are only two states after such a diagnosis: disease and uncertainty." Both sound terrible.
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