When Tumor Is the Rumor and Cancer Is the Answer

The odds are over 40% that cancer will touch one’s life. Our nation spends over $150 billion dollars on cancer care yearly. It is one of the largest single expenditures of the national health care budget. There will be over 500,000 deaths per year and over one million new cases. Including families, cancer touches almost four million people per year. There are few common medical realities that is surrounded by as much malefaction, mystique and misunderstanding. “When Tumor Is the Rumor and Cancer Is the Answer…” helps one see past the understandably macabre mythology.
Chapter by chapter, this work addresses the need for knowledge when receiving the overwhelming news that you may or do have cancer. It covers the fear of the diagnosis and the entire trek from when tumor is a rumor until cancer is the answer. Enveloping patients with knowledge, it attacks the patient’s soul sucking sense of loss of control, anxiety’s favorite fodder and fuel.
We open by addressing the hit in the gut issues that come up immediately. First are some thoughts about the right recipe for the right mindset in handling the journey. Believe or not, we are well wired to handle this stress. Thus, in ‘Read the Directions First’ we look at how we might have a recipe for mental and emotional success as we gird up to weather the storm.
Then we specifically address the crucial issue of autonomy; that you are an individual with explicit defined rights and that you can and will be in control.
We then expose the problem of anxiety, its distinction from fear, the nature of cancer, the oncologist and the team they lead in your journey as well as how their world will become yours. This book teaches that anxiety and fear are not the same and knowledge in all spheres, not just sterile clinical facts, is power and a therapeutic balm. Informed fear is a call to action and the more informed the better the clarity of resolve and less the anxiety.
“The Enemy” paints how cancer is almost the perfect medical predator. It introduces the villain for what it is and prepares the stage for our fight against it. That fight starts and ends with defeating ignorance using knowledge as our greatest weapon. Then we take a broad overview of the nuts and bolts about Oncology and the Oncologist. The book progresses into what occurs when suspecting the diagnosis, delivering the diagnosis, standard and alternative treatments and symptom relief. This is followed by an in depth discussion of the problem of pain, clinical trials, future therapies, the internet, spirituality and self-talk; (how to talk with yourself when confronting cancer) and Hospice care. We also look carefully at the team; the front office staff, the nursing staff and the inpatient experience.
There are useful chapters on the medical-legal aspects and ethics of cancer care, challenges of managed care, psychosocial issues with ethical-legal components and how end of life concerns play a common role in the care of oncology patients. Difficult concepts such as physician assisted suicide, durable power of attorneys, living wills, failure to diagnose or lost opportunities in life, euthanasia and death by secondary intent ( death occurring during the course of treating the patient to alleviate suffering) have lead to cancer cases being second in frequency of law suits after, “Why did my baby not turn out right?”…
Most family and friends experience considerable discomfort when interacting with a seriously ill or perhaps dying friend or loved one. They wonder… “But what do I say” Although the singular moment of death is experienced alone, the journey need not be. In the section “But what do I say,” I offer some help and observe that we are in this boat of life together. When it is time to dock for some, we must hold fast to the loved ones hand and help them lovingly ashore.

We close by sharing some true stories of remarkable patients and their journeys.
This is not a medical text on prevention, screening, survivorship or treatment of any specific malignancy, per se. This book describes what happens and what works best for the whole team when the possible diagnosis becomes proven. A major aim is the goal of reducing anxiety and helping those confronted with this disease marshal their internal resources, conquer their natural fears and ultimately learn to become “Cancer Survivors. It addresses many of the often unspoken truths that now found in one place can act as a guide for what is for many the most frightening time of their lives. It returns that crucial sense of control.
Why do it this way? In large part, it is because little other published work does. This book highlights the gift improved patient physician communication can be especially when the patient and family are more fully informed. There is never enough time in today’s practices to fill all those gaps; this work will help. This is big picture thinking with the picture being you and how it all can be decipherable instead of a transaction of doing as advised but not as fully educated as you might have been.
This book is needed because cancer medicine is enveloped and cloaked in mystery. It is replete with magic decoder rings and secret handshakes. Irrespective of Hollywood’s latest or greatest umpteenth version of a real Doctor show, society is largely ignorant of the mysterious and frightening world of cancer medicine. Cracking that code and empowering the patient with knowledge will undoubtedly lead to healthier lives and happier journeys for all.
There is plenty of angst and agony to go around when pursuing a diagnosis and committing to do battle against a malignancy. Wise physicians embrace patients as partners in many regards on the journey whose informed engagement is crucial to success. Being informed, and forewarned leaves patients knowing that although they are the one with the disease, although their autonomy is first and foremost, this journey can be a team effort.