When I started blogging nearly 6 months ago, it was relatively easy – all I needed to do was to talk about my cancer experience to help raise awareness of Neuroendocrine Cancer, then talk about my hike along Hadrian’s Wall for PLANETS Charity. The blog was only ever intended to be a temporary supporting tool for the walk and its build up; but I was persuaded by good reviews and viewing numbers to keep it going. It suddenly became more difficult!
In my early blogs, there were several ‘no go areas’ which were either too complex or potentially controversial. I didn’t really have much time to think them through properly at that point. However, I’ve since dabbled in some of these areas to test the waters. Since my charity walk was completed, I’ve suggested that:
The aim of this blog is to bring these 3 areas together to summarise and emphasise why they are important to me. I believe a cancer patient’s problems can at times go beyond the physical body, i.e. the mind can also be affected. My research indicates that cancer patients are at risk of succumbing to depression and anxiety with one study indicating it could be as high as 40% with an equal split between clinical depression and subclinical depression. The latter is an interesting condition as it’s not as severe as the former but can last much longer. I suspect if I dug deeper, I would find there are other factors at play including (but not limited to) geography, socio-economic and gender. It’s also worth stating that to a certain extent, these issues can also affect someone who is living with, or caring for, a cancer patient.
It would appear that studies into depression and anxiety in cancer patients have been a challenge because symptoms occur on a broad spectrum ranging from sadness to major affective disorders and because mood change is often difficult to evaluate when a patient is worried about death, is receiving cancer treatments, is fatigued or is experiencing pain. Living with cancer or depression can be hard (I can vouch for the former) – battling both together must be even more difficult. According to Cancer Research UK (one of the biggest and respected names in Cancer), depression and anxiety issues are an important but largely under-recognised problem for people with cancer. Read more here:
Many people still see a cancer diagnosis as a death sentence but improvements in medical science has meant that fewer people now die of cancer (although certain cancers are still struggling, e.g. Pancreatic). If fewer people are dying of cancer, it must mean that more people are now either living with their cancer or going into remission? The latter is indeed very good news and will have impacted the survival figures greatly. However, spare a thought for certain types of cancer which are mostly incurable, but mostly with a good prognosis. These cancers can provide physical and mental challenges to patients who are living with both the side effects of the cancer and the (lifelong) treatment. One such type is Neuroendocrine Cancer, sometimes known as ‘the silent cancer’ or ‘cancer in slow motion’. There are worse cancers out there but even patients with metastatic disease can have good prognostic outcomes and live fairly normal lives with the right treatment. However, each person is different and there can sometimes be a varying cost in terms of quality of life and risk of patients succumbing to depression and anxiety issues.
As a Neuroendocrine Cancer patient, I have at times felt like my mind wasn’t coping very well despite a healthy and happy outlook – I’m good at bottling things up so it’s easy for me to put on a façade. Not forgetting that I look so well – how many Neuroendocrine Cancer patients have heard that one! When this happens, I’ve always managed to give myself a proverbial ‘kick up the backside’. It’s too easy to be constantly fearful and blame every single ache and pain on my cancer. This is one of the reasons why I have studied my disease in some detail and work with my medical team as my own advocate.
I’ve always believed that a positive attitude is important for anybody with cancer especially those living with incurable diseases such as Neuroendocrine Cancer. I’m not suggesting a positive attitude helps kill cancer cells but it can be a useful weapon against the cancer and the maintenance of a good quality of life.
I’ll have Neuroendocrine Cancer forever – I’ve accepted that and I’m dealing with it!
Ronny
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