Re: what to expect after 1+ month of treatment

From: Lisa
Date: 04 Dec 2004
Time: 05:04:51 -0500
Remote Name: 64.75.158.215

Comments

I don't have a lot to add to Becca's comments, they are right on the money. Re: coping, I happened to hear an NPR broadcast the other day on the role that hope plays in medical treatment. I'm sure we've all heard that it can greatly improve a patient's prognosis, but the point that the doctor being interviewed made (I wish I could remember his name, I think he wrote a book on this) was that hope is NOT the same as optimism, i.e. telling yourself that everything will be fine. That is self-delusion, and not really very helpful. Hope, on the other hand, requires that you be clear-eyed and fully aware of the seriousness of the situation and the risks involved, and yet be able to imagine a pathway through all of it to a positive outcome. I can't give you a recipe for how to arrive at this, but for me, I find that the more I educate myself about this disease and find out about the experiences of others (even the negative ones, although it took me a while longer to be ready to hear those), and the more I am then able to use this information to interact with the medical team and become an active participant in the treatment process, the less depressed and powerless and isolated I feel in all of this. Jerilue, I hope your brother is requesting print-outs of his weekly blood counts, and is willing to share them with you. Numbers aren't everything, but once you learn what they mean you will have a much better understanding of what is happening and why the doctors are doing what they're doing. Also, you'll be able to celebrate every time there's an upward trend. Just be careful not to read TOO much into them-- there will be fluctuations.