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Surviving and Thriving: Navigating Life After Cancer Treatment · Talking FACS

• 0:01
  Welcome to Talking FACS, and thank you for tuning in to Cancer Conversations
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  on Talking FACS, a podcast collaboration between the University of Kentucky
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  Markey Cancer Center and the UK Martin Gatton College of Agriculture,
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  Food, and Environment's Cooperative Extension Service.
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  We will share with you the latest developments in cancer prevention,
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  diagnosis, treatment, and research from the experts at Markey Cancer Center,
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  Kentucky's only National Cancer Institute -designated comprehensive cancer center.
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  Talking FACS is hosted by the UK Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Program.
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  Our educators share research knowledge with individuals, families,
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  and communities to improve quality of life.
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  Hello, and welcome to Cancer Conversations on Talking FACS.
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  This is your host, Dr. Jennifer Hunter, Assistant Director for Family and Consumer
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  Sciences Extension at the University of Kentucky. Today, I'm pleased to be joined
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  by Joan Scales, the Markey Psych Oncology Program Director.
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  Welcome, Joan. Thank you for having me today. I'm really excited to be here.
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  Well, we always appreciate the opportunity to visit with you.
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  And today, we are going to chat about survivorship. And I really wanted to start
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  with, can you provide us with the definition of cancer survivorship?
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  Absolutely. So the National Comprehensive Cancer Network defines cancer survivorship
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  beginning from the day of diagnosis.
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  So anybody who has a diagnosis is considered a survivor.
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  I will say that many people struggle with that concept because survivor from
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  patients that I speak with and survivors that I speak with are thinking,
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  well, I haven't finished my treatment.
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  You know, survivor to me or to them is finishing treatment and being completed
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  with treatment. So, there's kind of a misconception in that respect that if
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  you are in active treatment that you're not a survivor.
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  But in all actuality, we are.
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  Excellent. And so, when we think about survivorship, and it is kind of an oddity
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  because if you had asked me, I wouldn't have been able to say,
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  well, survivorship begins at this point.
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  What does happen to an individual when treatment ends?
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  How does that impact a person? Okay.
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  That's another excellent question. So, yes, several different things and responses
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  that people can go through.
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  Some people are just happy to be completed with treatment and they run with it.
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  They're able to resume normal life and lifestyle with some accommodations,
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  of course, depending on their diagnosis.
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  While others, it creates a sense of hesitancy or unease, perhaps maybe is a better way to say it.
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  Oftentimes when speaking with survivors, I have learned that having been in
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  treatment and having had your life dictated to them by doctor's appointments,
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  scans, treatments, what have you, while very difficult and challenging,
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  it's also very prescribed.
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  And so now all of a sudden not to have that routine, that sense of security
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  of knowing that I'm in treatment for my cancer, it can create some angst for a lot of our patients.
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  It can create feelings of like, what if scenarios in their head.
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  So just some general anxiety that often can accompany when the completion of treatment.
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  It's also associated with a fear of recurrence, the what ifs.
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  I've stopped treatment.
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  So now what if my cancer comes back? Or what if I feel this ache or pain?
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  So it does create a lot of anxiety.
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  So talking with somebody about that can be super helpful for people.
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  I'm seeing somebody like myself or someone on my team where we can kind of just
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  let people process it and come up with strategies to help them manage some of
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  those feelings of anxiety can be really helpful.
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  So when you talk about those strategies, could you share what some of the coping
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  strategies are that either you or your team provide?
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  Absolutely. So we talk a lot about just some cognitive behavioral therapy strategies,
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  helping people to recognize that sometimes Sometimes unhelpful thoughts can
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  occur, also thought of as cognitive distortions.
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  I like them as unhelpful because in the context of cancer, it's a reality.
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  They do have a fear of recurrence, and that is a very valid thought.
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  So it's not necessarily a distortion. It's just an unhelpful thought that comes
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  around. So we try to teach them some adaptive strategies to replace some of
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  those unhelpful thoughts.
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  So like if you're thinking, oh, I'm not going to see my doctor for six months,
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  and that makes me really nervous.
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  And then, and the cancer is probably going to come back or whatever catastrophic
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  thinking we might be having.
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  We're going to try to replace that and spin it in a, not just in a positive
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  way, but in a way that feels manageable to that individual.
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  I don't want to diminish those thoughts because again, they're very valid,
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  but I think it's also something that we want to try to help them to understand
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  how they can best manage.
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  We also do a lot of mindfulness and helping them to learn strategies to manage that anxiety.
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  So it could be like meditation. It could be some type of physical activity,
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  movement. There are lots of different things that we can try to teach them.
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  So you mentioned about this idea when treatment ends, that your routine ends,
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  that you've had kind of this very regimented schedule of appointments and etc.
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  How do you coach or work with an individual to adapt back to their normal life?
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  I always like to just find out what did they do prior to their diagnosis, right?
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  How did they, what were they doing and what have they not been able to do because
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  of maybe some physical limitations that they had?
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  Maybe they weren't feeling well enough. Maybe they had some severe side effects.
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  Maybe they couldn't be with family.
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  So I try to get a sense of what people were doing beforehand and how we can
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  gently ease our way back into that. It could be small little baby steps.
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  It could be a completely change of routine.
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  Some of our survivors or patients who have completed treatment are able to return back to work.
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  And how do we manage those feelings of, well, am I going to need accommodations?
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  Maybe I'm going to need frequent bathroom breaks, or maybe I'm going to need
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  to work a shorter workday for a short while while I transition back into work.
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  So a lot of what-if scenarios that come up. So we just talk about those.
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  We we process them in a logical way that means how we can best support the patient, basically.
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  Joan, thank you so much for joining us today. I always enjoy the opportunity
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  to visit with you or a member of your team because I feel like that the program
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  and the team that you have at Marquee is such a resource for not only an individual
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  with a cancer diagnosis,
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  but also the individual's families.
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  So, thank you for joining us today and sharing more about the information available
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  through the Psych Oncology Program.
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  Thank you for having me today. I enjoyed getting to be part of this today.
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  Thank you for listening to Cancer Conversations on Talking FACS.
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  Our goal is to connect you with the latest advances in cancer research in the Commonwealth. well.
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  If you enjoyed today's podcast and have a suggestion for a future show topic,
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  please message us on the UK Markey Cancer Center Facebook page at facebook.com
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  forward slash UK Markey, or visit our website at markey.uky.edu for more information.
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  You can find University of Kentucky Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Programs
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  at your local extension office or online at fcs.uky.edu. Building strong families.
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  Building Kentucky. It starts with us.
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  Music.