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← Return to Cancer does not define me
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Cancer | Last Active: 3 days ago | Replies (10)
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This so resonates with me. I had similar thoughts. During radiation treatment, I noticed my name followed by "palliative care." At the time, I felt profiled, demeaned.
Eventually, I realized I am not defined as "that cancer patient- palliative care." I am who I always have been: strong, independent, resilient, a fighter. As chemo and radiation treatment shrunk my cancer, I live life to the fullest and am ever so grateful.
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@mamqtz Yes, when I got home from the hospital and I heard the word "palliative" from home care (who had just come by for a quick evaluation), I was shocked.
I knew my oligometastatic prostate cancer couldn't be cured, but I understood that the treatment I was getting could keep it in remission for at least a while, if not a good number of years, so why were they calling me "palliative"?
I called the hospital, and they were very apologetic. I had left quickly without a lot of preparation because a new COVID outbreak was starting (this was January 2022), or else they would have explained to me that "palliative" doesn't mean end-of-life care; it just means that the treatment I'm getting isn't expected to cure the cancer. In effect, anyone who has a chronic disease, even one that could last until old age, is getting palliative care.
In the event, I'm into my 5th year on so-called "palliative" care now, living a great life with no evidence of disease, and they now tell me I just might live to see old age after all (I was only 56 when I was diagnosed).
Don't let that "palliative" define you, either.