Interesting piece on long-term cancer care.
Like I said yesterday, Cancer is for life. It's amazed me (although it possibly shouldn't have) that the recovery from Cancer never really stops. I'm going to have issues for years, maybe forever. None of them are really serious at the moment but I have no idea how they will develop as I get older. I can certainly understand why people suffer from "depression and anxiety", not necessarily because of the cancer but because of the after effects of the treatment. Cancer treatment is like medieval agriculture, slash and burn. Slash out the tumor with surgery and burn away any residuals with radiotherapy, I guess you could throw in chemical warfare as well if you have chemotherapy.
People who haven't had treatment for cancer are completely unaware of this (understandably so). I'm 4 months out of treatment and I look well, at least according to everybody I meet. What people don't see are the hidden issues which I've mentioned here before: my throat is still swollen; my cheek is still damaged (so no spicy food); my scar is tight; my arm and shoulder suffered damage from the radiation and ache a lot of the time; I get tired quickly; I get down occasionally; I can't taste properly; I have a dry mouth; I talked about the dental issues yesterday.
This sounds like a bunch of complaining (and it is :) ), and I'm 'lucky' as it's likely that my cancer is cured. But I'm not the worst off here, not by a long way if the article I referenced above is correct, and in my experience there's no reason to doubt it.
So if you know somebody who's had cancer, spare a thought for the aftermath.
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