MENUFall, 2021
Jennifer Watson’s cancer journey illustrates the importance of advocating for your health and partnering with a care team you trust. By embracing her love of exercise, she used it to help her through colon cancer treatment and proved she was unstoppable.
Olivia Goff faced Hodgkin Lymphoma when she was 17 with hope and optimism. When she had a recurrence of the cancer again at 21, it was more difficult for her. Even so, her goal to one day be a nurse and help children and teens kept her moving forward. Today she is a nurse at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital.
Between one-third and one-half of patients seen in the Cancer Rehabilitation Clinic are dealing with a sleep-related problem. Psychological distress and fatigue often lead to poor sleep habits and keep those with a history of cancer from snoozing soundly, while others wake up regularly because of pain or develop sleep apnea.
Surgery, chemotherapy, radiation or other cancer treatments can impair sexual function, as well as create issues with sexual desire and arousal. Some patients may question whether sexual pleasure is still possible. And there are often emotional challenges as well as physical ones.
The financial burden of cancer care is a growing issue. In fact, the topic has even sprouted a name to reflect its seriousness -- financial toxicity -- likening it to the toxicities of the treatments that kill cancer cells.
Forgetfulness, trouble concentrating, difficulty multitasking — about 1 in 3 patients experience mental changes following cancer treatment. Researchers have been giving the topic serious study since the mid-1990s.