How A Cancer Plan Helps Patients & Caregivers Keep Track Of Progress

I know, it’s so scary. Making a plan to cure yourself and save your life. Literally, you have the weight of your world in your hands. But not to fear. Even though there is still no “cure” for cancer, many have successfully healed themselves from the deadly disease. Be assured there have been many countless cancer survivors before you who have paved the road to recovery with hope and encouragement. We’re just here to guide you on your way.

Being diagnosed with cancer is terrifying. So finding assistance and helpful information should be easy. In this blog entry, I will be guiding you through how to create the best appropriate cancer plan for your body and your condition. Within a cancer plan are three distinct segments – a treatment plan, a payment plan and a recovery plan. A treatment plan considers all of the patient’s therapy options, including conventional care and alternative methods, to make the best informed decision per condition. A payment plan accounts for the finances and how to outsource funds to pay the inevitably heft medical bills. And lastly, a recovery plan includes the supplementary actions that need to be taken, such as changing your diet and lifestyle goals. When all three parts function together, it is intrinsic to improving the chances of survival. Effectively enforcing and efficiently keeping track of a cancer plan will help a patient progress through healing swiftly and with a greater peace of mind.

To begin, you should assume it’s your responsibility to know everything about your body and your condition. But isn’t this my doctor’s job? You may ask. Well, sadly, most doctors won’t be able to provide personal quality care because of the largely disproportionate ratio of registered oncologist to new patients. With approximately 1.6 new cancer cases each year and only 21,200 registered oncologists, there’s a dire shortage of cancer specialists in our country (American Cancer Society, 2014). It’s best if you don’t become solely reliant on your doctor. He/She should really only be there to clarify esoteric information for you. Bring out the doctor in yourself by having a cancer planner to keep all of the information pertaining to your cancer organized & easily accessible. Be prepared for every appointment by doing your own research and coming up with questions beforehand. Make the most out of the time you have with your oncologist because it may be hard to get in touch with them during off hours. Take notes of every appointment so you can keep track of how you’re progressing after each. Accumulating all the data you can possibly find will only benefit you as a patient and caregiver. All you have to do is seek and you will find the answers. And the more you know, the more you have to fight with.

The first thing to consider after your initial diagnosis is – What are the treatment options for my type of cancer? If your cancer is invasive, your doctor will strongly urge you to perform a very aggressive form of orthodox treatment as soon as possible. Be ready to be convinced to do surgery, radiation or chemotherapy. But just know that there are many alternatives on the spectrum of treatments. From surgery, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, gene targeted therapies and clinical trials, to some of the more obscure treatments such as plant extract therapies, there are just so many options available. It’s also common to integrate therapies of the conventional norm and of the alternative. For example, a patient with stage 2 lung cancer may opt to have surgery and also adopt Gerson Therapy as a supplemental treatment where they heavily regulate their diet. So how do you choose the best route? This is where the beauty of having a cancer plan comes in. Start by weighing out your different options in terms of cost, duration, side effects, convenience and the general pros and cons for each. This will help you to filter out the options that aren’t plausible for you and your family. Trust your gut feeling and narrow your list down to the top three options. Create a visual roadmap for each treatment option listing the action steps you’ll need to take in order to see this through and picture yourself after each milestone. How are you mentally, physically, emotionally and financially? Trust me when I say that you’ll have a greater peace of mind knowing that you’ve weighed out all of your options and have narrowed your focus down to the treatment plans you believe will work best for you. Trusting your treatment plan is absolutely vital to fighting your disease. Believe you can and you’re half way there.

Now how do you pay for all of this? There are ways to pay for all of your expenses when you get creative with it. Since crowdfunding has taken off in the last couple years, you’ll be surprised at how many people, whether it’s your friends or those who’ve just heard your story but have never met you, are more than willing to help your cause. You can check out platforms like GiveForward, GoFundMe or Indiegogo. For further financial assistance and direction, you can evaluate these helpful organizations from our resources list (www.familyreach.org, cancercarecopay.org, cancerfac.org, thechainfund.org). Having a cancer planner will help you to keep track of all your medical expenses in one place and stay on top of your payments. The last thing you want to worry about is all your expenses adding up and getting out of hand.

Finally as part of your recovery plan, it’s important to ask yourself what vital changes to your lifestyle choices are necessary to help you heal and strength your immune system. A breakdown of the immune system is the primary reason humans develop cancer; we must work towards recovery by building back up the immune system with nourishing therapies. There’s a bunch of research you can do on cancer fighting foods you should incorporate into your diet. There is a cancer fighting food pyramid inside of CanPlan to help you get started. What you put into your body is one of the only elements you can control in your fight against cancer, so don’t ignore the importance of it. Now to create the best plan of action to guide you towards recovery, start by keeping track of your daily diet, exercise and medications. Then at the end of the day, rate how you feel overall on a scale of one to ten and what your general mood was for that day. Do this everyday as you start to make your lifestyle changes and notice what elements are and aren’t working for you. Perhaps you noticed that running for 30 mins greatly improved how you felt for that day. Take note of this and be consistent with it in your treatment plan. The more aware you become of your body and how it reacts to certain elements, the better you’ll be able to detect any new symptoms and find ways to combat against it. Keeping track of your progress will help put you in the driver’s seat with your fight against cancer. Don’t wait around for your doctor to tell you how you’re doing. This is your fight. You control how you want it to go.

Remember, you know your body best so always honor your body and how it reacts to certain treatments. A one-size-fits-all approach, much like the plan your doctor will prescribe you, won’t work in this situation. Since there is no “cure” to cancer as of right now, you’ll have to discover the best recovery plan through experimental trial and error. We encourage you to ask for help and seek guidance as much as you can. We’re lucky enough to live in an era, and country, with unlimited access to infinite knowledge where we can freely acquire information to make a well-informed decision (just be sure to double check your sources). It’s as if we’re given all the tools we’d need to be our own doctor. Now isn’t that a progressive thought.