Advice from Bob: A patient's top tips

Editor’s Note: The following article was developed by a Providence Regional Cancer System patient, Robert R. Largen and his wife/editor Rosemary Shold. Bob received a diagnosis of “stage four, non-smoking, Agent Orange induced, lung cancer on October 31, 2001.” Below are some of his top tips for how he personally manages his cancer. The views reflected below are his own. If you’d like add your own tips, please leave a note in the comments.

1. Have someone accompany you to any doctor’s appointments or consultations. This person will help you absorb all the information that comes at you. Take notes.
2. Repeat back to the nurse or doctor any instructions that are given to you. Follow the instructions as closely as you can.
3. If possible, have a health professional other than the treating doctors and nurses guide you through the process. (Editor’s Note: Bob has a daughter Catherine, who is also an RN. There are many resources like this in our community, please don’t be afraid to ask if you’d like to be directed to one).
4. Keep a daily log of your health. It is a helpful resource when the nurse and doctors ask, “How is the patient doing?” And, “When did the symptoms start?” We found that the combination of happiness for making it through the day and fearfulness for what tomorrow may bring made for very poor long term memory.
5. Do something each day to better the future for the family, e.g., estate planning, distribute possessions, contact your pastor, open or close bank accounts, etc.
6. Make each day count. Achieving what is essentially a positive attitude is difficult as it is easy to be drawn down in the morass of the situation. This activity requires extreme mental discipline.
7. Take advantage of any counseling offered by the hospital or clinic.
8. Develop a network of support. We sent out 45-50 letters informing people of my diagnosis. As a result, each day’s mail brought something for me to look forward to. (Editor’s Note: This is an excellent example of where an electronic network like Caring Bridge would be helpful, Providence is currently in the process of linking up with this resource.)
9. Try to keep as near normal routine as possible in a situation in which everything has changed. We celebrated my 75^th birthday with a card party. I received over 100 cards in the mail. Once again, each day’s mail brought something to look forward to.

Have your own tips? Leave us a note in the comments!

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It is a celebration: Providence hospice services help retired professor give lesson in celebrating life

“It is a celebration, and that’s a surprise to me,” says retired professor David Hitchens after several  months of hospice care following a diagnosis of inoperable lung cancer. Hospice has given him and his wife Joan the gift of time. Time to make plans. Time to connect and reconnect with loved ones.  Time to reflect on life. Time to share memories. Time to laugh. Time to love.

Hitchens, age 72, is dying. He’s received hospice services from Providence SoundHomeCare and  Hospice in his home in Olympia, WA since February and says the choice to go on hospice care after he was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer has been a “great decision.” He’s already outlived his  sixmonth prognosis. He’s not in pain. His family has come together to support him. His friends visit. And many of his former students have written on a tribute blog about how their former professor impacted their lives.

His 41 years of teaching and questioning at The Evergreen State College in Olympia comes through as he looks around his bedroom and asks, “Am I doing this right?”

Because Hitchens is a teacher – always looking for answers and prodding others to do the same – he  wonders if his time on hospice is going according to plan. “The hospice experience for me so far has been different than I could have anticipated because I wasn’t sure what having terminal lung cancer was going to mean in terms of how I was going to feel physically. What was going to go on? Was I going to deal with excruciating pain? Was it going to spread to my brain? How afraid of this am I? Or am I afraid of it?”

Many remember Hitchens’ unique teaching style and openness to different ideas. When evaluating his students, Hitchens always asked them to reflect on what they discovered that surprised them as a consequence of their studies in his class.

Hitchens now is the one reflecting on his discoveries. “This is one of the big moments and not  verybody has the length of time, whatever the ETA is for my expiration date. It’s still out there. I’m  oming in for this landing and is everything under control? Am I doing it right? I’m not sure what it  eans for me. I’m trying to be as real as I know how.”

As Hitchens lives life as a hospice patient, receiving nursing visits once a week, taking advantage of massage therapy and having all of his questions patiently answered, he is surprised to learn that he’s such an exception. Nearly half of families who access hospice services do so in the last two weeks of life. In a medical system designed to fix people and cure diseases, not all physicians are comfortable recommending hospice care to their patients – and even fewer patients and their families are willing to accept it, fearing that they’re “giving up.” But statistics show otherwise.

A study published last year in the New England Journal of Medicine found that terminal lung cancer patients who began receiving hospice care immediately upon diagnosis not only were happier, more mobile and in less pain as the end neared, but also lived nearly three months longer than those who didn’t receive such care. Similar studies have found the same to be true for patients with heart failure and chronic lung disease.

This is Hitchens’ third bout with cancer. The first time – in 1988-89 – he successfully fought Hodgkin’s lymphoma with a year’s worth of chemotherapy. But he was sick and isolated. “The chemo wouldn’t have allowed me to have these moments (I have today),” he says. “The mood, the atmosphere, the interaction, would have been different. I’m very grateful and I’m surprised. I sit around and think, `I kind of won the raffle.’ Numerous family celebrations have given the grandchildren time to be integrated in this end of life recognition. And they’ve spent one-on-one quality time with Hitchens. “I want us to get as many  positive things out of this as we can,” he says. "It can’t all be sadness and gloom. We need to have some fun."

You might also like:

• Providence Sound Home Care and Hospice
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Providence SoundHome Care and Hospice
3432 South Bay Road NE
Olympia, WA 98506 F
or hospice referrals
t: 800.221.8022 or 360.493.4650
For all other hospice calls
t: 877.620.3286 or 360.493.5900
www.providence.org/pshch

Free Community Event at Mason General Hospital

Transitioning from cancer patient to cancer survivor

When patients end treatment, they often report feeling lost, abandoned, and unsure of what to feel and do next. End-of-treatment stress is often unexpected because patients anticipate feeling relief when active treatment ends and hoping they can “get back to their lives.” The transition from cancer patient to cancer survivor can be very challenging.

I am thrilled to announce the launch of our fall Cancer Transitions Program funded with the grant we won from LIVESTRONG (Lance Armstrong Foundation).

Check out the article I wrote on "Combating end-of-treatment stress" while I was in Austin for training.

This is a six-week program (Oct 10, 17 & 24, Nov 1, 7 & 14)) with a one month booster session Dec 12.  We will meet from 6 - 8:30PM on the Providence St. Peter Hospital campus.  Dinner will be served.

Please forward this information to anyone you know who has completed active cancer treatment and is looking for tools and resources to successfully transition to the next phase of survivorship. 

Please contact me if you have any questions or would like more information.  Thank you for your support!

One Hill, Many Voices: Stories of Hope and Healing

Harmony Hill Retreat Center currently has over 1,000 books in their offices. We borrowed this photo from their facebook page.We are excited to honor Rosemary Spyhalsky, RN, OCN, HN-BC, Nurse Coordinator for Providence Integrative Cancer Care Program and Cobie Whitten, PhD, Providence Integrative Cancer Care Advisor. They are both featured in the new book, One Hill, Many Voices: Stories of Hope and Healing.

From Harmony Hill Retreat Center's website:

"Harmony Hill’s newest book One Hill, Many Voices: Stories of Hope and Healing by Donna Cameron and Kristen Leathers. While cancer is central to a number of the stories told in One Hill, Many Voices: Stories of Hope and Healing, they are really about living authentically. Along with the picturesque background of Harmony Hill we are introduced to individuals who reconnected with their own lives and accessed their own inner wisdom and healing.  Woven among the individual stories of hope, healing and homecoming is the story of one woman, Gretchen Schodde, whose vision and perseverance made Harmony Hill a reality. These illuminating stories about real people in real situations remind us all that living our lives on purpose is our true work."

For more information please visit Harmony Hill Retreat Center's website >>