Managing Cancer Related Distress

https://drive.google.com/open?id=17SkR-WySB3OcmwbKdcL8dxLTykFdxa0XhuC1NllmwW8

The Good News About Cancer

According to the Ladies' Home Journal writer Susan Crandall, (May 2010), my friend, Virginia Garner, pictured above, is a member of a small but growing contingent of cancer patients who now have the privilege of living with metastatic or otherwise-incurable disease for years, even decades. Crandall reminds us that famous cancer patients like Lance Armstrong and Elizabeth Edwards keep cancer at bay and continue to live fairly normal lives. She says, and I think we all agree, that while the road may be a rough one, most of us are pretty grateful to be on it at all.

Targeted therapies like Gleevec, Herceptin and Avastin have redefined survival. Crandall quotes Paul Richardson, MD, clinical director of the Jerome Lipper Center for Multiple Myeloma a the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, "Targeted drugs are less toxic to normal tissue; they reflect a better understanding of the biology of cancer." Cancer is also being attacked now by combining targeted drugs and using some of these drugs in a new way - as maintenance therapy to keep cancer from returning.

Crandall admits that while new drug therapies give patients new hope, patients have to balance gratitude with uncertainty about the future. Many of us know that we are always just about two steps ahead of the research - and we never want to have to take one step back, do we?

Anyway, the fun part of the article for me was this --- she describes Virginia as a "COMPETITIVE RUNNER." We got a chuckle out of this. My friend, Virginia, is a wonder woman and HAS done about ten marathons, but running is rare while RACE WALKING RULES !!!

It's a great article and it's also great fun to open up a magazine and see a familiar face. If you would like to read the entire article, go to:
http://www.lhj.com/health/conditions/cancer/the-good-news-about-cancer/?page=1

The Sandwich Generation - Who's the Kid Here, Anyway???

Do you find yourself caught in the middle? Mom and Dad have reverted to childhood - bickering and bothering each other while the kids are still draining your wallet. I started the day with $35 in my purse and ended it with $1 and an accusation from my 76-year old mother that I am keeping secrets from her and not telling her what medications she takes and what they are for. OMG, it's not like I haven't explained them to her a dozen times, holding each one up and describing it as either "a little white football" or "an orange coated ball with the initials SJ printed on it," or whatever..... I even reminded her to check the cover of the three-ring medication summary binder where I have listed each med, it's brand name, generic name, pronunciation and simple explanation of what it is for.
That's pretty secretive.



Patience is not optional when you care for an elderly parent. The loss of control that comes when all of life has changed after a stroke or major illness is monumental. It's so hard to let go and let someone else take care of everything they have done for themselves all of their lives. Patience. And boundaries. Reorient them to reality. Reassure them that you and everyone in the family is working together very hard to care for them and meet their needs.


In the meantime, daughter Allison negotiated the purchase of a pair of shorts and needed to be paid for her chores. Good job, Al.


I'm going home and going to bed. You old folks and young kids can duke it out without me.

Cooking Class for Special Needs Teens

Parents of special needs children need to help each other out. My friend, Susie, is a saint. She's a seasoned girl scout leader and she decided to apply her girl scout skills to helping our little rag-tag group of special needs teens.

We tried a community college cooking class. It was a disaster. There were too many kids with anti-social and inappropriate behavior in the class. The teacher was very young and totally not prepared to deal with the behavioral issues the kids brought to the room, the large class size, and the teaching of cooking. The kids would sit at a table for 30 or 40 minutes waiting for their turn in the kitchen. Once there, they would make some stupid dish like fruit roll-up sushi - all sugar, no nutritional value. How did that teach them self sufficiency? It did not.

Parents of special needs kids know the struggle of finding appropriate classes and activities for our kids. It can be a disaster.

Susie decided to hold the class in her home. Our venue. Our kids. Our menu. Together with the kids and moms she sets the menu and estimates the cost of groceries. We all pitch in to pay. Foods like mac and cheese, grilled cheese sandwich and soup, eggs and bacon, grilled chicken caesar salad. Real food the kids could easily prepare if they needed to feed themselves, which, God love 'em, we all pray that one day they WILL be feeding themselves. They learn to read a recipe, measure ingredients, use kitchen tools like a shredder, can opener, wire whisk, colander. They set the table, play games that reinforce table manners, and CLEAN UP the table and kitchen together. Each teen is assigned a task and they are encouraged to help out somebody who is struggling with their task. They hold accountable the kids who are not pulling their weight in the group project. It's an awesome group.

I nominate Susie for mom of the year. She is the BEST.

Today is where your book begins. The rest is still...Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield

An Inside Joke for CML'ers