Your doctor just confirmed tests show you have cancer. I’ll bet you (or if not you, a family member) will go home and start googling pretty much right away. Not a good idea!!!
Here’s why: There are over 4 million results when you google “cancer diagnosis.” No matter how skilled you are at using the web to educate yourself, you will not be able to answer the basic questions you need answers to right away. In those first few days after you have been told you have cancer, you will be among the very few who even know what questions to ask.
- WHAT DO I NEED TO FIND OUT WHILE I WAIT FOR THE RESULTS OF MY TESTS?
- WHAT DO I DO IN THE MEANTIME, WHILE I WAIT?
- WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR ME AND MY FAMILY?
After cancer confirmation, you will begin a series of tests – pathology workups, blood tests, radiology scans – and they all take weeks, even months, before you will be able to sit down with the oncologists to discuss what happens next!!! You and your family, loved ones, co-workers and employers are all “on hold” while you wait. Most people who are or have been living with cancer will tell you this time is the most stressful time in their lives. And when the individual test results come to you via your patient portal (often before it is seen by your doctor), you and those concerned for you are very likely to go to “Dr. Google” to try to interpret the results. And the stress multiplies.
So what can you do during these first few months after you have been told you have cancer? There is a website that offers free, common-sense guidance for both new cancer patients and their loved ones. www.newcancerpatient.org. It is free and offers a checklist of what you can be doing now, while you wait for the results of your tests to be reviewed by the oncologists. And it answers questions about the practical, non-clinical aspects of beginning your cancer “journey.” Questions like:
- How and when do I tell my loved ones about my diagnosis?
- Where do I go for treatment, and who will treat me?
- How do I research treatment options?
- How will this affect my family’s finances?
- What can my family and I do now, while we wait for that time when the oncologists will meet with us to discuss treatment options?
- What benefits does my health insurance cover?
- What support will we need to cope with this upcoming, very uncertain time?
It has a PDF version of My Notebook, a Guide for Newly Diagnosed Cancer Patients and those who love them, and 6 short videos that condense the guidebook. Give it a try.
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