Some people need special help to cope with their cancer, and their doctors can't always provide it. Doctors are as interested in their patients' emotional well-being as they are in their physical well-being, yet medical appointments are usually taken up with talks about treatment problems, side effects, precautions and complications.
Doctors do recognize the importance of dealing with emotional concerns and can often refer you to the many external support groups and systems available to you. These groups give all cancer patients the kind of help that only interested and dedicated people, often sufferers of the same disease, can provide.
At the Hospital Many local hospitals, especially those with cancer treatment centers, have support groups that are run by health professionals and often meet every week. These are groups designed just for individuals with cancer and for family members.
Some of these groups are specialized, dealing only with the common physical and emotional problems of people who have been treated for specific tumors. For example:
• People who have had ostomies—artificial openings created in the colon, intestine or bladder—have to learn
what they can do to live as normal a life as possible.
• People who have had their larynx, or voice box, removed have to learn how to speak all over again.
• Women who have had a mastectomy have specific emotional problems. So do men with testicular cancer.
