You’re a cancer survivor: Now what?
The National Cancer Institute says that in 2016, 15.5 million adult Americans were alive after a diagnosis of cancer.
That number will hit 20.3 million by 2026. And a report from the Institutes of Medicine, “From Cancer Patient to Cancer Survivor: Lost in Transition,” found that while 62 percent of cancer survivors had their cancer diagnosed within the previous 10 years, 19 percent of female cancer survivors were diagnosed 20 or more years ago. Eight percent of male cancer survivors were diagnosed that long ago. Clearly, there are a lot of folks dealing with the physical and emotional repercussions of cancer diagnosis, treatment and survivorship. If that’s you or a loved one, it’s vital that the emotional toll it can take is addressed and managed, just like you manage ongoing medical care by getting regular exams/screenings to check for recurrence or another health issue.
You do that, right?
Unfortunately, you don’t all attend to the ongoing medical supervision that’s so essential to head off any developing problems or recurrence.