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Thoughts on Being a Survivor
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Written by Steve Smith
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Saturday, 16 February 2008 |
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 In all the Oscar buzz this year, I’m afraid, the compelling drama, “At Night,” will get lost in all the glitzy glamour of more well-known movies. But “At Night”—a film, not a movie—is up for an Oscar for the best live action short. I am singing its praises loudly.
I saw “At Night” last night with two friends, and I, as a cancer survivor, felt immediately drawn—mesmerized, if you will—by the three women 18 to 20 who share their problems while spending the Christmas and New Year’s holidays in a hospital cancer ward. But they were different from me in one respect: their cancers are terminal.
In one night, my friends and I saw all five films nominated for an Oscar for best live action. One friend—a man—loved “At Night,” too, but his wife favored “Tanghi Argentini” about a man who must learn to tango in two weeks to impress his online girlfriend who he plans to meet soon. Annie, I love ya to death, but I was particularly engrossed with the pathos of “At Night,” a 45-minute Danish film with English subtitles, a harrowingly beautiful, but depressing, film that chronicles the bonds that cancer patients form.
I can attest that these bonds last a long time after you get out of the hospital and get on with the rest of your life.
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Thoughts on Being a Survivor
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Written by Steve Smith
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Saturday, 09 February 2008 |
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 Five years ago, how would I have explained the fact I had prostate cancer to my kids, assuming I had any then? What would they had thought if they had known the big guy who took them to see the Dallas Cowboys and taught them to “pull his finger” could possibly die?
I recently found my answers in “Honey, Mommy has cancer,” on CNN.com. In case you missed the article, the three key points are: • Don’t keep the cancer diagnosis a secret from your kids. • Help your kids, or get seek professional guidance, on teaching your children how to cope with fear, anger and anxiety—the very things you are facing. • Seek out groups and agencies for information on how to explain everything to kids.
For instance, if you’re a mother, how do you explain to your young daughter that you’re going to cut off all your hair before something called “chemotherapy” took it? The CNN article highlighted a 42-year-old woman in Phoenix whose 4-year-old daughter learned about cancer by helping cut her mother’s hair. Comments (2) |
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Thoughts on Being a Survivor
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Written by Steve Smith
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Monday, 04 February 2008 |
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 If you’ve just been diagnosed with prostate cancer and have come to my blog looking for advice, have I got some big advice for you:
If you choose surgery to have your prostate removed, make sure you get a surgeon who’s done plenty of the operations at a hospital where many of the “radical prostatectomies” have been performed. Remember, experience counts.
And I’m not the only one who preaches that. A new federal report says urinary complications and incontinence are less likely if a surgeon has performed more than 40 prostate removals per year. What's more, surgery-related deaths, urinary complications and readmissions were lower and hospital stays were shorter in hospitals that performed more prostate removals, according to the federal government’s Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
However, the report concludes that scientific evidence has not established surgery or any other single treatment as superior for all men, officials say in the latest Annals of Internal Medicine.
"This report is a reminder that patient outcomes may vary according to treatment settings," says Dr. Carolyn M. Clancy, the agency’s director. "But this analysis also underscores a broader message: when it comes to prostate cancer, we have much to learn about which treatments work best, and patients should be informed about the benefits and harms of treatment options."
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