All cancer patients have the right to comfort care

How to manage cancer-related side effects is one of the major concerns I receive from my patients who are going through various cancer treatment options.

Some of these are hair loss, weight loss, weight gain, loss of appetite and severe fatigue, just to mention few. All these side effects seem to always burden the disease itself. That’s why I always let my patients swallow the fact that cancer treatment is hard to go through than receiving a diagnosis at the first place.

It’s very important to seek medical (and social) advices from experts on how to manage these complications.

Patients have the right to comfort care

I appreciate my patients who understand that the challenge is not to let the treatments get the best of them.

If they find any unaddressed abnormalities like pains or aches, they make sure to tell me right away. Patients have the right to comfort care. And we doctors are there just to offer what our patients need.

I therefore advise patients to ask for the comfort care during and after treatment whenever something seems to be not normal. And this type of care is often called ‘palliative care’. The palliative care includes treating or preventing cancer symptoms and the side effects caused by treatment.

Palliative care is not only for end-stage patients

Palliative care was once perceived as a way to comfort those cancer patients who are at the brink of death. Unlike this time, we now offer this care to all patients starting from the very first diagnosis - early stage.

One should receive this kind of care through treatment, survival and for advanced diseases. Your oncologist may be able to help you. But a palliative care specialist may be the best person to treat some problems. Ask your doctor or nurse if there is a specialist you can go to.

Another agonising situation that most of the patients go through during cancer treatment, is that chronic pain. Not everyone with cancer has cancer pain, but some do. If you have cancer that’s spread or recurred, your chances of having pain is higher.

Cancer pain takes many forms. It can be dull, achy, sharp or burning. It can be constant, intermittent, mild, moderate or severe. How much pain you feel depends on a number of factors, including the type of cancer you have, how advanced it is, where it’s situated and your pain tolerance.

Make sure you talk to your doctor or health care provider about your pain. You and your doctor can set a goal for pain management and monitor the success of the treatment. Your doctor should track the pain with a pain scale, assessing how strong it is. The goal should be to keep you comfortable. If you aren’t comfortable, talk to your doctor.

Have regular consultations with your health care team about your pain. Let them know what kind of pain it is, where it is and how bad it is. These conversations are important because pain can alter throughout your illness.

Keep in mind that most cancer pain is manageable and that controlling your pain is essential to your treatment.