October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month or Cancer Awareness Month. But what should you be aware of?

Going through cancer care is hard. There are many challenges facing cancer patients, and most of their challenges are unseen.

In this article, I will present just a few of the unseen challenges of cancer care. I say just a few because there are so many challenges, and challenges are different for each cancer patient.

I have divided the challenges into six categories that are in no particular order.

Even though I don’t have cancer, cancer still has me. I was successfully treated for breast cancer, but I can’t completely put cancer out of my mind. Cancer is like a brewing storm. Sometimes the rumbles of thunder are low and far away. Other times cancer flashes back into my life like a lightning bolt.

Cancer treatments take a toll on the body, mind, and spirit in many ways. Oncology massage, acupuncture, physical therapy, integrative medicine, and healing touch are just a few ways to support your body, mind, and spirit through cancer treatments.

Yesterday I was your child. Today I am your caregiver. How did I get here?

I know how you are feeling right now. I’ve been there…twice. Becoming a caregiver for your parent who has cancer can be quite bewildering.

What happened to cause you to become your parent’s caregiver?

Allow me to anticipate some of the challenges you are facing as you become a caregiver to your parent.

Cancer. Not something you want to have, but you do. You have so many questions in general about cancer, and now you have been told you need to have radiation therapy. That brings so many more questions to your mind.

This article will look at some questions regarding radiation therapy and help you find answers about this treatment.

This is part two of a three-part series on how to recover from surgery. In part one we discussed things to do before your surgery to help you once you do have surgery.

This article will focus on immediate post-surgery tasks as well as where your recovery will take place.

You are scheduled to have surgery soon. The time to start your recovery is before you even have surgery. You have so many things on your mind that you need to do before the big day gets here. Let me help you get ready with this list of things to prepare for after surgery.

Throughout this series, we have talked about things leading up to this day, your first day of chemotherapy. But now the big day is here. Are you nervous? I know I was. I didn’t know what to expect, how I would feel, or even when I would start noticing any side effects of the chemo medicine.

That’s why I wrote this article for you. Hopefully, after reading this article, you will be better prepared than I was for your first day of chemotherapy.

Watching a loved one deal with the side effects of chemo can be difficult. And even more so if you do not have a medical background that can help you anticipate some of what your loved one will experience, much less how to deal with the side effects of chemo.

Chemotherapy attacks cancer cells to arrest them and prevent them from growing and duplicating. But in the process, many normal cells are also affected throughout the body. Read on to see some of the side effects of chemo and ways to prevent or treat these side effects.

How do I get a chemo port?

You will have a minor surgical procedure to get the port put in. The procedure can be done in interventional radiology in the radiology department, or in a regular operating room. The surgery can be done by an interventional radiologist or by a surgeon.