'I've been an oncology nurse for 22 years, and in that time I've seen people face a lot of challenges -- some they were prepared for, and some they weren't.' What an oncology nurse wants breast cancer patients to know:
What My Patients Didn't Expect During Treatment: A Nurse's PerspectiveMy patients are definitely the best part of my job as an oncology nurse. I get to see them from the time of diagnosis to the end of life. They become like family.
That's a very hard switch for people, especially if they were first diagnosed with an early-stage cancer, they finished treatment, and then their cancer came back. People get overwhelmed. They're scared and they're tired. Sometimes they just don't have the fight in them. Make sure you tell your treatment team about your symptoms, too. It‘ll make all the difference in how you feel. As a nurse, I see my job as being a symptom manager. I always encourage my patients to call me if they have any symptoms from their treatment.People are much more educated now, in part because they have the ability to Google. Unfortunately, Google has lots of rabbit holes to go down. Online chats can be particularly unhelpful.
I have one patient in her 70s with advanced breast cancer. She's always lived a very full life and traveled all over the world. But when her disease progressed she was prescribed an additional medication. Her co-pay was almost $2,000 for a month's supply. She’s retired, and her treatment took away her ability to travel -- the thing she loved doing most.
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