What To Do Next
1. You or someone you love has been diagnosed with cancer and you want to know what's next in this process.
2. Be Calm, Positive and get Focused. This may not be the way you feel at first so get any of your negative feelings, thoughts or emotions out of your system right now; cry, yell, scream, curse what ever works for you. And when you are finally calm, positive and focused, move on to the next step.
3. Take Charge. You will make the final decision about your treatment. You are in charge of your own health. Early on, We learned from the American Cancer Society's own statistics that a patient who takes charge of their own health care has a greater than 30% better outcome. Having someone as your patient advocate can be very beneficial by providing an extra set of eyes and ears in your journey. However, they must only be there to support you and the final decisions in your health must be made by YOU.
4. Keep Records. Immediately start your own record folder for all your medical information and another folder for medical bills, keep it simple. Start with one folder for medical records and one for medical bill, the current year on top of each folder. You will have basically three types of medical reports: a) Pathology and lab reports. b) Diagnostics such as CT Scans, MRI, PET, X-rays and there associated reports. c) Treatments and doctor summary reports. You may get some resistance from the medical establishment about providing you with these report however, it is YOUR RIGHT to have this information and by law they must give it to you. Don't let them tell you, "You can't have it." You can put everything in one folder and for each new year of your long term survivorship start a new folder. Make sure to look over all your medical bills in order to avoid overpayment. Most medical providers are very good at keeping track of their money however, they do make mistakes from time to time.
5. Get the Facts. Learn what type of cancer you have; ask your doctor or look it up on the internet. At this point you should know the name of your cancer, the pathology of your cancer and what stage you have been diagnosed with. Try not to get caught up in the statistics of cure rates, treatments and average survival; each person's experience is unique to them and we are just getting the facts at this point.
6. Research and Resources. Continue to learn more about your cancer type and stage. Find someone who has or had the same cancer type as you that has been cured or is considered a long term survivor and ask them what they did to overcome their cancer. Support groups are nice but, you want to know what successful cancer patients have done in their treatment process in order to achieve your best outcome. Keep in mind that your doctor has to follow medical protocol and their clinic's rules, policies, and regulation and may not necessarially be your best resource. Unless your doctor has been or is a cancer patient they may not tell you about other treatment options. Over time you will find other cancer patients will be your best resource.
7. Treatment. The most important thing to keep in mind is that You must be comfortable, confident and commited to whatever treatment protocol You choose. You make the final decision as to what you are willing to do, not your doctor, not your spouse, not your friend, YOU! All too often your doctor may create a terrible sense of urgency about getting started with treatment right away and we give away our right to choose because of fear. If you need immediate medical attention you wouldn't even be having this discussion with your doctor. STOP and take the time to investigate your other options (Click Here!). Find out how urgent it is when the conventional medical treatment centers, rarely if ever, schedules your treatment on a weekend or holiday.
This is just an outline to help you get started on your journey of earning your health back. I will be providing additional and expanded information for each step in the near future, so please share this site and check back soon.
If you have found any of the information on this site helpful won't you please consider making a donation?