Seminar helps cancer survivors face fears of recurrence

Sometimes the cancer is gone, but the fears remain.
 
What if the tumors come back? What if they're already there, quietly waiting before a second round of terror?
 
Experts say that for many cancer survivors, the battle doesn't end when the cancer goes away. That's when they say a whole new kind of fear sets in and too often casts a dark shadow on what should be a time of hope and starting anew.
 
"A diagnosis really throws people into a whirlwind. Things happen very quickly, but you get through all that and all of a sudden you think 'OK, now what?'" said Margo DeLong, director of outreach services for Sunstone Cancer Support Centers.
 
"Everything was about appointments and treatments, then everything stops. Then the thought starts creeping in 'What if it comes back? When is it coming back?' People really do begin to live in this fear of recurrence."
 
Sunstone Cancer Support Centers, which recently opened a location in Yuma, provides presentations for cancer survivors called "Living Beyond Fear of Recurrence." DeLong will offer the presentation for the first time in Yuma on Nov. 6 (see inset information).
 
"We help survivors come up with some form of coping skills so they don't live with this fear of recurrence," she said. "We want to help people deal with these very realistic and very normal fears."
   
The nonprofit Sunstone Cancer Support Centers offer cancer patients and survivors alternative approaches to health that often focus on the holistic, mind-body-spirit connection. But DeLong stresses that Sunstone's resources - ranging from massage to educational resources - are meant to complement, not replace, Western medicine.
 
"We do complementary medicine, which means doing things in conjunction with radiation and chemo. They work together well."
 
Sunstone also has a library of books and DVDs, support groups and various education presentations such as "Living Beyond Fear of Recurrence."
 
All diseases elicit some degrees of fear, but cancer may be especially skilled at scaring its victims - and survivors.
 
"It used to be, way back, that cancer was like a death sentence. I think many people had grandparents who died of cancer, but the medical field has come such a long way," DeLong said.
 
"I think cancer is just a scary word, to tell you the truth. You hear cancer and you think the worst."
 
Then there is the fact that cancer can often go unnoticed in the body, seemingly popping up suddenly.
 
"People can be in great shape, eat healthy foods and when they find out they have cancer, they're blown away," DeLong said. "That lends itself to fear. People might say 'I felt great and I didn't know then. What about now?'"
 
The first thing Sunstone offers survivors is the comforting awareness that they aren't alone.
 
"Something I've found from talking to people is that people think they are the only ones going through this. It's amazing that they don't realize that the very next person is feeling the same way. They don't realize that everyone surviving cancer has that same exact fear."

The difference is the degree to which a person is affected by those fears and for how long.
 
"Typically most people really do find their way, but there are those few people who ruminate over it," DeLong said. "But typically people find the coping skills and go back to leading their lives."
 
The approaches Sunstone might suggest are many, including support groups, counseling, an exercise regimen to boost vitality, along with a host of holistic alternatives, as mentioned before.
 
DeLong described how relieved and rejuvenated cancer survivors feel after completing one of the sessions about recurrence fears.
 
"They feel empowered. They feel normal. People leave saying 'I wish this presentation could have been all day.' They just get so much out of it. They realize that they're finally going to back to the lives they want to live."


---
Darin Fenger can be reached at dfenger@yumasun.com or 539-6860.


----

IF YOU GO
WHAT: "Living Beyond the Fear of Recurrence"
WHEN: 9 a.m. to noon Nov. 6
WHERE: Heritage Branch Library, 350 S. 3rd Ave.
COST: Will be $15 per person
TO REGISTER: Call 783-5595 or stop by 202 S. 1st Ave., Suite 102