Living longer after breast cancer

Well, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, as breast cancer is increasingly diagnosed earlier and treatment options continue to improve. More people are living longer as cancer survivors, but many of those survivors still dealing with a lot of questions about the changes to their health after surviving cancer. They're struggling to return to their everyday life. Healthcare professionals say laying out a plan ahead of time can certainly help. For more, We are lucky to be joined by Dr. Dawn Whammo. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me. For being here. You're a radiologist, breast imaging specialist at Kaiser Permanente in San Leandro. We were just talking about the first step is that anxiety of somebody coming in just to get that screening. Yes. That begins there with what do you do to kind of just help ease that anxiety there? Right. I think it's good for people to know that it is a very anxiety-provoking appointment. We are aware of that, and we do our best to just try to ease that anxiety by making it a very comforting and welcoming appointment, really tuning in to the patient's needs, and just encouraging people to come in and find out. Don't wait, because screening is really important. And whatever the result is, which we know people are fearful of the result, whatever it is, we're going to take care of you. And the earlier we find something, the better off you'll be. That is really the case for everything, and breast cancer in particular. The earlier, the better your chances are. Let's talk about physical changes, emotional impacts, mental health issues, dealing with this. How do you help someone navigate, you know, once they are, they've been through treatment, they're now a, you have this label, this cancer survivor, but how do you help them navigate all of that? I think, so from the point of diagnosis, my goal is always to give someone hope. And so from the minute that we diagnose or we're suspicious that the finding is cancer, I really just try to encourage them to have a positive mindset. When 50% of the battle is a positive mindset. And that really will will yourself forward through the process. And I think people don't realize that the diagnosis and treatment time is really, you know, six months, maybe a year at the most, but survivorship is decades. And so how can we thrive in survivorship? And so I try to encourage people to, you know, focus on their mental health and mental health isn't always therapy. It can also be other things that help bring you joy in your life, whether it's wellness activities or spending time with family or just whatever brings you peace and joy, like really focus on that. And then also, you know, share with people what your needs are. And that is really a challenge that I wanted to bring more awareness to. It's really hard for survivors to ask for help. Once they've gone through the diagnosis and treatment phase, they feel like they've asked so much already and just want to be okay, but they're not okay. And I think that we don't realize that. So I'm really glad we're having this conversation. And talk about, because it is so hard and I think for women in particular because I'm going to speak personally like we you know what we're fine we're strong we can handle everything you know and and we we go along and we push through pain physical pain mental pain heartache things that were going on so what can we do as family and friends so that that person our loved one doesn't have to reach out for help what can we do? I love that question. So I think that instead of just asking someone, okay, so you're done with treatment, you're cancer free, be more intentional about checking on someone, you know, ask someone, how are you really doing? And really like pay attention to the response and their body language. And I think you can learn a lot to know if that person really needs support and learn your family and friends or coworkers and understand what their needs are, what their normal routines are. So they may not say they need help, but you might say, hey, I know that they haven't been feeling well. They probably need someone to come help them clean their house. Send them a house cleaner, you know. Maybe just send, just do it, just show up for them. Because like you said, there's so many things they're dealing with. There's so many layers. There's pain. There's complications sometimes like lymphedema that they may be enduring, which is swelling of the arm after surgery in the armpit. There's body changes. The body positivity is a challenge for them after. There's just a challenge of getting back to normalcy after. And so the more we can just show up, really ask, and then just sometimes just show up and do things for them without asking. I feel like it's good to, I've learned personally to just say, what can I do to help with the kids this week? You know, something specific, right? Like, oh, do you need any help? It's not helpful. Right. And really quick before we go to, I want you, you brought up a good point because sharing that information with friends and family is one thing, but the workplace and that's really touchy because you don't necessarily want to or need to share all of that information. What do you recommend when you're going back to work and you're dealing with fatigue and pain and anxiety? Yes. That's a great question. And I think it really is a personal decision. I think navigating with your HR department can be really helpful because this is something that they're dealing with all the time with other people in different illnesses. So they would give really good advice. But sometimes I've learned that sometimes being a little bit vulnerable with some of your colleagues can really help to give you a small support network you don't have to maybe broadcast it to everyone it really is a personal preference but people want to help yeah and when people know how they can help you they will show up for you trust that people want to help and give the message on your earrings hope the message of hope Doctor Don, thank you so much thank you for joining us and uh the great information from Kaiser Permanente, we'll be right back Thank you.