Since my cancer diagnosis 23 years ago, I always had someone looking out for me medically. And my oncologist was a stellar watchman throughout these years. He is brilliant in the oncology field, but he also is immensely kind. He treats his patients as family members. And he returns patients’ calls immediately.
Now that he’s retired, I feel like an astronaut whose lifeline has been abruptly cut, and I’m floating away into dark space without oxygen.
What increases my risk of ovarian cancer?
Include: Family history of cancer:
If you have two or more close relatives (mother, sister or daughter) who have had ovarian cancer or breast cancer, you may be at a higher risk of the disease. Having relatives with ovarian cancer does not necessarily mean that you have a faulty inherited gene in the family. Faulty genes can lead to ovarian cancer in a very small number of women – about 5-10%. These include the genes BRCA1 and BRCA2. BRCA1 and BRCA2 are also linked to the development of breast cancer. There is also a risk of ovarian cancer if your family have the genetic mutation known as Lynch Syndrome.
https://www.cancer.ie/cancer-information-and-support/cancer-types/ovarian-cancer#support
Knowing the symptoms is important to help spot bowel cancer early. The earlier that it’s found, the more treatable it’s likely to be.
https://www.bowelcanceruk.org.uk/about-bowel-cancer/symptoms/
The vision of this model of care is that it will provide clarity regarding the structure and governance of hereditary cancer services in Ireland.
LS predisposes to cancer in multiple organs, including colorectal, endometrial, upper GI, genitourinary, brain, and skin cancers.
Unfortunately, most individuals with LS remain undiagnosed4 and do not benefit from the growing medicines, equipment, and techniques available of early detection and prevention strategies that can prolong life, reduce cancer incidence, and thereby increase quality of life for individuals with LS.
In spite of the numerous diagnostic approaches to identifying individuals and families with LS, however, it is widely understood that LS remains underdiagnosed and thus opportunities for genetically driven cancer prevention remain missed.
The EHR(Electronic Health Record) can play an important role in identifying candidates for LS screening and advancing the clinical care of patients with LS. However, many limitations of the EHR need to be addressed and complementary approaches that incorporate input from all stakeholders are key to improving the lives of individuals with LS.
Cancer doesn’t just take over a person’s physical body, but their very life?
In short, when it comes to journeying through cancer care, there seems to have been prolific, yet strangely finite, consideration of that path, ceasing when it comes to post-treatment.
Screening and diagnosis to treatment and remission have been covered, but what about what happens after that?
What about cancer survivorship?
The good news is that a shift in the state of affairs is occurring.
https://pharmaphorum.com/deep-dive/life-after-cancer-navigating-survivorship-and-mental-health
Consultant Medical Oncologist at University Hospital Galway commented on this article to Newstalk FM: https://irishtimes.com/health/2024/07/12/number-of-out-patients-seen-per-consultant-has-fallen-by-nearly-30-per-cent-since-2016/
I am surprised that it is only a 30% reduction. In medical oncology in Ireland, in general, there has never been a ‘waiting list’ to access a consultant opinion, public or private. Since I started my training, every new referral was pretty much automatically booked to the next OPD clinic, i.e. within a week of receiving the referral. That is still the case. 15 years ago, this meant that routinely, a consultant and 2-3 NCHDs would have a 3 hour clinic with 60-70 patients booked in. A patient with a “3pm appointment” would still be waiting to be seen at 8pm. There was little time to discuss the proposed cancer treatment and potential side-effects. The system was clearly understaffed for the volume of patients.
I have said before that one of the positive achievements over the past 10 years is the increase in consultant numbers. This has allowed more meaningful outpatient clinic interactions.
However: If the HSE hires a new consultant with the aim of improving patient care in this way, it should obviously be the case that secretarial support, clinical nurse specialist support, office space, outpatient space, dayward space supported by qualified staff nurses, HSCP support, (theatre space for surgeons), diagnostic and interventional radiology access, etc is also required, to enable improved patient care. In other areas of medicine or surgery, access to a consultant opinion might well be a constraint, in Oncology, the bottleneck is access to the service.
Illness as Metaphor, in her book Susan Sontag sets out to diagnose the problem with the way we think about illness.
Her discovery was not to focus on sickness itself, but the language surrounding disease – language that can, in her view, quite literally kill.
https://www.fringefest.com/festival/whats-on/illness-as-metaphor
Lynch Syndrome Ireland 