Living with Liver Cancer
Living with and managing liver cancer is in no way easy. However, there are ways to deal with pain, other symptoms and the emotional aspects of the disease.
Pain Management
For advanced stages of liver cancer, pain management becomes necessary. Your doctor can help you find treatments and medications to manage pain.
If you want to avoid side effects, acupuncture, acupressure, and deep breathing are great alternative pain management therapies.
Educate Yourself
Find out all you can about your cancer and the treatment options. This way you are better informed about making decisions about your care.
Ask your doctor to explain staging and what it means to you, your potential prognosis, and what treatments would work in your case.
Finding Support
You should stay close to loved ones, as your friends and family can provide physical and emotional support.
It is also important to find someone to talk to. It could be a friend, a relative, a therapist, a religious leader or others living with liver cancer.
Having people to talk to can help you cope and manage the emotions that come along with living with liver cancer.
Don’t Give Up
You may feel that the statistics for liver cancer are grim and don’t leave much room for optimism. Regardless, the creative use of multiple therapies may significantly prolong your life and help you to feel well for as long as possible.
Clinical studies, experimental drug treatments, and advancements in radiological and interventional technologies are making it easier to treat tumors.
Furthermore, the liver cancer survival rates have doubled in the past 30 years; this proposes that there is more to come in the treatment of liver cancer and the outlook for so many.
Lastly, just remember, you are not your diagnosis or the stage of liver cancer you are in. You are a human being living with a disease, and you are not a statistic.
Don’t give up on yourself, your life and the possibility of getting better.
