A Cancer-Patient Community

The Community of Cancer Patients

We all know that cancer is big business. Many patients still go to hospitals for chemotherapy, but in larger populations, medical offices geared specifically for cancer patients are common. My father goes to a clinic containing a large waiting room for the patients’ drivers with comfortable chairs, the usual reading material, and a TV; its own lab for blood work before receiving chemotherapy—it determines if the body can tolerate the treatment and how strong to make it—and a room furnished with recliners and wheeled poles with hooks for the IV bags dispensing the medication.

My dad recently celebrated his eighty-fourth birthday. The nurses and aids gave him a fancy birthday balloon and carrot cake, and sang Happy Birthday. It made my dad happy. He feels part of a community. People who come in weekly form friendships and celebrate each success, mourn each loss, and most important, don’t feel alone.

Keep Care Easier on the Patient

This center where my father goes also contains a urologist and a kidney specialist, both areas where cancer patients frequently have secondary problems. There is even a Chick-Fil-A. (Spelling?) Anyway, it’s a well-known fast food restaurant in the South. Keeping services together lessens the wear and tear on patients. Traveling from office to office can be extremely tiring to someone battling the side effects of chemotherapy.  

My dad was diagnosed with multiple myeloma several years ago. Too old for a stem cell transplant, he started on chemotherapy in the form of a daily pill and a weekly shot in the stomach muscles. He just recently had to have a port put into his chest for IV chemotherapy. The cancer cell count went up in his blood work, and a bone marrow scan showed increased activity. None of this was unexpected.

Multiple myeloma is an incurable bone marrow cancer that is, nevertheless, highly treatable. The average life span at this time is five to seven years. Constant research changes survival numbers all the time. Considering my father is already past the average life span, every day with reasonable quality of life is a bonus. He has a great attitude, which I know in part stems from the care he receives from his doctors and the staff at the center. I’m grateful to them.