Stories of people with cancer. Cancer appears in people who have "folded their wings." Katerina Gordeeva: Russian story about cancer and people

Ecology of life. February 4 - World Cancer Day. We want to dedicate this collection to those who know more about oncology than we would like. Of course, those who were sick and recovered.

February 4 is World Cancer Day. We want to dedicate this collection to those who know more about oncology than we would like. Of course, those who were sick and recovered. To those who are in the unknown and struggling. Those who left, but we remember them. Doctors, psychologists, and, of course, relatives and friends of cancer patients experience life at the limit of honesty.

Read these four honest texts. Let's figure it out and seek, support and fight together.

Cancer appears in people who "folded their wings"

Cancer is when the body goes crazy. Lawrence Le Champ, in his book Cancer, the Turning Point in Life, makes some amazing insights into the causes of this disease and its treatment.

Cancer is the last warning that prompts a person to remember his destiny, to liberate his desires, and then the body itself finds the strength to fight, mobilizes all its defense mechanisms. Joy and freedom in one's own realization is the most powerful medicine.

Oncopsychology: healing with the soul

Revealing this valuable is very simple by asking yourself an elementary question: “If today is the last day in your life?”

At this moment, of course, I forget that I am a psychologist, because the level of despair is transferred to me, we are sitting opposite each other, I have a vacuum, emptiness. What do you say? He sits, we look at each other, a thought comes to me, I don’t know where, I say: “Let's touch the rain.”

Mom, I have cancer. Mom, let me live!

This story is on the verge of life and death, bare nerves, the limit of emotions. How I wish that at such a moment loved ones supported the desire to live and fight, and not be buried alive.

Therefore, I ask you again, do not push me to heaven, and if possible, do not push me anywhere. Just don't push, but hug me and pull me close to you. Silently. Without any thoughts, goals, ideas and advice. Of course, if you can, if you want. If you can't, I understand. I will forgive you. And you forgive me.

Mom, dad, six kids and cancer

Olya - it seems to be perfect ordinary person, not an Olympic champion, not a spirit-bearing old man, not even a fighter for justice. Olya will never be awarded great awards, and I'm not sure that she needs them. But next to her, you always want to keep your head up.

And that abscess that had accumulated in me several years before, constant stress, blackness, hopelessness - it seemed to be pierced. It's all gone. Definitely this disease was for the benefit of all of us. published

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At the entrance to this department, shoe covers for five soms. The nurse asks to wear bandages so as not to infect children after "chemo".

Children run in the corridor - in bonnets, joyful, daring ... "It's them who have fun before the" chemistry ". After the injection, they will lie and cry," the nurse explained.

Two-year-old Rayana with acute blood leukemia and her mother Tolkun are waiting for me in the ward. From a large number medicines, the girl's stomach is very swollen.

“During the first months of Rayana’s treatment, we spent all the savings that we had. At first she began to ask for help from relatives, but they are not obliged to support us. Then she begged bank employees to give a loan. I took the first loan, then the second,” says the mother.

The photographer and cameraman at some point could not listen to this and went out into the corridor. The three of us stayed in the room.

- What about dad?

- Dad? He wants freedom ... He said that he would sign a refusal from his daughter, that there was no money to help. He paints cars, gets 10,000 a month.

There are blue baby slippers next to the bed. In the bedside table are clean dishes and a pack of tea. In fact, the ward is designed for four, but the rest of the patients are currently undergoing procedures.

Tolkun Abdraimova: Rayana has a very hard time with chemotherapy. When the serum is injected, it burns the veins

“Somehow I ran into my kainezhe (sister-in-law) in the hospital. She began to scream that I myself had infected the child with cancer ... Only my sister supported me: I called her in the morning, said that there was nothing to eat, and an hour later she brought a pot of fresh shorpo ", says the woman.

Now Tolkun and her daughter are helped by a charitable organization. 90 percent of the treatment is paid by the state - before, my mother had to pay 3,000 soms a day for this.

A huge expense item is analysis. Parents of children suffering from cancer shared that doctors send them to private laboratories, despite the fact that the National Cancer Center has its own free one.

According to the Ministry of Health, the results of the state laboratory cannot really be trusted.

"The information that doctors send for tests to private clinics is correct. The fact is that in the NCO, the clinical laboratory often issues unreliable results. Until recently, there was no elementary hematological analyzer," the official response to a request from Sputnik Kyrgyzstan says.

By the way, the same hematology analyzer, according to a representative of the Help the children - SKD charity foundation, was bought with the money of caring Kyrgyzstanis many years ago.

Why can't we save our children?

Doctors assure that parents bring many children too late. Four out of five juvenile patients are admitted already at the 3-4th stage of cancer. According to doctors, the situation is especially difficult in the regions: there are not enough doctors or equipment.

Victim medical error almost became seventeen-year-old Adina Mambetalieva. She said that seven years ago, the doctors of the Naryn hospital whole year treated her for goiter. When the condition became quite critical, the parents took the girl to Bishkek. Doctors were shocked: the level of hemoglobin was at a deadly low of 21 grams per liter at a rate of 130-150. Adina was diagnosed with blood cancer.

© Sputnik / Tabyldy Kadyrbekov

Adina Mambetalieva: I remember my roommate, Daniel… He was 10 when he was sent home. Die...

“You can’t imagine how painful it is, the veins burn out from the“ chemo . Adina recalls.

This story ended happily - in two years the girl overcame cancer. Her friend Daniel, who was a year younger, the doctors could not help ...

Annually in Kyrgyzstan terrible diagnosis put 200 kids. According to the Ministry of Health, the state allocates from 3 to 5 million soms a year for the treatment of underage citizens with cancer. According to the estimates of the department, this money is enough for a full-fledged quality treatment only four or five patients. It takes between $10,000 and $150,000 a year for one sick child, taking into account possible transplant bone marrow or organ transplant.

© Sputnik / Tabyldy Kadyrbekov

Elena Koneva: we have launched a program to provide psychological help. Centers opened in two departments psychological rehabilitation where fund psychologists work five days a week

Great support is provided by donors and charitable foundations. Elena Koneva, a representative of Help the children — SKD, said that much of what is available in the Department of Pediatric Oncology and Hematology in Bishkek was purchased by the foundation: computers, dishes, furniture, hematological and biochemical analyzers, and a microvisor.

The conversation with Tolkun is over. A little girl in a gauze bandage and a hat ran up to me, pulled me by the jacket into the ward:

- Who are you?

I'm a journalist, and you?

— I'm Sezim, I'm seven, I have cancer. Are you scared? Don't be afraid, I'm strong! Let's play better!

- Do you want to hide and seek?

- Come on, you need to do something so as not to get tired - I still really want to take a walk with my mother. Today the weather is bad, it's cold, but I really want spring! Then I will be allowed to play outside.

We didn't get to play. Our conversation was interrupted by the cry of a nurse:

— Sezim, to the ward!

- I went, you come. I'll play hide and seek with you if I feel good.

© Sputnik / Tabyldy Kadyrbekov

Tolkun Abdraimova: during the first months of Rayana's treatment, we spent all the savings that we had. At first I began to ask for help from relatives, but they are not obliged to support us. Then she begged bank employees to give a loan. I took the first loan, then the second

February 15 is World Children's Cancer Day. This date appeared in the calendar in 2001 at the initiative of the World Confederation of Parents of Children with Cancer. This day is celebrated in more than 40 countries under the patronage of the International Society of Pediatric Oncologists.

Over the past five years in children's department Oncology at the NCO received 2,315 children, of whom 74 have not survived to this day ...

20-year-old Moscow student Dmitry Borisov has found himself in the spotlight of the Internet community. He was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, which, even with a tendency to the disease, usually manifests itself by the age of 60. Thanks to social networks and the support of bloggers, he managed to raise about 1 million rubles for treatment. He now receives dozens of messages of support, and recently started blogging on the Ekho Moskvy website. Medialeaks spoke to the young man about life with cancer and the fame that came to him.

We are sitting in the corridor of the Herzen Cancer Institute. The hospital, it would seem, is not much different from the usual for many. People differ, diagnoses, and, of course, the general atmosphere.

Tell me, how did you find out about the diagnosis?

From the age of 4, I began to manifest a rare genetic disease- Neurofibromatosis. There was a tumor the size of a small bump that grew to large sizes: occupied the entire back, half of the chest, axillary region right hand. Against this background, around the autumn-winter of last year, another small bump began to grow under the tumor.

I did not attach any importance to this: well, the next knot has grown and okay - their appearance is typical of my disease. Soon the state of health began to deteriorate, apathy appeared. By spring, I already had a bigger bump. But at that time there was study, and you know how it usually happens with men - business first, and then health. By May, the bump was already the size of a small fruit, and one morning I simply could not get out of bed from the pain. Polyclinics began in May, and then the bump began to grow explosively - now, as you can see, it is already the size of a soccer ball.

What did the doctors say?

Few people have heard of neurofibromatosis - you come to the doctor, and they tell you "I read about you at the university in a book." Generally this benign disease, and when none cancer cells was not found, I calmed down a bit, bought some painkillers and continued my studies and going to clinics.

Once I got to the RAMS for good young surgeon, I was sent for an MRI, they began to find out what kind of monster was growing. Thought it might be a cyst or fat cell. We looked, and the doctor says to me - what about the lungs? I say nothing, I have a normal lifestyle, last year they did an x-ray, so nothing should happen. Then I took a picture, and it turned out that I had metastases in my lungs. Experts said - it looks like a sarcoma, but not a fact, you need additional consultation. Well, it started. I went to the Central Clinical Hospital, they did a biopsy. It turned out to be a malignant tumor. Transferred to the Herzen Cancer Institute. Hospitalized, rechecked the tests, confirmed that the tumor is malignant - from the shells peripheral nerves with degree G2.

That is, in fact, it is a cancer of the nervous system?

With a stretch, we can say that yes, nerve cancer, but to be more precise, it is still a malignant tumor from the sheaths of peripheral nerves of soft tissues. The strange thing is that usually neurofibromatosis behaves very badly by the age of 60, that is, I always thought that 40 years would be one hundred percent for self-realization. I didn't even imagine that this could happen. He believed that if something bad starts, it will be later. But, unfortunately, this happened now, when everything in life was just beginning to take shape in everything. And such an ailment is a rare genetic disease against the background of the rarest form cancer. There is not a single center in the world dealing with this. That is, it is such a struggle with the unknown.

This fasting in Facebook shared by almost 2.5 thousand people. More than 1.7 thousand liked, 225 commented. For fate young man the entire internet is watching. He admits that sometimes he gets tired of constant attention.

“Dear friends, a big hello to everyone!
My real name is Dmitry Borisov, I am a [already] 4th year student at the excellent Higher School of Economics, and this is really my page. I am a living, real-life guy of 20 years. As you already know, quite recently I started new life, which I am not at all happy about and now I am doing everything in my power to return to my former life.

How do you feel about your popularity?

This, of course, is the support army. But sometimes I get tired of dozens of the same type of messages with the word "hold on." On the other hand, it gave me an even greater desire to live - now I have so many new interesting acquaintances. I’m also no longer sure that you need to flaunt your personal life, maybe I started it in vain. They sometimes write me comments like “so that you die sooner, liberalist.” And I get upset.

What else helps you the most to keep your spirits up?

I just try to perceive everything as a game of chance: the last stage - okay, it will be more interesting to win.

What was cancer for me? Something beyond my reality. The usual, measured, like jelly, life dragged on. Somewhere out there, someone was struggling with this illness, that is, such an incredible clot of grief was concentrated, such a tragedy played out that it is impossible for the average person to imagine that all this is one world, that there is no partition between these realities.
What did I feel at that moment? It seemed that he had gone crazy. Not in the sense that he began to hear mysterious voices or behave strangely. Rather, something similar to the experience of a just sentenced to death flickered.

What are the doctors saying now?

A lot of bad things. The documents were handed over to one of the best oncologists in the country and all of Eastern Europe, and now it should become clear what type of cells are there - there are two options: one in which there is treatment, long, expensive, painful, but it is. At the second treatment simply does not exist. At the same time, no one is going to refuse me and they will offer various options experimental treatment.

When will it become clear?

Most likely in 10 days, two weeks. Experts from Germany and the USA should look there. But in any case, the doctors said to do chemo, and such things are almost not susceptible to chemistry, which is very bad.

At the same time, as you wrote, you were prescribed a lot of chemistry?

Infinitely many. The fact is that there is still some percentage - cancer diseases very individual. And what remains if nothing else helps? Now I had the first course of chemotherapy, soon there will be a second one, and after it there will be tissue sampling, tests, they will see if the tumor has reacted.

What is chemotherapy in reality?

I thought that you were sitting in an easy chair, around special objects, that this was some kind of special ceremony. In fact, they just brought me a dropper to the ward - 4 cans are hanging, 4 are still with me, they said that they will drip everything now, it will take about 8 hours. They inserted a catheter into a vein. And they started pouring. One course is five days.

What were the feelings?

The first time I didn't feel anything. I was even a little upset - I expected some kind of hell. And the doctor says - wait a little longer. On the second day of chemo, I felt tired and started to feel nauseous. After that, I immediately went to bed, and at night I woke up from the fact that my lips, gums, cheeks stuck to my gums cracked - dryness began and headache. The third chemistry - appeared severe vomiting, I began to understand that smells and tastes are changing, in general, it started in full. The fourth-fifth day is insane fatigue. You lie and do not understand what you are tired of. He opened the head, looked, he was already tired, you close it, you need to sleep. It was hard for me to even talk.

After chemo, you get used to the new you. You don’t know what you can eat: something has lost its taste, the other, on the contrary, has a terrible taste and immediately vomits. I remember that I went out into the corridor and felt such a range of smells and tastes - I generally went crazy. You smell the scents that no one else has. And he took his favorite perfume and immediately threw up. I thought it smelled awful, and it used to be my favorite cologne.

But after 3 weeks they promised hair loss, so I'll change the style a bit. I'm ready for this, for me it's just a change of image. It’s a pity only eyebrows and eyelashes, they say they also fall out, I will look like an alien. But it doesn't matter.

From a Facebook post: “What was I thinking? "B**". Somehow I thought at first and I think it is quite worthy for 20 years. It was already then that they went “too early”, “will I wait for my beloved from Vladivostok”, “and my parents”, “and my mother”, “friends, my poor friends and girlfriends”, “I didn’t have time to write a book”, and many, many, many things . The panic did not last long. After that, fear disappeared from my life. Yes, it's a shame, it hurts, but it's not scary at all. I decided that I really want to live. I want and I will.

What did you want at that moment? To be alone, to talk with friends?

Just keep on living. I am annoyed by films that talk about people who have diseases, and here they come off for the last three months. Nothing changes at all in life. A new stage is coming, I reacted to it this way. There were some stormy emotions, there was nothing like that, but at least I can't remember it right now.

(Of course, I also remember these films. That very song from “Knocking on Heaven’s Knockin’ plays in my head, everything is so romantic. But in fact, we are sitting in a hospital, patients with stone faces, relatives with packages silently walk next to them - Olga Khokhryakova).

Are you talking to someone here?

The mood in the hospital is very bad. Mostly there are adults who have lived more than half of their lives, with families, businesses, and children. And they always sit so gloomy, although they have already managed to realize themselves.

How do you generally feel now?

Lousy. No, it’s actually normal, the main thing is to wake yourself up in the morning, because in the morning everything that has accumulated during the night appears - headache, fatigue, nausea. It goes away in a day - you start moving, people come. Especially the people are very helpful. A friend came to me with good news - he got a job, and for two hours we talked with him about everything except the illness. And it really saves. You feel morally good, you are pleased and you forget about the consequences of the same chemistry, pain.

Has your outlook on life changed?

Yes, the outlook has changed a lot. I have always been so serious, sad, death is a great way out, I thought. There has never been anything positive about me. Although for me it was difficult to say - in public I always joked. it excellent care from reality. I felt all the tragedy of the world. And now I realized that I was probably wrong. I want to live terribly.

What will you do when you get better?

You have to rush somewhere. I will recover and I will travel a lot around the world. I would go to Northern Europe, Scandinavia to see.

Why go there?

The climate, firstly, the sun greatly affects my diseases, so I can’t stand the heat. Well, for me the main thing is that there is something to see. Because wallowing in the sea is not for me, I love smart rest, castles, mountains.

By the way, did you write about a girl from Vladivostok?

Yes, we walked for several months, she knew from the beginning that I was sick for life, but she immediately accepted it. No matter how long I lived, not a single person ever rejected me, it was just my inner fears. When my health problems began, I began to say that perhaps I would die soon. When this began to be confirmed, she went home. She lives far away and has an elderly mother. At first I was offended, but in fact there is nothing to be offended at. But if she was there all this time, it would be very cool.

Tell me what is the most important thing in life?

Health is probably the most important thing, and then a sober mind, friends, girls, everything will be fine in the family, work, study. The main thing is health. Although ... you can be a healthy and complete idiot in life. Better be reasonable person, but with cancer, yes, it's probably better that way.

I don't like hospitals. Who loves them. But on this day, I did not have a heaviness in my soul, which usually settles after staying in such places. I had the feeling that I just went to chat with a friend - Dima, even being in an oncology center with a malignant tumor, energizes good mood, captivating with its openness and directness. I was driving to the subway and thought about what everyone had, and everything would definitely be fine with him.

V.L. Boronnikova

"Whoever has a Why to live can bear almost any How."
Nietzsche

I lived like everyone else, like most women: school, college, family, work, friends. Life is full to the limit, it seemed that everything in it is going well. I have no time to stop, think: where am I flying, running?

And suddenly: an incurable disease! Sounds like a verdict that is not subject to appeal. It falls on a person like thunder from a clear sky. Fear, anger, pain, despair, internal resistance, dumb questions: why? why me? feeling that life is unfair to me. And who is responsible for this flagrant injustice? Relatives, the society that surrounds me, doctors who do their job, saving people?

In 1987, I was operated on at the city oncology dispensary. The chest has been removed. Chemotherapy and radiation were not prescribed, since the stage was "zero". And two years later - metastases in the spine. I ended up in the chemotherapy department with Professor E.A. Zhavrid, where she was treated for a year, and this is 6 courses of chemotherapy and radiation therapy. In breaks - an operation to remove the ovaries.

I have a lot of time to try to make sense of my life. But psychological condition left much to be desired. I was mentally crushed, killed. Thoughts in my head: here it is death - nearby, breathing down the back of my head, but I haven’t lived yet, my child is small, I haven’t raised him yet.

And here, like a flash: yes, I will die, and all of them (relatives, acquaintances) will live, but I will no longer be. I have only "I", and this "I" will not be?

After the treatment, I returned home, I was assigned the 2nd disability group. For a long time I could not come to terms with this, I felt isolated - I am no longer like everyone else. Indeed, in the oncological society, as well as mental illness are hushed up, it is not customary to spread about them, it is customary to hide their presence. Although no one is immune from these diseases, like many others.

I was supported by my relatives and close people: my mother, husband, mother-in-law and children. But they lived their lives, and I had no choice but to start living my own. And I really wanted to live! There is no one to rely on, you need to do something yourself.

The first and main moment of my recovery was the moment of manifestation of the will to live. Because I realized in the face of death that I had not lived my life. I lived the life of those close to me, I dissolved into their lives, I knew very well what my loved ones needed, but I didn’t know (or rather didn’t allow myself to know) what I want.

And then for the first time I noticed myself. It was not only unusual, but akin to the transgression of some law, written by me. How about: "Love your neighbor and serve him, and for this you will be worthy of his love." And the fact that I tried to fulfill this commandment all my life from the wrong end is a trifle. She did not take herself into account, being sick, under any guise. Because you need to love your neighbor as yourself. And so I turned my attention to my body. I used it as a work horse. Often she performed the work through “I can’t”, fed her only with something, without hesitation. She didn't listen or listen to her body. But he never cheats.

In addition, I had Small child and I could not imagine that it would grow without me. I suddenly saw the goal, WHY it was worth living for me.

But then, when I left the clinic treated, I did not know what to do. I only knew that I really wanted to live.

And the World responded to my Desire and aspiration to live. I met a man who shared his experience of surviving and experiencing similar disease. I believed him: "According to your faith, it will be given to you." This man did it, and so can I.

Overnight (because it was about my life) I refused to eat, which is accepted in society (I saw that most of the products on the shelves are a business, not a concern for a healthy diet). I chose healthy eating, which helped me restore energy, increase immunity. These are vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, cereals, seafood, fish. Attitude raw vegetables and boiled products 3:1.

Simultaneously with food began to use physical exercises, contrasting water procedures. Now I use it regularly - 2 times a day. Many other things came into my life that helped me survive and continue to live a life filled with meaning.

I completed psychology courses, it helped me understand psychological reasons of my disease, to realize my way of being in the world, which led me to hospital bed, and change in myself what I was able to do today. And I understand that you can not stop. After all, life is movement. I began to sing in the "Fighting Friends" ensemble. My life goes on and I rejoice in it!

I said to myself: I will do what I can, what depends on me, so that later I don’t regret the missed opportunity, and then “come what may”. Thus, I took responsibility for my health and my life.

Since cancer, in my opinion, like many others, is also a disease of unsatisfied emotional needs, which are no less important than nutrition and exercise, I want to dwell on this in more detail.

I received a lot of help and support by visiting (on a weekly basis for 2 years) the group of anonymous emotions (now it is a group of anonymous terminally ill patients). This is a support group, exchange of experience, open communication of people who are united and related a common problem. This is an opportunity to overcome their isolation, social and psychological maladjustment, this is an opportunity to provide assistance and receive it yourself, in a word - this is an opportunity to receive new experience your life and start living it.

For another year, I attended a group and studied individually with the psychotherapist priest Igor Grigorievich Solovyov. Further - study at the course "Existential psychology, psychotherapy and philosophy" in medical center"Samaritan".

Currently, I am a consultant psychologist of the public association "Dialogue". In addition, I promote healthy lifestyle life, I share my experience: I give lectures for the population, I conduct group psychotherapeutic work with cancer patients, their relatives, I conduct individual counseling for patients, their relatives and people who consider themselves healthy. My dream is to create a psychophysical rehabilitation center for people with incurable diseases. My life is caring for others, like caring for myself.

Now I understand: if you really want something, the whole world is open to acting. Find yourself, become whole, healthy and give to others, without stint, generously, without expecting something in return, without thinking that someone will not accept, without being upset by this. Now I know that everyone needs it.

I want to appeal to everyone who is diagnosed with cancer and is faced with a choice: “to be or not to be?”, “to live or not to live”? Do not give in to despair, fear, panic - it is demoralizing. Do not withdraw into yourself, do not avoid communicating with people. This is premature psychological and physical death. Death always reminds us that life cannot be postponed, that we must live now, not postponing "for later." Start right now, at this moment, by reading this information. You have already received it, which means you have the opportunity to choose, and, therefore, it already depends on you what you choose - to live or die, saying to yourself: "yes, it's all so difficult and takes so much time." But this time of your life, dedicate it to yourself - the only and unique in this world. You are one of a kind. Seraphim of Sarov said: "Save yourself and thousands around you will be saved."

My personal experience shows that the concept of taking RESPONSIBILITY for one's life, for one's illness is shown to any cancer patient, even with a far advanced disease. Take an active position in relation to your disease, look for and find ways and means to improve the quality of your life, be socially active in order to feel your own strength, the power of life. By doing this, you will help yourself and medicine, which will do everything possible on its part.

The story of a man who fought

Of course, a malignant tumor is serious disease. It requires serious long treatment. However, this does not mean at all that cancer is necessarily an inevitable, fatal outcome. The statistics of the best oncological institutions shows that in the case of timely and qualified treatment, patients can live. long years without any signs of illness. It is very important that the patient, in case of detection malignant tumor did not give up, did not give up, but, on the contrary, mobilized all forces to fight this evil.

Conclusions from the experience of "survival" of a patient with breast cancer

Representatives Charitable Foundation Hurry to Do Good, which provides care for women diagnosed with breast cancer, did not ask me to write a booklet for their patients. I agreed, and as a result of two painful months of work, a small book called “The History of My Illness” appeared. While working on it, when I opened my soul to people, shared my experience of survival with women, I came to understand that my mission is to educate women. I must help to the best of my strength, knowledge and ability to withstand the blow of fate in the form of this terrible disease.

Cancer patient and his family

A few months ago, a woman contacted the editors of our magazine, who won us over at first sight. She said that she was not a professional psychologist or oncologist, but that she had had to study psychology and oncology since her father was diagnosed with cancer in 1996. Larisa Alexandrovna Rodina - that was the name of this woman - handed over to the editors a manuscript in which the difficult moments of her family's life during her father's illness were vividly and reverently described.

"Self-healing is a ticking time bomb"

It all started 5 years ago. Accidentally discovered slight seal in the chest, did not attach any importance to this. I worked as a trainer and led active image life (hiking with heavy backpacks, gardening, etc.)...

Back to life

Many tens of thousands of stoma patients live in Russia; people who, after surgery on the colon or small intestine, as well as on the bladder, the intestine or ureter is displayed on the front wall of the abdomen. This hole is called "stoma" (the Greek word means "hole", "mouth"). Most of ostomy patients - people operated on for oncological diseases. Their life is not easy. In №3-4 of our magazine for last year we introduced readers to the activities of the Regional public organization disabled ostomy patients (ROOISB) "ASTOM" (Moscow). Last year, this organization published a brochure entitled Rehabilitation of Stoma Patients. Problems and Solutions (authors M.Yu. Golubeva and V.G. Sukhanov). With the consent of the authors, we plan to acquaint readers with the materials of this extremely useful book. We start with one of the sections prepared by the president of the ROOISB "ASTOM" V.G. Sukhanov.

"...we must fight..."

Perseverance, will and faith in victory are the qualities that helped the mother to endure and cope with illnesses in an extremely difficult life situation, when the illness falls on children.

"They deserve admiration...

“Usually, the sick are pitied, but they often deserve more and higher - admiration, admiration for their steadfastness, faith, conviction. Previously, they often wrote about builders, collective farmers, workers, but almost none about sick heroes. It's about not about injuries resulting from heroic deed, but about the heroic transfer of suffering due to common illness. Perhaps it is even more difficult than accomplishing the feat."

The girl was diagnosed...

Even with common forms of lymphogranulomatosis, a cure can be achieved.

Fate extended a helping hand twice ...

In this issue, we continue to acquaint the reader with cases from life, which, we hope, will help in difficult times to choose the right way, suggest the correct solution.

Courage Award!

When the world champion and Olympic Games Lyudmila Enqvist announced at a press conference in Stockholm that doctors had recently diagnosed her with breast cancer and operated on, but she continues to train, some journalists perceived this as the crazy bravado of a "desperate Russian" (before moving to her husband in Sweden, Lyudmila - then still Narozhilenko - played for our team.

Double win

"50 percent of my victory belongs to those who believed in me, 25 percent to those who did not believe in me and thus made me give my 120 percent, and 25 percent to people suffering from cancer. This victory should prove to them that the disease can be defeated."

Cancer patient experience

Those who are sick, as a rule, need not only the help of a doctor, but also the advice of a person who has had a disease, who has experienced the disease in practice and knows some nuances that the doctor may not be familiar with. Therefore, in this issue we publish an excerpt from the candidate's brochure medical sciences Inna Petrovna Sadovnikova "Experience of a Cancer Patient".

“I want to tell…”

“... the history of our illness, or rather the history of the recovery of my daughter Alenka ... so that parents do not despair, do not give up, but know that this evil can be fought.”

Bishkek hosted a three-day seminar "Fundamentals palliative care"for family medicine doctors, oncologists, nurses from all regions of Kyrgyzstan. The lecturers were doctors from the UK: a member of the Royal College of Physicians (Scotland, FRCP), a consultant on palliative care in PRIME (partnership in medical education) Stephen Hutchison and physician, consultant, educator in palliative care, Valerie Rowe.

The delegation from the UK also visited the palliative care unit of the National Center for Oncology and Hematology. After the repair, it’s not a shame to show the department: toilets appeared in the wards (there used to be one at the end of the corridor), a bathroom, the wards are clean and beautiful, there are balconies and loggias, and now you can walk along the floor of the corridor without fear of falling through.

The doctors of the department also emphasized that the department has all the necessary medicines.

Specialists from Great Britain and patients of the department visited. The first woman said that she worked as a shepherd for 45 years. Now she is 82 years old. She was admitted to the department due to cervical cancer. The patient complained that after irradiation her rectum suffered greatly.

"Bleeding won't stop persistent bleeding. They will give an injection - it becomes easier for me. Dressings are made. It is very difficult to work as a shepherd. Therefore, the disease. Although the doctor is also lying there," the woman shared, pointing to her neighbor.

She confirmed. “I worked as a midwife in a maternity hospital for 40 years. I’ve been lying in this department for 15 days, part of my lungs were removed during the operation. I’m worried about shortness of breath, weakness. When I got here, it became easier. Sometimes there are pains, but they are removed,” the woman shared.

Another patient of the department is no longer able to go to the toilet on her own, so she was catheterized in bladder. Due to kidney problems, she was swollen. Legs are constantly itchy. Facilitates massage with a moisturizing cream.

Due to the severity of the condition of the patients, it was not possible to communicate with them longer, unfortunately.

But during the seminar, foreign experts consulted palliative care doctors on difficult cases from their practice.

Should the patient be told about his diagnosis?

In Kyrgyzstan, there is an acute question of whether to tell the patient that his disease has passed into an incurable stage. Quite often, relatives do not tell the truth, and as a result, this leads to the patient's aggression.

For example, as Lola Asanalieva, the palliative care project coordinator, said, there was a case when a son categorically forbade doctors to tell his mother that she had cancer. last stage. The man stood next to the doctor so that the doctor would not inadvertently, at least somehow, hint that his mother had an incurable disease.

The doctor came to her and tried to help. The disease progressed, the patient's condition worsened. The woman began aggression towards the doctor. She accused her son of not being able to bring a normal specialist instead of a doctor, whose appointment only makes things worse.

As a result, the patient understood what was happening to her. Relations with the son after that completely deteriorated. “On this aggression, she left. And the son blamed himself that he had to say about the diagnosis in time,” Asanalieva said.

Guests from the UK advised doctors to always tell the truth. Otherwise, there will be no more trust in doctors. Perhaps the truth needs to be told in parts, realizing how ready the patient is to listen to it.

Severe depression due to diagnosis

Also, the palliative care team had a case where a 50-year-old woman, having heard the diagnosis of stage four cancer, although the doctor explained everything delicately, fell into severe depression for several days.

The woman refused to eat, did not take medicine. She categorically refused the drugs, despite the onset of severe pain. The pain increased, exhaustion began, but the patient did not talk to either relatives or doctors. The woman died, her relatives accused the doctors that if the diagnosis had not been announced, the patient would have lived longer.

According to Stephen Hutchison and Valerie Rowe, the doctor still did the right thing: such cases happen, and usually such patients are prescribed antidepressants. Although the woman refused any medication, the doctor could not do otherwise and lie.

In favor of the fact that the diagnosis should not be reported, opponents of an honest conversation with the patient often argue that, having heard about the incurability of the disease, the patient may commit suicide.

In the practice of Kyrgyz specialists, patients thought about suicide only when they were deprived of painkillers.

Once severe pain and symptoms like respiratory failure or vomiting was removed, the patient felt relieved and made plans for the near future.

unusual case

Discussed at the seminar and an unusual case that happened to a man with cancer.

In the Russian-speaking Internet environment, the "advice" to stop eating sugar is exaggerated so that the cancer does not progress. This has not been confirmed by any scientific data. Nevertheless, the cancer patient refused sugar (and all sweets in general) and did not eat it for several years.

As a result, the patient lost a lot of weight and began to faint, and then completely fell into a hypoglycemic coma (an acute pathological condition associated with falling or sharp drop glycemic level - the concentration of carbohydrates in blood plasma. - Approx. website). As soon as his wife fed him sweets, he came to his senses. At the same time, cancer continued to progress.

Frightened, the patient began to eat sweets. However, at that time he already had such low level blood sugar that it did not rise, and the patient fell into a coma.

The patient's wife was very afraid: every two hours at night she tried to wake him up, checking to see if her husband was in a coma.

The case, as commented by British experts, is really rare. They suggested that the man had metastases in the pancreas.

The organizers of the event are the "Association of Palliative and Hospice Care in Kyrgyzstan" with the financial support of the Soros Foundation - Kyrgyzstan.