The 'difficult' phase of returning to life after cancer treatment

Australia Broadcast Center

5 days ago

In December, Grace Passfield finished four years of immunotherapy for metastatic melanoma.
"I was really lucky, I had a really good response to that," says the 37-year-old physiotherapist and mother-of-two from Newcastle/Awabakal.
"I had a scan at six weeks after starting the immunotherapy and all the melanoma had stopped growing, and then I had another scan six weeks later and half of it had gone or had shrunk significantly."
When the time came to stop the treatment, Grace says many people close to her assumed she would be thrilled to return to "normal life".
"Everyone was very excited that I was finishing and saying things like 'it's just so wonderful you're finishing, that's amazing'," she says.
"But I was quite terrified because [treatment] felt like a safety net, it felt like a security blanket.
"I had my last treatment, and I cried for half of the session."
Clinical psychologist Samantha Clutton specialises in oncology support on Kabi Kabi lands on the Sunshine Coast.
"It's a really difficult phase," she says.
"A lot of people believe that once they sort of recover from the initial shock of diagnosis and get through the physical and psychological challenges of treatment, that they will feel better, that it will all be over.
"And yet … particularly those months following the end of treatment, [it] is a very difficult time."
Grace says once she realised her mortality, she couldn't "unsee it".
Despite her treatment being deemed successful, she battles with constant anxiety that the disease will return.
"Any sort of persistent niggles or pain" brings up that worry.
"I have contact with my psychologist regularly … when I start to get worried about the future, she talks about how that's just a story and try to focus on what's going on right now."
She says regular self-care and exercise are an important part of that.
Grace still has routine scans, which look for signs of the disease.
"I've had it described [as] it's almost like living with a chronic disease and that you're always monitoring for it," she says.
The CEO of Cancer Australia, Professor Dorothy Keefe, says "survivorship care" is important and having a plan for that is key for people.
"So that they know what sort of tests should be done, how often, and what to do if there's a crisis," the oncologist and supportive care expert says.
"I would always say to my patients, this is something that could potentially come back, but it doesn't always come back.
"And although we don't know if you in particular are cured at this point, there's no reason it shouldn't be you, so let's be positive, let's live life."
Professor Keefe says it can be helpful to keep a check on anxiety levels.
"Are they able to manage their normal activities of daily living?" she says.
"Are they socialising?
She says everybody's different and will need different levels of support.
Ms Clutton says getting professional support can help normalise any challenging feelings.
"People will very often feel as if there's something wrong with them because they're not feeling great," she says.
"They don't have a renewed sense of purpose necessarily, they're not feeling incredibly grateful all of the time moving forward.
"So, helping people to understand that this is a really normal reaction can really help to lift that layer of stress."
She says Cancer Council Australia can direct people to either to their service or to other services within hospitals or other cancer organisations that can offer free or no out-of-pocket cost services.
Grace, who returned to work as a physiotherapist several years ago, says while she had an amazing support system during her treatment, some of that has waned.
"I said to my psychologist, 'How lucky am I? Everyone's so amazing'," she says
"And she said, 'that will drop off and people do forget', and that did happen.
Ms Clutton says she recommends people "check with their loved ones who have finished cancer treatment and don't assume that they're doing well".
"Ask them how they're feeling and really stop and try and listen and reflect an understanding of that person's experience rather than trying to shut them down or tell them that they need to think positively."
This is general information only. For personal advice, you should see a qualified medical practitioner.