The effectiveness of the treatment of breast cancer in our country has improved many times in recent years. Experts report closely 80 one hundred percent increased 10-year survival of patients with this diagnosis. This is due to the introduction of new therapies and opportunities for the application of modern technologies in the treatment of this disease..
But how do we talk about cancer – that was the topic of the conference, organized by the Association of Cancer Patients, with the participation of doctors, specialists, patients, psychologists and journalists.
No one can speak more convincingly about the encounter with cancer than patients, passed through this ordeal and survived. Milena Hadjiyska hears the diagnosis, while she is pregnant with her second daughter. He does not hide, that the first feeling is horror and fear of death:
"I died at least in the first years 20 times a day. And I wasn't prepared for that at all. I was treated in oncology in the district. "Bedbug". I have a very deep respect and love for doctors, which I met in my life. I will never get tired of repeating, that trust in them has a major percentage in survival. I never doubted that, which they told me. I knew, that there will be difficulties. I sought help from all my friends. ".
Desi Nikolova also talks about the leading role of the support from relatives and friends. She spent the first part of her treatment in Germany because of the opportunity to be treated with original medicines, but continued therapy in our country.
"Because after the research I found out, that here we have better options for gentle treatment. What impressed me at the clinic in Germany – even terminally ill patients, even these, who were in the worst condition, they were smiling, they all had faith. Now, in which I came here for my first radiation therapy, I found more or less self-absorbed people, not particularly smiling, a little gloomy, I greeted them and received no answer. And I asked why they didn't answer me. One lady said – well we are sick, we are worried. I say – we are all worried, only half of the treatment is faith in the doctor and faith in it, that you will be fine. Cancer, like any other disease, is an experience, through which you cannot pass alone, I'm sure of it, I'm sure, that love was part of my healing. I want to tell everyone, that it's not scary then, when you go on time, when you meet dedicated doctors, like our doctors here, it's not scary, when you believe and it's not scary, when you are surrounded by wonderful people ".
Successful treatment requires a clear plan and responsibility, there is no room for panic, remembers Rositsa Temelkova from Blagoevgrad:
"With breast cancer, in the second stage, with lymph node metastases, I went to the psychologist. This struck me very much, which he said – if you want to live and the doctors can't stop you. I want to tell you, that there is a way out of every situation. If of course, I will say the Holy Trinity, doctor, psychologist, family circle and friends, if all this has one patient, he will be a successful patient ".
It is important not to be alone in this experience, but it is also important to seek help in the right place, advises the chairman of the Association of Cancer Patients Evgenia Alexandrova:
"I define cancer as a serious personal crisis. This is a moment, in which you understand who you are, whom you have allowed into your life, which mistakes are true and which are not. An internal scale appears, which is sinless and that is why it is so important, if circumstances allow you to meet with a specialist psychologist ".
The media is an important part of the environment, in which cancer patients are treated and survive. And they need to show more responsibility, Milena Hadjiyska thinks:
"It's very awful to be an active patient and to hear on TV a show about how a doctor cut a healthy breast somewhere and the finding in the breast turned out to be benign.. It is not forgotten by the patient. Never. I really want the public and social environment to become more delicate, because cancer patients can also be very dangerous, when we are anxious and can make very ridiculous decisions ".
The unfavorable picture is complemented by social media, in which any prescriptions for alternative treatments are distributed, which do not even harm the patient, in no way help his treatment. And the wrong talk about cancer destroys the psychological comfort of patients, pointed out the oncologist prof. Assen Dudov:
"If you know what we hear in hospitals every day, it is amazing – feces of bald eagles, blood from turtles, mummy, blue scorpions, germany, but there are commercials on television about shark cartilage, tooth from do not know what, wonders. Or the other madness, that sugars fed the tumor. But tumors are not animals to eat and all that madness, which only worsen the lives of patients ".
Cancer patients do not need miracles, and from the right approach to treatment, doctors say and remind, that the Bulgarian healthcare has opportunities for application of new methods and modern therapies for cancer treatment.
Source: BNR
