Being a caregiver for a loved one with cancer can be frightening and heart-wrenching, but it can also be rewarding. In many ways, it’s a job as complicated as the disease itself.
Among the many changes that cancer and its treatment bring, perhaps none is more challenging than cachexia (pronounced “kuh-KEK-see-uh”), a wasting syndrome in which patients experience loss of body fat and muscle as a result of advanced cancer or malnourishment.
At the forefront of this pandemic have been nurses who, day in and day out, are charged with not only caring for the physical health and mental well-being of their patients, but also with an immeasurable amount of behind-the-scenes work that ensures that operations run smoothly.
Every three minutes, someone in the United States is diagnosed with a blood cancer. These cancers, which include leukemia, lymphoma, multiple myeloma, and many others, account for nearly 10% of all new cancer cases, according to the Leukemia Research Foundation. The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society estimates that 1.3 million Americans are living with, or are in remission from, leukemia, lymphoma, or myeloma.
While I had childhood dreams of becoming a marine biologist, veterinarian, or something along the lines of working with animals in the great outdoors, I found that my curiosity about how people think, feel, and relate to each other and the world eventually outweighed my interest in solely studying animals.
