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Alberta Case
Alberta
Alberta is 36 years old. She is married and has a ten-year-old daughter. She was diagnosed with stage III endometrial cancer three months ago and began chemotherapy treatment soon after surgery.
As her advocate, you have met with Alberta several times during treatment to discuss her questions, accompany her to follow-up appointments. Most recently, you helped her find the language to discuss her condition with her daughter, who seemed to be withdrawing from Alberta in recent weeks.
Alberta finished radiotherapy last week Friday. On Monday, you call to check in.
"I'm back at work twenty hours, and that's a lot harder than I expected," she tells you. "I just didn't expect to be this tired." You ask her to say more about how she is dealing with that. "Well, you know, by the time I come home and my daughter wants dinner, the only thing I can do is lie on the couch," she says. "I feel guilty that she's eating all these cans of soup. She and my husband have really been great through all of this, but now that treatment is done, it seems like they want the ‘old Alberta.' My husband said he wanted to work on helping ‘put cancer behind us.'"
Alberta tells you that she is already worried about going through this again. You went with her to a recent follow-up appointment where her oncologist spontaneously shared with her his thoughts about her "survival odds." After that conversation, she doesn't have the heart to discuss the possibility of recurrence with her family. For now, she just wants to get her energy back. "After three months of having a ‘plan,' I feel like I'm bungee jumping without the bungee. You know what I mean?"
- What key issues come up in Alberta's case?
- What role has an advocate played in her case?
- What other roles could an advocate play?
- What are possible next steps for Alberta?
Reference:
Stanton, Ganz et al. Promoting Adjustment after Treatment for Cancer. Cancer. 2005:104 (11)2608-2613.
