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Reinforcing Your Choices

By Arlene F. Harder, MA, MFT

Finding a Treatment Coordinator

One of the best pieces of advice we can give you in terms of deciding what treatment you are willing to accept is to suggest you find a special person, such as your family doctor or another physician you can trust, who is willing to be your treatment coordinator. After you've gathered as much information as you feel you need, have the material printed out and take it to that person and ask him or her to help you sort out the various options and help you decide whether a given treatment plan is what YOU really want to do.

It isn't often that a single treatment is all that is needed. Much more frequently there are several types of treatment, with new options as your disease progresses or goes into remission. Therefore, if possible, also use that person as a coordinator of your care, since you will likely be seeing many specialists and will need someone to coordinate medications over the years. Having someone who knows your priorities and is familiar with your personal situation can be of invaluable help during those times when you are sent to yet another specialist.

As much as you may want to count on quality care from physicians and nurses (and have a right to get it), the reality is that in the current medical climate there are those who sometimes get what are called iatrogenic (or doctor-caused) complications. These result from inadequate tracking of medicine and lack of coordination of all aspects of treatment, including what you receive from complementary therapies. So it is wise for you to become an advocate for your own quality care. You can do this in part by paying careful attention to the medicines you take and by having a good relationship with your pharmacist.

How Can You Affect the Outcome of Treatment You Choose?

Once you have chosen a treatment based on what you want, what is available and what you can afford, you don't need to just sit back and wait for the treatment you have chosen to "do its job." There is increasing evidence that participation in your treatment can make a significant difference in your quality of life. It may also affect your recovery in ways we don't yet understand.

Further, attention to diet and use of such adjunctive or complementary therapies as meditation, yoga, tai chi and herbs may help mobilize a full range of inner healing resources. In doing so, you can become a stronger and healthier patient, which may allow you to better withstand stronger treatment, if that is needed.

Finally, remember that a combination of factors intertwine in the processes of both health and disease—medicine, genetics, psychological attributes, coping skills, social support, nutrition, environment and spirituality (see Five Factors Influence Recovery). Until there is better understanding of everything that causes and cures disease, there is no way to be certain what specific factors in your particular case will make the greatest difference toward recovery.

Nevertheless, you can best influence both physical recovery and inner healing by paying attention to those things which allow you to experience life to the fullest, to find pleasure in every day and to appreciate the great mystery that is every person's life.

Here are some final comments about making treatment choices.

Each day choose again to take part in treatment. Being aware that you choose to accept your treatment (even though, if given your druthers, you would rather be doing something much more fun and exciting) can give you a greater sense of control over a period in your life when there are bound to be lots of ups and downs.

Oh yes, and don't forget to take lots of deep breaths.

Revisiting your values and priorities (see Personal Values, Cures, and Healing) can do more than just support the treatment plan you choose. Once you've taken time to examine your life, you may no longer be willing, as you perhaps were before your diagnosis, to live unconsciously on automatic pilot (as many of us do).

© Copyright 1997, Revised 2002, Arlene F. Harder, MA, MFT