Mesothelioma Asbestos Help

Coping with Mesothelioma Symptoms

Coping with Mesothelioma Symptoms

Mesothelioma is a cancer that results from asbestos exposure and asbestos fibers. Mesothelioma grows on the pleural (lining of the lungs), on the peritoneal (lining of the stomach) or on the pericardial (lining of the heart). Average symptoms can consist of pain in the chest and ribcage area .shortness of breath. If you or someone you know are showing any of any of these symptoms, especially if you worked in an asbestos-related occupation in the past, make an appointment to see your doctor at once, for testing of mesothelioma.

If the doctor verifies that you do indeed have contracted mesothelioma, there are ways to cope with the symptoms. When one discovers that they have gotten mesothelioma, their first thought is that their life is going to change, dramatically, and away from the normal life they have been experiencing. Although there is no known cure available, what stage the cancer has reached depends on which ways are best to cope with the symptoms. Any candidate for treatments will have many questions for their doctors, such as:
What are the pros/cons of getting theses treatments?
Will my insurance cover this treatment?
What does this treatment involve?
What are the side effects?
Will there be travel involved?
Can I be compensated for these treatments?
How will my family react?
What kind of support will my family and I need or receive?
etc.

Generally, there are 3 main aspects of your life that will require coping skills after a diagnosis of mesothelioma.
Physically coping; financially coping and emotionally coping.

Physical coping:

Most people consider coping with a life-threatening disease to be a process that only needs to be coped with on an emotional level, however coping with treatments and their likely side effects and the quality of life distress will also need to be included in the coping process. No one can control the fact that they have been given a diagnosis with mesothelioma, but they can discover ways to reduce the effects it causes to ones wellbeing and health.

On the physical side of coping with mesothelioma, a person and their loved ones is coping with the pain and side effects of the treatments (chemotherapy, radiation and other types of treatments) but also, they are coping with their almost certain, upcoming demise. The body will begin the final process of ending from the cancer which will end when all of the physical functions will stop working. More often than not this will be a methodical and uneventful sequence of physical changes that are not emergencies but simply part of the dying process. These physical changes are the natural way that the body prepares itself to cease to survive. At this point, relief efforts are the best approach to help with the physical changes.

Financially Coping

Life-threatening diseases and illnesses like cancers can drain ones savings fast. Cancer treatments can be expensive. Awareness of financial resources available to you will be crucial.  Compensation from the asbestos industry is very possible and  can help relieve the stress on your family and, in this way, continue to have control of your life.

Emotionally coping

When one is coping with an illness as serious as cancer, emotions will probably be the most difficult aspect of the cancer process that one has to cope with. Many emotions affect the patient at one time, as well as he emotions of their loved ones. These emotions range from anger to shock. Coping with the combination of emotions at the same time as coping with the physical and financial coping processes can be devastating.

Understanding and accepting that the mixes of emotions are completely normal, will be essential in coping emotionally.

Continue reading...

Support Groups

Support Groups

Coping with any disease that has a low survival rate, such as mesothelioma, is extremely difficult for the patient in all aspects of their life, including financially, physically, and certainly emotionally.  It will also affect their families’ lives and the lives of their friends and close relationships. Mesothelioma has a very low survival rate; this leaves the patient with the feeling of being given a death sentence, causing tremendous emotional strain. Watching any cancer patient grow more ill daily and knowing they will not survive in the end is a very difficult for family members and friends. Seeing a grown adult man or woman become so dependent like a small child, is devastating. One who was once so intelligent, independent and strong, slowly deteriorating before your eyes a little more as the days pass; can leave loved ones feeling very helpless and unsure of where to turn, what to say, and how to behave.

For the patient and for his family and friends, support groups can help them to cope with this terrible disease, with the treatments for the illness, and with the almost inevitable outcome. Support groups are developed to allow others in the same situation or those who have come through the same situation to assist families who are currently facing the same challenges. It presents not only a way for the family to learn more about mesothelioma but also allows them to share their experiences and emotions. What helped others to overcome the devastation may help another. Simply having someone to talk to about how mesothelioma is affecting your life and the lives of your loved ones, is a great asset, in the coping process, also in the recovering process after the loved one has passed.

Many people view joining a support group as a sign of weakness, but the fact is that joining a support group shows your support for your loved one who is suffering from mesothelioma. It also shows that you are emotionally in need and at some point in this lifetime, everyone; even the strongest person, will need someone to lean on and talk to, to get them through this tragedy. Statistics prove that whenever someone is struck with a fatal illness or if someone you are close to is dying, support groups can give the emotional support needed to help you to move on after the death of a loved one. Support groups for mesothelioma patients and their family and friends are particularly abundant in areas that have been vastly affected by asbestos diseases, as seen in areas where many people worked in neighborhood shipyards or other businesses where asbestos disease is not uncommon. Support groups such as these are found through hospitals and physicians. Some local branches of the American Cancer Society may also sponsor support groups or be able to recommend one in your area. It seems natural that your doctor may recommend a local support group but if not, a little searching can locate a good support group near you. Phone books, other doctors, hospitals and even neighbors can all be good sources to locate a support group for you and your loved ones to join. The option is always available to join an online support group that can lead to a real-time, in person, support group. Online support groups may not appear to present you with “real” support, but you will find quite a bit of support and encouragement online. Especially helpful and beneficial for patients and their family members who live in more rural neighborhoods, online support groups can provide the emotional support needed where no current support group exists. Mesothelioma patients and their families can join one or many groups online and share information and thoughts and feelings. One can gain much more knowledge about mesothelioma, treatments, news, and emotional support and more. These are forums and chat rooms or blogs that are 100% free and available 24/7.

The top websites and organizations that provide free mesothelioma online support are listed below.

Association of Cancer Online Resources
http://www.acor.org/

Cancer Care:
http://www.cancercare.org/ “

Gilda’s Club :
http://www.gildasclub.org/

I Can Cope – Sponsored by The American Cancer Society.
http://www.cancer.org/

The Wellness Community:
http://www.thewellnesscommunity.org/

If you or a loved one is suffering from Mesothelioma, contact a support group, talk to your doctor and find a group that you can join. It is imperative that cancer patients and their family and friends do not suffer alone. Sharing your experiences and emotions is an important part od the coping process and no one should suffer alone.

Continue reading...

Treatments for Mesothelioma

Treatments for Mesothelioma

Currently there are various forms of treatments available for mesothelioma patients, some of these treatments are opted as a more successful method, or one that targets the abnormal cells, individually or reduces pain for the patent better than other treatments will. A few of the most well-known and common treatments are surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy. Additionally, a few new “experimental” treatments are quickly being used more often successfully. Such treatments as photodynamic therapy, gene therapy, and immunotherapy, and others are being administered more often.

Surgery

Currently, there are three (3) primary surgical procedures available for mesothelioma; some types of surgeries fall into different categories (i.e. are used for more than one treatment)

1. Diagnostic surgery:
   To confirm a mesothelioma diagnosis, diagnostic surgery is necessary. The process involves removing a sample of tissue from the area that appears to be affected. The process of this tissue removal is then sent to a histopathologist (a histopathologists’ primary job is examining the removed tissue and studying the tissue for microscopic structural changes in the diseased tissue) Once comprehensively examined, the histopathologist will have the ability to conclude the nature of mesothelioma and recommend the proper treatments or combination of treatments that will be considered necessary.

Surgeries used for diagnostics

Thorcoscopy: a small incision is made between two ribs, followed by the insertion of a small camera type of equipment for seeing directly inside the chest of the cancer patient.

Peritoneoscopy: a small incision is made in the abdominal wall followed by the insertion of a small camera type of equipment for seeing directly inside the abdominal cavity of the cancer patient.

Thoracotomy: a small incision is made between two ribs, followed by the insertion of a small camera type of equipment for seeing directly inside the chest of the cancer patient.  In this way, signs of cancer can be distinguished.
2. Curative surgery:
Surgery is often an alternative to treat and to “cure” patients when tumors are contained in a localized area. Curative surgery is typically performed to take out or annihilate the cancerous tissue. Different from diagnostic surgeries which remove only a small amount of tissue to confirm the diagnosis of cancer, curative surgeries which, typically, result in limited or complete expulsion of the organ of the cancer origin.

Unfortunately, for curative surgery to work well, it is imperative that mesothelioma be diagnosed as soon as possible. However, mesothelioma usually goes undiagnosed until it reaches the advanced stages of III or IV, at which point surgery is no longer a possibility.

3. Palliative surgery: focuses on reducing the severity of the symptoms associated with cancer.
Often, some types of surgeries will fall into several categories.

Thoracentesis (also known as a pleural tap) may be administered as a separate diagnostic procedure, or as a palliative treatment to relieve symptoms. Only curative surgery can possibly destroy and remove all cancer from a patient.

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy typically includes the use of intravenous drugs. Chemotherapeutic drugs are used to destroy cells that quickly divide. These abnormal (cancerous) impede the normal cell division process.

While cancer cells divide an grow quickly, so do some ‘good’ cells. The rapid division of the healthy cells is often the cause of some of the horrible side effects that chemotherapy patients experience.

An option for patients with peritoneal mesothelioma is a fairly new type of chemotherapy, known as ‘heated chemotherapy.’ Generally; heated chemotherapy follows surgery, where the heated chemotherapy medicines are administered into the peritoneum.

Radiation

“Ionizing radiation”(Radiation therapy), is administered in order to destroy cancerous cells and to slow the growth and spread of the cancer. For mesothelioma patients, radiation is commonly administered in combination with surgery.

in some situations, however,  radiation treatment may be administered alone for pain management and relief of other symptoms associated with mesothelioma or other forms of cancers. Radiation therapy can only offer short term relief for symptoms, and is not intended for long term relief.

There are currently two distinct accounts of radiation therapy existing for mesothelioma patients.

External beam radiation therapy is the most common and established type of radiation therapy. if the patient is fitting for it. External beam radiation therapy occurs by attacking tumors with direct rays of radiation to destroy cancer cells.

Brachytherapy is a rather new form of radiation treatment. Brachytherapy includes the use of  very small radioactive rods which are set inside a tumor to supply a powerful but concentrated amount of radiation to the actual tumors themselves, while keeping injury to the nearby healthy tissue at a very minimum.

Gene Therapy

Gene therapy uses genetic substance to exclusively focus on the cancer cells and to make them weaker against chemotherapy. Gene Therapy is a complimentary technique used along with chemotherapy, rather than as an individual treatment.

For mesothelioma patients the primary form of gene therapy is known as ‘suicide gene therapy’ because the therapy causes the cells to create a substance that results in their demise.

The process of this ‘suicide gene therapy’ requires that the patient be administered a virus, not infectious, and that virus will have been changed with genetic matter that causes them to create a specific form of protein. Afterwards, the patient undergoes chemotherapy treatments that are designed to be deadly only to cancer cells. This form of therapy has created some very promising outcomes for patients with mesothelioma, but it currently is only offered in the course of clinical trials.

Immunotherapy

Medical experts have found a method of fooling ones’ own immunity system into attacking and destroying cancer cells in their bodies. This method is referred to as immunotherapy. Immunotherapy is considered a companion therapy, as chemotherapy and radiation treatments along with immunotherapy give the best results. Immunotherapy is not a stand-alone treatment.

There are currently two distinct forms of immunotherapy.

Active immunotherapy is a process where cancer cells from mesothelioma patients are taken out from the patient and then in a laboratory they are transformed into a vaccine. The patient is then given an injection of the vaccine, and then if this active immunotherapy treatment works, the patients own immune system will understand that the vaccine is harmful as well as it will recognize that the cancer cells are harmful as well. At this point, the patients own immunity system will begin to destroy the cancer cells.

Passive immunotherapy is different.  It does not try to use the patients own immunity system to fight the cancer cells, but it uses other matter such as cytokines (the molecules that control and regulate the patients immune system)in effort to boost the patients immune system for the correct response to the cancer cells.

Photodynamic Therapy

Most often used in treating pleural mesothelioma, photodynamic therapy is most effective for patients whose cancer is localized. The process of administering Photodynamic therapy begins with giving the patient an IV (intravenous) medication. This medication will result in the cancer cells high sensitivity to a specific type of light. Within 1 to 3 days after the medication is introduced into the patients’ body, they are then exposed to the specific type of light. Any of the cancer cells that absorbed the medication will then be destroyed.

Mesothelioma Cure

For patients who are diagnosed with mesothelioma and other forms of cancers, and for their family members, it may feel that they have received a death sentence because there is no current cure for any type of cancer.  They will be stunned and in shock, leading to depression or extreme sadness and they may feel that their only option is to prepare and wait for their death. And, indeed, it is quite traumatic and makes the patient feel helpless as well as hopeless. However, creating a last bit o hope for the cancer patient is the fact that more and more often, survivors stories are continuing to develop and science and technology are improving rapidly, which could result in an absolute cure in the near future.

Continue reading...