Today is world cancer day. Let me take the opportunity to write a little about cancer and the way we would see it in the Emergency Room.
We have a few scenarios where we help people with cancer. Can I first explain that cancer itself is not a diagnosis. The word is a collective term for a group of diseases that compromise those that include the abnormal overgrowth of cells.
We sometimes see sick people that we have to make the diagnosis of cancer. On the Louis Leipoldt Facebook page I shared an example of a man we diagnosed in the ER with a brain tumor.
We also see people sick with their cancer, be this as the cancer takes it toll on the body, or maybe the effects of therapy (chemo or radiation or both).
And then sometimes we have to deal with the end of life. This is never a pleasant experience, but we try and be as compassionate as possible. Please understand that this is as hard on us, as on some of you. Sometimes we have family members in the same struggle, or we might’ve lost a loved one ourselves to this.
I believe we all can add a little love to people in need. That is why I posted on the Louis Leipoldt Emergency Room Facebook about the Sunflower Foundation.
Please go have a look:
http://www.sunflowerfund.org.za
Please go have a look, or maybe find yourself a place to add some love. You never know in five or fifty five years you might be on the other side and wish you had done more.
JRB