Cancer's Unrecognized Toll: Time Lost

Interesting yet not surprising article:

WASHINGTON Jan 2, 2007 (AP)— The hours spent sitting in doctors' waiting rooms, in line for the CT scan, watching chemotherapy drip into veins: Battling cancer steals a lot of time at least $2.3 billion worth for patients in the first year of treatment alone.

So says the first study to try to put a price tag to the time that people spend being treated for 11 of the most common cancers.

Even more sobering than the economic toll are the tallies, by government researchers, of the sheer hours lost to cancer care: 368 hours in that first year after diagnosis with ovarian cancer; 272 hours being treated for lung cancer, 193 hours for kidney cancer.

That doesn't count the days spent home in bed recovering from surgery or weak from chemo, just time spent actively getting care chemo or radiation therapy, blood tests or cancer scans, surgery or checkups, driving to medical appointments and waiting your turn.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory?id=2765819

I had just gotten through explaining how medical treatment eats the amount of time that one can spend at the office, should one try to work through the illness and maintain some semblance of "normalcy." It's the hours of waiting that's hard to understand until either you or a loved one go through it. Especially if you're going with them to keep their spirits high, and to be a good friend/partner/relative... and because you WANT to be there for the other person- not just because you feel like you have to.

It kinda wears on the friends/coworkers/other people in the patient's life also...Something that again- is not fully understood by so many. I wish it was. I wish that the time spent waiting for tests, stress and emotional time that goes with that could be understood. I'm really glad that you posted this. I'm going to email it far and wide- I know that certain persons in my family would identify with this immediately, and others- well- they should learn more about that- for the sake of those in my family who either have been tested and live with the knowledge that the genetic material that stole so much from them once upon a time could create more havoc...

:hug:

Thanks for this article. It means a lot to me.

:hug:

People who aren't dealing with cancer just don't realize the amount of time it takes. Just one treatment would sometimes take me over 6 hours; usually an allergic reaction and recovery time. I took all sorts of things to help occupy my mind, but it all takes time.

I know two women who have just been fired from their jobs for taking "too much time" away. One never revealed to her supervisor that she was dealing with cancer (I don't know why) and the other was working for the insurance (something the employer was well aware of).

Plus, I just figured up my medical mileage for taxes and I logged over 500 miles in 2006 for treatment just driving locally.

Too often I hear of stage IV melanoma patients that started out as stage one patients, then lo and behold two years after the initial surgery that was supposed to have cured them, they've got it all throughout their bodies. I wonder if it's woefully undertreated in its early stages, and then shamefully undertreated by doctors who look at the odds and don't try very hard in later stages. That's what this study suggests to me. There are plenty of stage IV survivors at http://www.mpip.org

to my friend's niece in her 20's. She began with a very small, but deep melanoma on her back. She had surgery and was dead from mets within 2 years. She did have aggressive chemo at Stage IV, but it was just too widespread and shut down major organs.

I know very little about melanoma, but with Stage 0 and Stage 1 BC I was offered far more treatment options than my friend's niece.

(368 hours for ovarian cancer care).

Out of curiosity, I did a rough calculation of my treatment.

- operation (48 hours)
- 5 chemos (30 hours)
- 13 Dr. visits (15 hours, includes back & forth travel)

Total: 93 hours.