Does your healthcare team know what matters most to you?

Dr. Margie Venter PALPRAC Clinical Director enlightens us on how to inform your healthcare team on what matters most to you when facing a serious illness.

Going on any journey means planning ahead. Also a cancer journey. Planning for what’s likely, but also for the what-ifs. I’ve often thought this to be a much more useful cancer metaphor, as opposed to the war one. Wars imply winners and losers, and often destruction in its wake. 

Journeys can be gentle strolls, even if sometimes long. Other times journeys are much more difficult hikes, up hills with only the short relief of a plateau from time to time. It can feel as though you never quite reach the top to appreciate the view. Sometimes there are unexpected hailstorms or a break in the clouds allowing the warmth of sunshine. Sometimes it would have been better to turn left. Either way, it helps to plan a little, knowing where you’re supposed to be going and what you should pack.