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Defeat is not a common word for you. It’s a concept without merit, a philosophy without relevance. There is no loss you are willing to sustain. There is only the constant desire to push at the boundaries of impossibilities; taming them to your needs, your intentions. No illness can force you to concede your own mortality. You are unable to be intimidated.
You are also, however, human – and the unhappy truth of this is that cancer can cause you great pain and greater consequences. Your body will not be as it was. It will instead be shaped into an unfamiliar tragedy, burdened by the effects of treatments and examinations, the exhaustion of disease. And that disease must be recognized for what it is and what it can accomplish with terrifying simplicity.
Cancer will change you: this must be accepted, just as the value of Palliative Care must also be accepted. The purpose is not to submit. It is instead to understand the severity of the situation and alleviate some of its symptoms.
Palliative care, simply explained, is the use of outside sources to aid in treatment and its effects. This is not the search for a cure. This is not where you offer yourself to the notion of yielding. It is instead merely a way to ease your suffering.
These centers offer patients the needed medicines, therapy and support. They help to reduce the complications that arise from procedures (such as exhaustion, immune system concerns or even depression), as well as to explain all available options for patients. The point is to educate and assist.
And, while so many believe accepting this assistance brands them defeated, it instead simply helps to ensure their victories. None can survive the effects of cancer without help. Palliative Care offers that help – and more.
