Some good New Years Resolutions for Survivors

[CindyA]

If you've spent time with family and friends over the holidays, you may have heard people talking about their New Year's resolutions. Perhaps one person wants to join a club and begin exercising. Another wishes to lose 15 pounds before summer. Even children may climb on board and make a resolution that they will study harder to get better grades.

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When you're going through cancer treatment, common resolutions may seem extremely trivial. It can be hard to listen to someone going on and on about changing her diet to lose 5 pounds, while you instead have no appetite and are losing weight that you don't want to lose.

But there are a few resolutions I thought of that may be of interest to people living with lung cancer. Of course I skipped the trivial. With cancer you just don't need something else to add to your to do list unless it's going to improve your quality of life. What are some of these things?

Finding a Support Group - To make it extra easy there are several support groups exclusively for people with cancer that you can "attend" online in the comfort of your home. Some, such as the LUNGevity Lifeline can match you with someone who has faced a similar diagnosis. You can also join the online Support Community where people with lung cancer share information and resources and provide each other with support. Other cancer organizations such as the Lung Cancer Alliance and CancerCare offer support groups as well. For those family members caring for people with lung cancer, CancerCare will be starting a support group exclusively for family caregivers of lung cancer patients.

If you are experiencing shortness of breath or get winded with activity, talk to your doctor about pulmonary rehabilitation. While it's routine to have rehabilitative therapies after a stroke or even a knee replacement, rehab for people with lung cancer has lagged behind.

There are a few more things that may help you make New Year's resolutions alongside those who haven't had to look their mortality straight in the eye. See if any of these are of interest to you:

Lynne Eldridge, MD

http://lungcancer.about.com/b/2013/12/3 ... vivors.htm