Nancy Hassett Dahm

 

 

Nancy Hassett Dahm is an experienced nurse who has cared for over 400 cancer patients and their families." I have learned first hand what it is like to live with cancer in a medical system that does not support the needs of patients and families." Nancy's feature article, "Walking the Road to Spirituality" was published in Coping Magazine, July/August 2002. Another article, "How to Get What You Need for Free", will be published in an upcoming Coping Magazine issue. She has made many TV and radio appearances and frequently lectures on empowering cancer patients.

I often go on-line to the message boards and respond to people who need assistance, advice, or just an ear to listen. As we write to each other, I am able to see them grow in strength and confidence. This is the greatest thrill for me because I am making a difference in peoples' lives. When I give lectures to other nurses, I always tell them this: the decisions we make as advocates don't only effect the"now"of the patient's life. The consequences of our decisions to advocate or not to advocate result in a host of memories that the patient and family will have to live with for the rest of their lives. In other words, everything that is going on in the patient/family dynamic of living with cancer- treatments, fear, stress, pain, symptoms, side effects, family crises-all of it, needs to be dealt with swiftly, professionally, and with compassion.

I can change the cancer experience for people. I know this because I've done it, but more importantly, I have shown others how to do it for themselves. Empowerment is a wonderful thing. In the beginning, they know little. Very soon thereafter, however, they are empowered. In the end, whether patients recover or not, they stand on their own with dignity and self-respect. Now that's a beautiful thing!
Visit Nancy at www.cancerbook.com

 

"This book is a great help for the patient and the family and friends of the patient. It is written by a nurse who specialized in caring for cancer patients and hospice care...Nancy Hassett Dahm gives valuable tips and hints on care of the patient, and always bears the patient’s well being in mind." Clare Braun, Book Reviewer Pretoria News, South Africa

“ Thought-provoking, inspirational, and powerful” Arts & Entertainment- Daily Courier- Prescott, Arizona

 

Pageonelit.com: Are cancer patients getting the care that they deserve? You talk about "overcoming the medical system to get what the patient needs"- How difficult is the medical system for the cancer patient?

Nancy Dahm: There is no real cancer care for the whole person. With the exception of a few well-known cancer treatment centers, our medical system is fragmented, and care is almost entirely focused on treatments and procedures. Too many physicians focus on treatments, and ignore pain management, emotional, psychological, and spiritual needs of patients and their families. In many cases, patients are forced to endure intense pain while consumed with fears, stress, anxiety and/or depression. There is absolutely no attention paid to the whole person and his/her family. There is no one single place where they can go to get everything they need.

Cancer patients and families need a tremendous amount of support and aggressive intervention in terms of counseling, symptom management, strategy and coping skills, resource entitlements; the list goes on. Having cancer is devastating; treating only the disease and not the person is a needless and heartbreaking tragedy.

The answer to overcoming this void in the medical system is to construct a whole new paradigm of cancer care. Although it must be focused, individualized, and intensified to meet the many needs of patients and families, it can be done. It can be done without imposing extreme financial burdens on the cost of care. Until this happens, I teach my readers how to get what they need in spite of the system's inadequacies.

 

Pageonelit.com: Why do you feel that the medical system is so inadequate?

Nancy Dahm: There are many reasons for the current state of affairs, but two reasons are predominant. The first reason is that cancer is a multi-billion dollar business. As with any business, the primary emphasis is on profit. Time is money. In the cancer business, profit comes at the expense of patient care. Treatment centers and doctors' offices are designed to minimize time spent with patients. Many times (and this is well documented in the literature), treatment is given with indifference, apathy, and insensitivity. The second reason is specialization. Doctors today are so specialized in various aspects of cancer detection and treatment that they do not have the time, the inclination, or the training needed to treat the whole person.

 

Pageonelit.com: Why do cancer patients accept the current system of care?

Nancy Dahm: Do they have a choice? Patients and family members think that they don't have choices, but they do. Quite simply, patients do not realize that they are not receiving the care that they should be receiving. They get angry and confused, but they don't know what they can do about it. In so many ways, cancer is an overwhelming disease; as much an emotional roller coaster as a frightening physical process. Confusion is a natural by-product of any life-threatening diagnosis. There is little advice, many options, and such a wave of emotions, that it's easy for patients to get lost in the process and essentially to become bystanders in their own treatment.

Patients accept the current system because they feel that they have no power to change it. They listen to their doctors with faith. We are still bound by our cultural upbringing in which it is a taboo to question or even to speak up against what the doctor has said. His/her word is law. Well, it isn't law. This same physician to whom you have shown courtesy and respect, could be the same one who would have you undergo a colonoscopy hours before your death. Patients are angry, and they voice their complaints - but never to the ones who need to hear them the most.

 

Pageonelit.com: How then, can we change the system?

Nancy Dahm: We can change it by taking control of our own care and course of treatment. We start by learning everything we can about the diagnosis we have received. We learn about the treatment options. We choose physicians who are not only knowledgeable, but who will also be accessible to us. We learn about why we are afraid. We learn to speak up. We learn to say "no" when a treatment plan does not seem reasonable or rational (the example of the colonoscopy ). We learn to shout, if needed, to those Managed Care case managers who refuse us a diagnostic test, treatment, or second opinion. We learn to say what it is we want, need, and demand. We learn to fight the system for what we need.

Care given without compassion isn't care at all. It's academics with indifference. Are all caregivers the same? No. There are many "good" practitioners out there, but finding the "right ones" can be your most important challenge. The change that needs to take place will never occur from the direction of the medical community to the patient. It can only happen when patients and families push for specific care needs. Push your oncologist or treatment center to have an experienced nurse on staff who can counsel patients in coping, monitor pain, nutrition, symptom management, relaxation, massage therapy, and referrals to other community resources. The patient needs everything in one location. That alone cuts down on stress, and will help patients to do better.

There needs to be a whole new paradigm of care instituted in all cancer treatment centers. We need to persuade legislators and insurance companies to cover "whole person" care. The rate of cancer incidence is not going to diminish. The British Medical Journal recently reported that the worldwide cancer incidence rate will double to 20 million people diagnosed each year by the year 2020. We have a lot of work to do to get care to the level at which it needs to be. By writing the book, I give patients and families what they need to know to get quality care. I have given them the know-how to start that push and get the 'whole person' care that they need.

 

Pageonelit.com: Why did you write the book?

Nancy Dahm: The answer, in a word, is empowerment. As a nurse I have seen too much needless suffering in cancer treatment and an appalling lack of attention paid to the very essence of what makes us human-having a mind, a body, and a soul. While the medical establishment tries to treat and cure cancer, an epidemic of preventable patient misery is happening right before our eyes. It doesn't have to be this way, and it won't be this way for my readers!

To fill this huge void in cancer care, I have painstakingly created the premier source of self-help and information for cancer patients and their families. My uplifting, inspirational, and thought-provoking book presents a new and powerful paradigm that resolves all of the physical, emotional, and spiritual issues associated with cancer. It is as much a book of life as it is about life with cancer. Each of the eleven chapters is a dynamic lesson in resolving critical issues like fear, stress, pain management/medications, symptoms, side effects, patient care, mortality, end-of-life-care, and preserving dignity. Some have called it "The Bible of Hope." It was through great love for my patients that brought this to completion. It is through great appreciation and love for all those who are suffering that I bring this to you. It is for your life, your self, and your soul. I make a promise that this book will make you strong. This is the book to which you can go for answers.

 

Pageonelit.com: How is Mind, Body, and Soul; A Guide to Living with Cancer different from other cancer books out there? What does this book offer a cancer patient, family and friends that no other book can?

Nancy Dahm: Mind, Body, and Soul is the first comprehensive cancer self-help guide to provide practical patient advice within a "whole person" context. As the name implies, the book offers essential information concerning a broad spectrum of topics from treatments and medications to soul-serving discussions of philosophical, spiritual, and emotional issues. It was written as a conversation with the reader- as if I were sitting with the patient and family myself. No other cancer book dedicates an entire chapter utilizing Socrates, Plato and Marcus Aurelius to discuss self-preserving issues like the properties of the soul, why life has meaning, and why your soul continues after death. In this chapter, I use mental imagery to bring hundreds of people with me to a mystical field. You can smell it, feel it, and experience for yourself what it is like to have the Great Philosophers talk to you. In other chapters, I explain in detail what you need to do about fear, stress, and pain. I was able to keep 90 percent of my patients pain free because I knew the protocols. I teach all of this to the readers. I also dedicate a chapter to answered prayers, visions, and miracles-some of which are my own! They happen!

Do you know that 4.4 percent of end-stage cancer patients walk out of cancer care hospitals cancer free every year? It has nothing to do with treatments because thes patients weren't receiving treatment. It has to do with the faith factor. Does this sound like anything else you have seen in a cancer book? Mind. Body, and Soul will change how people go through the cancer experience. They will be empowered, educated, and uplifted with renewed hope and inspiration. Their quality of life will improve greatly.

Pageonelit.com: Why is the care of mind and the soul as important as caring for the body?

Nancy Dahm: There is truly a mind, body, and soul connection. This is a known scientific fact. The scientists who have studied the relationship between mind, body, and spirit (soul), know that there is a relationship, but cannot fully explain it in terms of physiological cause and effect.

For example, the way we approach illness and death from a spiritual/philosophical basis can mean the difference between loss of hope and facing adversity with dignity, peace, and confidence. If we lose hope, then we lose the will to fight to live. What follows in turn is depression, loss of sleep, and loss of appetite, which lead to weakness and frailty; and serve to speed the disease's progression. It is essential to maintain the will to live and maintain a fighting "I'll beat this" attitude.

A course of treatment aimed only at the body is basically self-defeating because the mind and the soul have influence in controlling the body. We need purposeful mind, body, and soul care incorporated into every cancer care treatment program and in every oncology office. This tri-dimensional care is critical for maintaining optimal health. The body's defense mechanisms are enhanced when one is well nourished, rested, and mindfully in control. When one of the tri-dimensional areas is affected, it affects the rest, and leads to a loss of control.

Fighting cancer is a serious and often daunting challenge. It requires attention to the most seemingly insignificant detail like noticing a loved one not communicating with the family as much, or skipping a meal, or not talking about what has happened. There is a tremendous need for emotional, psychological, spiritual and physical intervention during the entire course of living with cancer. I teach people what they need to know, how to get what they need, how to do what they need to do, and I give plenty of hope along the way. Mind, body, and soul care can mean the difference between being a victim or being in control and able to fight.

 

Pageonelit.com: You say, "Cancer has a way of leading people toward a search for meaning. The search has more to do with a growing need for spirituality." Why is it important to have a sense of spirituality? How does this help someone who is living with cancer?

Nancy Dahm: Cancer, and any other life-threatening illness does lead people toward a search for meaning. The search has more to do with a growing need for spirituality than for religion. Some may say that they are the same, but spirituality and religion are not the same. Spirituality is a connectedness to, and reverence for, all that is universal. Spirituality has no doctrine, no formal rules for a belief system. Religion, on the other hand, is grounded in, well, ground rules. While many of us find comfort in our religion, there may be a greater opportunity in finding meaning through spirituality.

A diagnosis of cancer forces the human questions, "Who am I , why am I here, what happens to 'me' after I'm gone ?" I believe that religion and spirituality has a very important place in life, especially when confronting the issue of mortality. Although we rarely acknowledge the fact that we are mortal, having cancer begs us to look at our mortality right in eyes, which are the seat of our soul.

Cancer is a life-changing disease, but it need not decimate the spirit, and can never infect the soul. Ironically, in caring for hundreds of cancer patients- many facing terminal prognoses- I came to appreciate the inherent majesty of life. The way we approach illness and death from a philosophical perspective can mean the difference between loss of hope or gaining great faith in the universal prospect that there is more to come.

In much of ancient philosophy we find an enlightened and empowering view of life. I've tried to harness some of this philosophical power in my book and to present it in such a way to which patients can relate, and from which hope and comfort derive.

Whatever their religion or belief system, patients need to know they are not isolated beings and that they are indeed part of the whole of creation with purpose, meaning, and destiny. I want them to open their minds to the possibilities of life, and to see themselves within the context of the magnificent human experience through which we are all connected. If they can do this, cancer will not come to define them, will not become their identity, and will not preclude the possibilities which are indeed endless.

For more information and resources, please visit http://www.cancerbook.com