Living With Cancer
Day-to-day life, emotions, nutrition, and survivorship.
Articles about Living With Cancer
Living With Cancer
Acupuncture for Cancer Symptoms: What the Evidence Supports
What acupuncture evidence actually supports for cancer symptoms like nausea, joint pain, and hot flashes, and safety notes for low platelets or lymphedema.
6 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Adhesions after abdominal surgery: what to watch for
Bands of scar-like tissue form inside the abdomen after most open surgery. NIDDK explains when they cause problems and which symptoms mean emergency care.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Alcohol or Substance Use During Cancer Stress
Practical, source-based guidance on alcohol or substance use during cancer stress, including planning steps, questions, safety limits, and care-team support.
9 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Anointing of the Sick During Cancer
Anointing of the Sick is not only for the dying, it can be repeated, and it is fitting before serious surgery. How to ask, and who can give it.
6 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Answering comments that miss the mark
People say strange things about cancer because they're scared. NCI notes family and friends may share your feelings, and lists supports that help.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Answering condolence messages when you have no energy left
Grief is exhausting, and replying to everyone isn't an obligation. Practical ways to handle messages, drawing on NCI guidance on grief and sharing tasks.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Anticipatory Grief Before a Cancer Death
What anticipatory grief can feel like for a person with advanced cancer and their family, and where support may help.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Anxiety and Distress During Cancer
Almost everyone living with cancer feels some distress, and it can range from mild to strong.
6 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Anxiety on infusion day: what is known about managing it
Anxiety before and during treatment is very common. NCI describes relaxation training, breathing, counseling and other approaches that are used.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Appealing a Social Security disability denial
You generally have 60 days to appeal a Social Security decision. The four levels: reconsideration, a hearing, Appeals Council review, and federal court.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Applying for Social Security disability with cancer
What to gather before you apply for adult disability benefits, from medical and treatment details to work history, education and bank information.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Asking for an expedited appeal when treatment cannot wait
When waiting for a standard appeal decision could harm your health, you can request an expedited review. Urgent care decisions are due within 72 hours.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Asking for an itemized bill and checking it for mistakes
CMS advises asking for an itemized bill and comparing it with your records and explanation of benefits to catch billing errors.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Asking for Spiritual Care or a Chaplain During Cancer
Planning steps, questions, safety limits, and care-team support for asking for spiritual care or a chaplain during cancer.
8 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Body Image and Identity After Cancer as a Young Adult
Cancer can change how young adults see their bodies and themselves. Here is a supportive look at adjusting. Based on the National Cancer Institute.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Bone Metastases: Pain, Fractures, and Treatment
Patient and caregiver planning for bone metastases: pain, fractures, and treatment: warning changes, questions, safety limits, and care-team instructions.
7 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Breastfeeding and Cancer Treatment
Plain-language facts on breastfeeding while being treated for cancer, based on National Cancer Institute guidance.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Can a family switch hospice providers?
Medicare says you can change hospice providers once during each benefit period, and NCI says patients can always change their mind about hospice. Here is how that works.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Can a parent on chemo be around a recently vaccinated baby?
CDC says babies and others in the home of someone with weak immunity should still get routine vaccines, with simple precautions around diapers and rashes.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Can a positive attitude shrink a tumour?
NCI says there's no convincing evidence linking attitude to the risk of developing or dying from cancer. Feelings matter, but not as a treatment.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Cancer and Fertility: Protecting Your Options
A plain-language guide to how cancer treatment can affect fertility and the options to preserve it. Based on the National Cancer Institute.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Cancer and Money: Financial Strain for Young Adults
Cancer costs can hit young adults especially hard early in life. Here are practical steps and where to find help. Based on the National Cancer Institute.
3 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Cancer Anxiety and Uncertainty
Understanding the fear and uncertainty that come with cancer — for patients and loved ones — and gentle, practical ways to cope.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Cancer as a Young Adult: What Makes It Different
A cancer diagnosis in your teens, 20s, or 30s brings challenges older and younger patients don't face. Here is an overview for young adults.
3 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Cancer During Pregnancy: What to Know
How cancer can be found and treated during pregnancy, based on National Cancer Institute guidance on breast cancer during pregnancy.
6 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Cancer in Older Adults: How Age Shapes Care
How age shapes cancer treatment decisions, and why overall health matters more than age alone. Based on National Cancer Institute resources.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Cancer Survivorship and Life After Treatment
A plain-language guide to cancer survivorship—what it means, adjusting to a 'new normal,' coping with the fear of recurrence
6 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Cancer-Related Ascites and Drainage
Patient and caregiver planning for cancer-related ascites and drainage: warning changes, questions, safety limits, and care-team instructions.
8 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Cancer, School, and Career as a Young Adult
Cancer can interrupt school and early career at a crucial time. Here are practical options for young adults. Based on the National Cancer Institute.
7 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Caregiver Decision Conflict Near the End of Life
When family disagrees about end-of-life care: who has legal authority, how to run a goals-of-care meeting, and evidence on feeding tubes, sedation and DNR.
8 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Caring for the drainage bag on a nephrostomy tube
MedlinePlus guidance on emptying and washing a nephrostomy bag, switching leg and night bags, dressing changes, and symptoms that need a call.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Catholic Advance Directives and Choosing a Proxy
Naming someone to decide for you matters more than listing treatments in advance. What Catholic teaching asks of a proxy, and what to tell them.
6 min read · Intermediate
Living With Cancer
Catholic Prayers and Devotions During Cancer
Short prayers for scan days and bad nights, the saints associated with cancer, and what to do when you cannot pray at all.
6 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Catholic Teaching on Feeding Tubes and IV Fluids
The Church's rule on assisted nutrition was written for stable patients, not dying ones. What the texts actually say about the last weeks of cancer.
7 min read · Intermediate
Living With Cancer
Catholic Teaching on Stopping Cancer Treatment
Church teaching does not require patients to accept every treatment. Ordinary and extraordinary means, who decides, and why refusal is not suicide.
7 min read · Intermediate
Living With Cancer
Catholic Teaching on Suffering and Cancer
Offer it up is offered as meaning, not as duty. What the Church actually teaches about suffering, and what it never says about your treatment.
6 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
CBD, Cannabis, and Chemotherapy Drug Interactions
Why CBD and cannabis can change how your body processes chemotherapy and other cancer drugs, explained through the liver enzymes involved.
8 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Choosing a Care Setting in Advanced Cancer
A plain-language look at where care for advanced cancer can be given, from home to hospital to hospice, and how to choose the setting that fits your goals.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Choosing and preparing a health care proxy
What a health care proxy does, how this differs from a living will, and what NCI suggests doing after the paperwork is signed.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Choosing Where to Receive End-of-Life Care
Planning steps, questions, safety limits, and care-team support for choosing between home, hospital, hospice facility, and nursing care.
7 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
College and Cancer Treatment
Cancer during college can affect attendance, housing, finances, disability accommodations, insurance, and social life.
7 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Comfort-Focused Care: What It Means
Planning steps, questions, safety limits, and care-team support for comfort-focused care what it means.
7 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Compassionate Allowances: the fast track for severe cancers
Social Security's Compassionate Allowances flag certain serious conditions, many of them cancers, so those disability claims can be processed quickly.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Complementary and Integrative Medicine
A plain-language guide to complementary and integrative approaches used alongside cancer treatment, and how to use them safely.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Coping While Waiting for Test Results
Gentle, practical ways to get through the anxious wait for biopsy or scan results, for patients and the people who love them.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Coping With a Terminal Cancer Diagnosis
A gentle, plain-language look at the many feelings that come with an advanced or terminal cancer diagnosis, and ways people find to cope.
6 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Coping With Changes in How You Feel About Yourself
Cancer and its treatment can change how you look and how you feel about yourself. Learn gentle ways to cope with body changes and rebuild self-image.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Coping With Fear of Recurrence
A plain-language guide to managing the common fear that cancer might come back, after treatment ends. Based on the National Cancer Institute.
6 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Crowds, germs and chemotherapy: reducing your exposure
Cancer treatment lowers white blood cell counts, which raises infection risk. NCI advises staying away from ill people and crowds, and washing hands often.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Culture, Cancer Disclosure, and Family Decision-Making
How to agree who hears the cancer news and who decides, what to do when family asks the doctor not to tell, and the rules on interpreters.
8 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Dating After a Cancer Diagnosis
Dating after cancer can raise questions about disclosure, scars, fertility, sex, fatigue, and fear of rejection.
6 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Dating and Relationships With Cancer as a Young Adult
Cancer raises tricky questions about dating, relationships, and intimacy for young adults. Here is a supportive, practical look.
3 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Deciding when you are ready to date after losing a partner
There's no medical timetable for dating after a spouse dies of cancer. What NCI's bereavement guidance actually says about recovery, and what it doesn't.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Deciding Whether to Stop Cancer Treatment
The real arguments on both sides of stopping cancer treatment, what stopping does and does not change, and the questions that make the decision clearer.
8 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Deductible vs out-of-pocket maximum: what is the difference?
Your deductible is where your plan starts paying; the out-of-pocket maximum is where you stop. Cancer treatment often reaches both.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Depression and Cancer: A Treatable Condition
Depression is more than ordinary sadness, and it is a common but treatable condition in people with cancer.
6 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Disputing a bill that came in far above your estimate
If an uninsured patient is billed $400+ over their good-faith estimate, CMS runs a dispute process where an independent party decides the payment.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Do Therapy Dogs Actually Help During Cancer Treatment?
Therapy dog visits are common in cancer centers. One randomized trial in children found a possible benefit for parents. Here is what it showed.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Does a cancer diagnosis open special enrollment?
Special enrollment periods follow listed life events like losing coverage or moving. HealthCare.gov does not list a diagnosis as a qualifying event.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Does working part-time rule out FMLA leave?
Part-time employees are not excluded from FMLA. Eligibility depends on hours actually worked, and leave for part-timers is converted from workweeks into hours.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Does writing things down actually help during cancer?
NCI says you can sort out feelings by writing them down, and suggests keeping notes on symptoms, side effects and emotions after treatment.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Early Menopause After Cancer Treatment
Some cancer treatments can cause early menopause or menopause-like symptoms.
6 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Eating after ileostomy surgery: the early adjustments
Most people with an ileostomy can eventually eat normally. MedlinePlus explains reintroducing foods, how much to drink, and foods that cause gas or odor.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Eating out when your white cell count is low
Federal guidance for people with weakened immunity says to take care eating out and avoid raw vegetables, meat and fish, plus general food safety rules.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Egg Freezing Before Cancer Treatment
Egg freezing may preserve future pregnancy options before treatments that could affect fertility.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Emotions and Cancer: Coping With the Feelings
A plain-language guide to the wide range of emotions cancer can bring—from fear and anger to hope and gratitude
6 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Erectile Dysfunction After Cancer Treatment
Erectile dysfunction can happen after pelvic surgery, radiation, hormone therapy, chemotherapy, or emotional stress.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Exercise During and After Cancer
A plain-language guide to how physical activity can help during and after cancer treatment, done safely. Based on the National Cancer Institute.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Exercise With Metastatic Breast Cancer: What Helps
What research shows about exercise with metastatic breast cancer: fatigue and quality of life benefits, bone metastasis precautions, and safe ways to start.
6 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Existential Distress After a Cancer Diagnosis
Why a cancer diagnosis can bring up deep questions about meaning, mortality, and identity, and approaches that can help, including meaning-centered therapy.
9 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Explaining a work gap caused by cancer treatment
You usually don't have to explain a cancer history to a prospective employer. NCI describes the one situation where past health becomes relevant.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Explaining cancer to a school-age child
How to explain cancer to a child about six to twelve, using honest words, short talks, and the reassurances NCI says every child needs.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
External review of an insurance denial: who and how long
An independent reviewer, not your insurer, decides an external review. Standard reviews take up to 45 days, expedited ones 72 hours, and bind the plan.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Facing cancer without a partner at home
Support groups meet in person, online and by phone, often at little or no cost. One of several ways NCI describes to build support.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Fasting During Cancer Treatment: Safety Questions
What the evidence does and does not show about fasting during cancer treatment, and how to raise religious fasting safely with your oncology team.
8 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Feelings When You Have Cancer
Cancer can stir up many different feelings, and all of them are normal. Learn gentle ways to cope with fear, anger, sadness, hope, and more.
6 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Fertility and Cancer: Options Before Treatment
Some cancer treatments can affect fertility. For young adults, options to protect it usually work best before treatment starts.
3 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Fertility Preservation and Catholic Teaching
Cancer treatment can affect fertility, and the decision window is short. Where Catholic teaching objects, where it does not, and who to ask.
6 min read · Intermediate
Living With Cancer
Fertility Preservation Before Cancer Treatment
Fertility preservation means saving or protecting eggs, sperm, embryos, or reproductive tissue before cancer treatment. Here are the main options.
8 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Financial steps worth taking before an expected death
NCI's planning guidance for advanced cancer covers insurance, banking, legal advice, life insurance and funeral plans, and why doing it early helps.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Finding Hope and Meaning With Cancer
Many people find a sense of hope and even gratitude while living with cancer. Learn gentle ways to build hope and find meaning day to day.
6 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Finding out what a cancer prescription will cost
How to check whether a cancer drug is on your plan's formulary and what you would pay, plus what to do if the medicine is not covered.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Flying with lymphedema: what the guidance recommends
If you are prescribed a compression sleeve, MedlinePlus lymphedema guidance says to wear it when flying and, if possible, keep the arm above heart level on long flights.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Geriatric Assessment in Cancer Care
A plain-language explainer on the geriatric assessment, a tool that helps plan cancer treatment for older adults. Based on National Cancer Institute reporting.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Getting to chemotherapy when you cannot drive yourself
Rides to treatment are a common problem. NCI points to your social worker as the person who knows which groups provide rides or travel help.
3 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Good-faith estimates: a price in writing before treatment
If you're uninsured or not using insurance, providers usually must give you a written good-faith estimate of your care's cost beforehand.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Grandparents grieving a grandchild who died of cancer
Grandparents carry a double grief — for the child, and for their own child. NCI's guidance on normal and complicated grief applies here too.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Grief for your old self after cancer
NCI describes sadness in cancer as loss of health and of a previous life, and says anger and grief about body changes are natural.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Grief in a blended family after a cancer death
Step-parents, stepchildren and ex-partners often grieve the same death differently. NCI's list of what shapes grief explains a lot of the friction.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Grief, Loss, and Cancer: Coping With Loss
Grief is the normal, natural response to loss. Learn about the types of grief, how it differs from depression, and what can help.
6 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Grieving a spouse while young children still need you
Losing a partner to cancer while raising young children means grieving on someone else's schedule. What NCI says about how children grieve and what they need.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Guilt about a new relationship after losing a spouse
Guilt is one of the reactions NCI names as part of normal grief. Finding someone new can bring it back sharply, and that does not mean anything has gone wrong.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Handling advice you did not ask for
How to respond to unwanted medical advice from people who care. Includes ways to close the conversation and tasks to hand them instead.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Holding onto hope when cancer is advanced
NCI on what hope can look like when cure is no longer the goal, including comfort, peace, acceptance and small daily pleasures.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
How back pay works with Social Security disability
Social Security may pay disability benefits for up to 12 months before you apply, if it finds you were disabled then and meet all other requirements.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
How Cancer Can Affect Your Work and Income
Cancer and its treatment can change how, and how much, you work.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
How doctors decide how often you need scans after treatment
NCI says which tests you get, and how often, depends on what your doctor thinks is best for you, not on a universal imaging timetable.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
How long you have to enroll after losing job-based coverage
Losing job-based insurance opens a special enrollment period. The window runs 60 days after the loss, and you can also apply up to 60 days before it happens.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
How much cancer history to share with new people
There is no obligation to lead with a diagnosis. NCI's guidance on self-image and dating suggests building trust first and deciding disclosure for yourself.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
How someone becomes eligible for hospice care
What qualifies a person for hospice, what the six-month prognosis rule actually means, and what the Medicare hospice benefit covers.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
How the 1,250-hour FMLA requirement is counted
FMLA eligibility requires 1,250 hours of service in the 12 months before leave. The Labor Department counts only hours actually worked.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
How to ask for an itemized hospital bill and read it
CMS explains what belongs on a medical bill and advises comparing it with your EOB. Ask billing for a line-by-line breakdown before paying.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
How to ask your employer for a reasonable accommodation
Under the ADA you do not need special wording to request an accommodation. You need to tell your employer you need a workplace change because of your cancer.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
How to Cope With Fear of Cancer Recurrence
Evidence-based ways to manage fear of recurrence — spotting triggers, telling normal recovery aches from red flags, and mindfulness approaches.
3 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
How to tell when grief counseling might help
Most grief eases slowly on its own. Learn what NCI says separates common grief from grief that is severe enough to be worth professional treatment.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
If your employer punishes you for asking about FMLA leave
FMLA bars employers from interfering with leave or retaliating against workers who use it. What the Labor Department prohibits and how to complain.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Intimacy after surgery that leaves you with a stoma
NCI names the worries people with an ostomy describe, like leaks, equipment and going out in public, and points to counseling and open talk with a partner.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Is Cannabis or CBD Safe to Use During Cancer Treatment?
What the evidence shows about cannabis and CBD for cancer symptoms, plus the safety issues to raise with your care team before using either.
7 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Is hearing the last sense to fade at the end of life?
NCI says most people are still able to hear after they are no longer able to speak, which is why families are encouraged to keep talking.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Is Palliative Care the Same as Hospice?
Palliative care vs. hospice: learn the key differences in timing, treatment goals, insurance coverage, and how palliative care supports active treatment.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Islamic Teaching and Cancer Care
Whether treatment is obligatory, what fatwa bodies have said about stopping it, and which medical procedures break a fast.
8 min read · Intermediate
Living With Cancer
Jewish Teaching and Cancer Care
Where Orthodox, Conservative and Reform authorities differ on end-of-life care, what they say about pain relief, and what to ask your team and your rabbi.
5 min read · Intermediate
Living With Cancer
Last Rites, Viaticum, and Calling a Priest
What people mean by last rites, why Viaticum rather than anointing is the final sacrament, and how to reach a priest at three in the morning.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Learning to trust your body again after cancer
Many survivors watch every ache for signs cancer is back. NCI calls this fear normal, names new symptoms as a trigger, and says it often eases.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Leaving hospice if someone's condition improves
Hospice is not a one-way door. NCI says patients may be discharged from hospice if their condition improves, and anyone can stop hospice at any time.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Legacy projects: leaving something for your children
Letters, artwork and voicemail messages are among the ways NCI describes for connecting with children near the end of life, especially when visits are hard.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Leptomeningeal Disease: A Patient Guide
Patient and caregiver planning for leptomeningeal disease: a patient guide: warning changes, questions, safety limits, and care-team instructions.
7 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
LGBTQ+ People and Cancer: Finding Affirming Care
Cancer care for LGBTQ+ people: common challenges and how sharing who you are helps your team support you. Based on NCI reporting.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
LIHEAP: help with energy bills during treatment
LIHEAP helps low-income households with home energy costs. Applications go through state, tribal and territory offices rather than a national one.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Liver or Lung Dysfunction in Advanced Cancer
Patient and caregiver planning for liver or lung dysfunction in advanced cancer: warning changes, questions, safety limits, and care-team instructions.
6 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Living with a new colostomy: the daily routine
A colostomy brings one end of the large intestine out through an opening in the abdomen. MedlinePlus explains the basics of what to expect and who teaches you.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Living With Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL)
Daily life with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL): infection planning, blood counts, transfusions, medicines, work, monitoring, and relapse conversations.
6 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Living With Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML)
Daily life with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML): infection planning, blood counts, transfusions, medicines, work, monitoring, and relapse conversations.
6 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Living With Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL)
Daily life with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL): infection planning, blood counts, transfusions, medicines, work, monitoring, and relapse conversations.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Living With Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML)
Daily life with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML): infection planning, blood counts, transfusions, medicines, work, monitoring, and relapse conversations.
6 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Living With Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma (DLBCL)
Daily life with Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma (DLBCL): infection planning, blood counts, transfusions, medicines, work, monitoring, and relapse conversations.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Living With Follicular Lymphoma
Daily life with follicular lymphoma: infection planning, blood counts, transfusions, medicines, work, monitoring, and relapse conversations.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Living With Hodgkin Lymphoma
Daily life with Hodgkin Lymphoma: infection planning, blood counts, transfusions, medicines, work, monitoring, and relapse conversations.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Living With Mantle-Cell Lymphoma
Daily life with Mantle-Cell Lymphoma: infection planning, blood counts, transfusions, medicines, work, monitoring, and relapse conversations.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Living With Multiple Myeloma
Daily life with Multiple Myeloma: infection planning, blood counts, transfusions, medicines, work, monitoring, and relapse conversations.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Long flights and blood clot risk when you have cancer
CDC lists active cancer and long-haul immobility as risk factors for travel-related blood clots. What raises risk, warning signs, and prevention.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Making Future Plans With Advanced Cancer
A plain-language guide to planning ahead with advanced cancer—advance directives, insurance, organizing records, and funeral wishes
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Making memories together when time may be short
Families often want to do something meaningful and freeze. NCI suggests presence matters most, and that children be prepared for what they'll see.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Making Treatment Decisions in Advanced Cancer
A supportive, plain-language guide to weighing treatment choices in advanced cancer, questions to ask, and how to share your goals with your care team.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Malignant Pleural Effusion Explained
Patient and caregiver planning for malignant pleural effusion explained: warning changes, questions, safety limits, and care-team instructions.
7 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Managing Stress During Cancer
Stress is a normal part of going through cancer. Learn what stress does to the body and gentle, proven ways to cope
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Managing Symptoms in Advanced Cancer
A plain-language guide to easing the physical and emotional symptoms of advanced cancer through palliative care, and why comfort is a right at every stage.
6 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Medical-Procedure Trauma During Cancer Care
Practical, source-based guidance on medical-procedure trauma during cancer care, including planning steps, questions, safety limits, and care-team support.
8 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Medicare late enrollment penalties if you keep working
Part B adds 10% per year you delay; Part D adds 1% per month. Special Enrollment or creditable coverage can avoid them.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Medicare Parts A, B, C and D, sorted out
Part A covers inpatient care, Part B outpatient services, Part D prescriptions, and Part C is a private-plan alternative for getting your coverage.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Medigap: extra insurance for Original Medicare costs
Medigap is private insurance that helps pay your share of Original Medicare costs: copays, coinsurance and deductibles. You need Parts A and B to buy it.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Mental-Health Hospitalization During Cancer Treatment
Guidance on mental-health hospitalization during cancer treatment: planning steps, questions, safety limits, and care-team support.
8 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Mindfulness and Relaxation in Cancer Care
Relaxation, meditation, and mindfulness are gentle ways many people with cancer lower stress and ease anxiety.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Missing a COBRA payment: the grace period explained
COBRA plans must give at least a 30-day grace period for each payment. If full payment does not arrive before it ends, the plan can terminate coverage.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Music Therapy in Cancer Care: What It Is and How It Helps
Music therapy in cancer care: what a credentialed music therapist does, what research shows for anxiety, pain, and mood, and how to find this service.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Must you tell a new employer about your cancer history?
Before a job offer, employers may not ask applicants about cancer. The EEOC explains what can be asked at each hiring stage and when disclosure is your choice.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Notifying Social Security after a family member dies
Funeral homes usually report a death to Social Security. What SSA says about reporting it yourself, survivor benefits, and the lump-sum death payment.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Nutrition During Cancer Treatment
A plain-language guide to eating well during cancer treatment
7 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Older Adults, Cancer Medicines, and Polypharmacy
Why a complete medicine review matters for older adults with cancer, including prescriptions, over-the-counter products, and supplements.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Out-of-network anesthesia bills at in-network hospitals
Clinicians at a hospital may bill separately from the hospital. Federal rules protect you for non-emergency care at in-network hospitals and surgery centers.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Palliative Sedation Explained Carefully
What palliative sedation is, when it is offered for symptoms that cannot be relieved any other way, and why it is not euthanasia or assisted dying.
8 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Panic Attacks During Cancer Treatment
Practical, source-based guidance on panic attacks during cancer treatment, including planning steps, questions, safety limits, and care-team support.
8 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Parenting Young Children During Cancer Treatment
Parents in cancer treatment often need help explaining illness, arranging childcare, and protecting routines.
6 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Pericardial Effusion and Cancer
Patient and caregiver planning for pericardial effusion and cancer: warning changes, questions, safety limits, and care-team instructions.
7 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Photo and Travel Games: A Gentle Way to Exercise Memory and Feel a Sense of Travel
Photo and place games can be a low-energy, enjoyable way to use your memory and feel a sense of travel during cancer care. Here is what they may and may not do.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Physical changes from treatment and how couples talk
NCI describes body changes from treatment and their effect on relationships, and recommends open talk about the kind of closeness each person wants.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Planning for the anniversary of a death
Anniversaries are one of the reminders NCI names as a common trigger for intense grief. Deciding in advance how to spend the day takes some of its power away.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Playing familiar music for someone in their final days
NCI encourages continued talking and touch in the last days, and lists music therapy among the creative approaches used to support well-being during illness.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Post-Traumatic Stress After Cancer or ICU Care
Practical, source-based guidance on post-traumatic stress after cancer or icu care, including planning steps, questions, safety limits, and care-team support.
7 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Pregnancy After Cancer Treatment
Pregnancy after cancer treatment depends on cancer type, treatment received, fertility, recurrence risk, and timing.
6 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Pregnancy During Cancer Treatment
Pregnancy during cancer treatment needs coordinated care between oncology, maternal-fetal medicine, and other specialists.
7 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Protecting Independence During Cancer Care in Older Adults
How geriatric assessment can bring mobility, memory, nutrition, daily function, social support, and independence into cancer planning.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Psycho-Oncology: When to Ask for a Cancer-Specific Therapist
What psycho-oncology is, signs it's time to ask for a cancer-specific therapist, and how the referral usually works.
8 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Rebuilding your fitness after cancer treatment ends
Exercise is generally safe for cancer survivors, per the expert roundtable NCI cites. Recommended activity amounts, and what the evidence covers.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Reiki, Massage, and Mind-Body Therapies in Cancer Care
Practical safety guardrails for using reiki, massage, meditation, and other mind-body approaches alongside cancer treatment.
9 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Religious Practices During Cancer Treatment
Planning steps, questions, safety limits, and care-team support for religious practices during hospitalization or cancer treatment.
7 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Remembering Michael "Mike" Canaday (1946–2024)
A tribute to Michael T. Canaday—Army veteran, Altamont entrepreneur, and champion border collie handler
7 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Saying goodbye when someone is no longer fully awake
How families say what they need to say when a person can no longer reply, and why NCI's guidance suggests those words still land.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Screening after you have already had cancer
Follow-up care after treatment has its own rhythm. NCI advises survivors to ask their doctor separately which cancer screenings they need and when.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Setting limits with relatives who mean well
NCI advises people with cancer to keep doing personal tasks when they can while accepting help, which gives solid ground for saying no to overreach.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Setting up a payment plan for cancer treatment bills
CMS says providers can sometimes lower a price or offer payment plans, and nonprofit hospitals must give financial help to eligible patients.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Sex and closeness while you are on chemotherapy
Chemo can change desire, comfort and confidence. NCI describes physical effects in women and men, condom advice during treatment, and help available.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Sexual Health and Cancer: Help Is Available
A plain-language guide to how cancer and its treatment can affect sexual health, and that help is available. Based on the National Cancer Institute.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Sperm Banking Before Cancer Treatment
Sperm banking is often the fastest fertility preservation option before cancer treatment.
6 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Spiritual Care When You Are Not Religious
Chaplains serve people with no faith, the standard measure was written not to assume God, and you can decline religious involvement entirely.
7 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Starting a funeral pre-planning conversation gently
Practical ways to start a conversation about funeral or memorial wishes, based on NCI guidance on planning ahead with advanced cancer.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Suicidal Thoughts After a Cancer Diagnosis
Practical, source-based guidance on suicidal thoughts after a cancer diagnosis, including planning steps, questions, safety limits, and care-team support.
9 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Suicide Risk After a Cancer Diagnosis: Help Is Available
Suicide risk rises after a cancer diagnosis, but it is treatable. What raises risk, what to say, and how to get help, for patients and loved ones.
6 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Supported Decision-Making During Cancer Care
Practical, source-based guidance on supported decision-making during cancer care, including planning steps, questions, safety limits, and care-team support.
7 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Taking FMLA leave in pieces for chemotherapy appointments
FMLA leave does not have to be one continuous block. When medically necessary it can be taken in separate blocks of time or as a reduced work schedule.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Talking About Funeral, Memorial, and After-Death Wishes
How a person with advanced cancer and their family can approach funeral, memorial, cultural, spiritual, and practical wishes without forcing the conversation.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Talking About Your Cancer
Good communication with your family and health care team can ease worry and improve your care. Learn ways to talk about your cancer on your own terms.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Talking With Your Family About Advanced Cancer
Gentle, plain-language tips for talking with a partner, children, teenagers, and adult children about advanced cancer, and how to ask for help.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Talking With Your Team About Fertility and Sex
How to start conversations about fertility and sexual health with your cancer team, plus questions to ask before, during, and after treatment.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Telling a teenager that a parent's cancer has come back
Teenagers need honesty and a say. NCI advises encouraging them to talk, sharing the treatment details they want, and involving them in decisions.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Telling the wider family about a cancer diagnosis
NCI recognizes families differ in how easily they discuss cancer, and recommends professional support, including facilitated family meetings.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Telling your manager you need time off for cancer treatment
NCI suggests starting informally, asking for specific changes rather than general allowances, and keeping a written record of every request and its outcome.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
The fear of forgetting details about someone who died
Losing the sound of a voice or the exact shape of a memory frightens many bereaved people. Here is how that fits with what NCI describes about grief.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
The first holidays after losing someone to cancer
NCI names holidays among reminders that commonly trigger intense grief. Deciding ahead what the family will and won't do makes the season easier.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
The five-month wait before disability payments begin
Social Security generally applies a five-month waiting period, paying the first disability benefit for the sixth full month after the date disability began.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
The Ticket to Work program explained
Ticket to Work is a free, voluntary Social Security program supporting work for people aged 18 to 64 who get disability benefits and want to work.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Traditional Healing Practices Alongside Cancer Care
Using traditional healing during cancer treatment: which practices carry real risk, the named herb and drug interactions, and how to raise it with the team.
10 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Trying part-time work while receiving disability benefits
Social Security's work incentives include a trial work period, an extended period of eligibility, and expedited reinstatement if you have to stop again.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Turning down visitors when you are not up for company
You're allowed to decline a visit. NCI suggests telling people which contact you welcome, like cards, calls or visits, so friends can offer what fits.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Understanding Hospice Care
A warm, plain-language guide to hospice care: what it is, where it can be given, who is on the team, how to qualify, and how it is paid for.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Unemployment benefits when cancer treatment stops work
Each state runs unemployment insurance under federal guidelines. A federal rule says states may pay only people who are able to work and available for work, so illness can affect a claim.
6 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Using buses and trains during chemotherapy
NCI advises avoiding crowds and sick people while chemo weakens your immune system. Practical ways to apply that to a daily commute.
6 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Using hospital price transparency tools for cancer costs
Hospitals must post their prices, including at least 300 shoppable services. What's in those files and how to use them when planning cancer care.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Vaginal Dryness After Cancer Treatment
Vaginal dryness and pain with sex can happen after cancer treatment and menopause-related changes.
6 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Ways families keep a loved one's memory alive
Rituals and memorials are described by NCI as helping people, including children, remember someone who has died. There is no single right way to do it.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
What a hospice chaplain does, for any family
The chaplain is a standard member of the hospice team. NCI describes the role as supporting all patients, whatever they believe.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
What COBRA costs and how long you can keep it
COBRA lets you keep an employer health plan after certain events. You may pay up to 102% of the cost, usually for 18 or 36 months.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
What coworkers can actually do for someone who is grieving
Colleagues often go quiet for fear of saying the wrong thing. NCI's bereavement guidance explains why staying present matters more than perfect words.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
What FMLA actually protects when you return to work
FMLA guarantees your same or an equivalent job, with the same pay, benefits and terms, and requires group health coverage to continue during leave.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
What follow-up looks like in the first year after treatment
NCI describes follow-up visits every 3 to 4 months for the first 2 to 3 years, shaped by cancer type, treatment received, and overall health.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
What Happens When Someone Dies at Home Without Hospice?
Who to call after an expected death at home, whether to dial 911, who can pronounce death, and what to do about the body and the medicines.
10 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
What is balance billing, and can a cancer center do it?
Balance billing is when an out-of-network provider bills you the gap between their charge and your plan's payment. Federal rules now block it in many cases.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
What Is Hospice Care? End-of-Life Comfort Care
A plain-language explanation of hospice care for people with cancer—what it includes, where it happens, and how it differs from palliative care
9 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
What Is Palliative Care? Comfort During Cancer
A plain-language explanation of palliative care in cancer—what it is, who provides it, and how it differs from hospice
6 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
What the 340B drug pricing program is
340B lets some safety-net hospitals and clinics buy outpatient drugs at lower prices. What the program is for, and what it does and doesn't promise patients.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
What to expect in an inpatient hospice facility
Hospice can be given in a freestanding inpatient facility. NCI describes general inpatient care as the level used when symptoms reach crisis point.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
When a friend says something that hurts
A friend's clumsy remark can sting for months. NCI describes fear among people close to you, and points to counseling and support when hurt lingers.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
When Cancer Treatment Is No Longer Helping
What it means when treatment is no longer working, how to weigh continuing against stopping, and the real rules for palliative care and hospice.
9 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
When colleagues treat you differently after a diagnosis
Being handled with kid gloves at work is common and wearing. NCI notes colleagues often react from their own anxiety, and suggests talking early.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
When Family and Patient Preferences for Cancer Care Differ
When family wants something different from the patient: why it's often protective silence, who holds the decision, and how to run a family meeting that works.
8 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
When grief becomes complicated
How complicated grief differs from ordinary grief, which factors raise the risk, and what treatments NCI describes for people whose distress is not easing.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
When Grief Needs Professional Help
How normal grief can differ from prolonged, disabling grief or depression, and how to seek support after a cancer death.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
When survivorship spaces feel wrong with metastatic cancer
Survivorship language often assumes treatment ends. NCI describes metastatic cancer as treated to control it, an experience the usual story leaves out.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
When to go through a loved one's belongings
There's no right date to clear out a wardrobe. NCI explains why handling a loved one's things sets off intense grief, and why that reaction is expected.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
When your child asks whether you are going to die
The question parents dread, and what NCI's family guidance supports saying: honesty, that cancer doesn't automatically mean dying, and promises you can keep.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Whether to stay in the room during a loved one's final hours
There is no right answer, but NCI's guidance is clear that presence, touch and talking still reach a person who is no longer responding.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Which symptoms after treatment are worth a phone call?
NCI lists changes survivors should report, like new or lasting symptoms, fatigue, bowel or bladder changes and memory problems. Many are easily addressed.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Who should clean the litter box during cancer treatment
MedlinePlus guidance for people with weak immunity says someone else should change the litter box daily, and lists other pet precautions at home.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Why a child may act out or regress while a parent has cancer
Behavior changes, regression and school trouble are documented reactions when a parent has cancer. What NCI describes and what tends to steady a child.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Why accepting help is so uncomfortable
NCI's advice on family changes pairs two ideas: ask for help and list what you need, while letting people know you can still do some things yourself.
6 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Why an ostomy bag leaks, and how to fix the seal
Leaks often come down to fit and skin prep. MedlinePlus sets out how to measure the stoma, prepare the skin and get a seal to hold.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Why cancer strains even strong partnerships
Roles shift and money tightens. NCI describes these pressures and suggests family meetings and professional helpers when a family needs support.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Why comparing your cancer experience rarely helps
Comparison is a natural instinct after a diagnosis, but it tends to produce guilt or fear rather than useful information. NCI describes the feelings involved.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Why grief ambushes you in ordinary moments
A song in a supermarket can knock you flat a year after a death. NCI has a name for this and describes roughly how long these waves last.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Why it is hard to believe treatment worked
NCI describes life after treatment as adjusting to new feelings, changed support and a new outlook, which is why relief and disbelief often come together.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Why long-term plans feel impossible after cancer treatment
Many survivors can no longer plan far ahead. NCI describes adjusting after treatment, including fear of recurrence and living with uncertainty.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Why Medicare starts two years after disability benefits
Medicare starts automatically after two years of Social Security disability benefits, with exceptions for ALS and end-stage renal disease.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Why needles and tight cuffs are kept off the at-risk arm
MedlinePlus lymphedema guidance: have blood draws, IVs and shots in the other arm, and don't wrap anything tightly around the affected limb.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Why relationships can struggle long after treatment works
Good scans don't automatically restore a marriage. NCI describes shifting dynamics after cancer, and the gap between others' timelines and yours.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Why removing lymph nodes leaves a lasting swelling risk
Lymph node surgery and radiation disrupt the system that drains lymph fluid. NCI explains why swelling can appear soon after treatment or years later.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Why some hospital rooms do not allow fresh flowers
A no-flowers rule on a transplant unit is about mold spores, not tidiness. CDC's protective environment guidance explains what it covers and for whom.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Why survivorship milestones can feel so strange
A five-year mark can bring dread instead of celebration. NCI describes anniversaries as a known trigger for worry about recurrence, even years later.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Why sushi, soft cheese and the deli counter are off limits
Food restrictions during chemotherapy are about germs, not nutrition. MedlinePlus lists the specific foods to leave out and the cooking temperatures to hit.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Why the anniversary of a diagnosis hits so hard
NCI names diagnosis anniversaries among triggers that can bring back fear of recurrence, alongside follow-up visits, screenings and some symptoms.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Why worries about cancer keep coming back after good news
NCI says fear of recurrence is probably the most common fear after treatment. It often eases over time, but triggers like anniversaries can bring it back.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Working During Cancer Treatment
A plain-language guide to managing work during and after cancer treatment, including your rights and options. Based on the National Cancer Institute.
4 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Writing letters to be opened after you die
Letters are one of the ways NCI mentions for connecting with people near the end of life. Here is why people write them and how to get past the blank page.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Yoga During and After Cancer: Benefits and Safety
Yoga during and after cancer: what studies show for fatigue, sleep, and anxiety, how to adapt a practice safely, and how to find a qualified teacher.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Your EOB says the claim was denied — what to do first
A denial on an Explanation of Benefits starts a process. You have 180 days to file an internal appeal, and you must be given a written reason.
5 min read · Beginner
Living With Cancer
Your No Surprises Act protections during cancer care
Federal bill protections since 2022 cover emergency care, air ambulances, out-of-network clinicians at in-network sites, and estimates for the uninsured.
4 min read · Beginner
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