So can our stress levels. When cancer strikes A cancer diagnosis can turn your life upside down. Eric Cassell, Clinical Professor of Public Health at Cornell University, specializes in the human aspects of medical practice. He says that illness, especially if it is life-threatening, disconnects people from their ordinary world their everyday reasoning fails them, their normal feelings of indestructibility break down, and they experience a loss of control over themselves and their world 1 . So, just when you most need to be calm, collected and receptive, all your wits and even your memory seem to desert you.
Many women say they feel diminished, incompetent and flustered in the doctor s office.
An illness is a story, with the person, rather than the disease, at centre stage. It implies power-sharing between you and your doctor. Designed and tested with patient and professional input, they re aimed at helping people with cancer brush up on their communication skills so they can make better use of time with their doctor. The materials are intentionally flexible. The emphasis is on breast cancer, since the kit has its origins in the 1993 Montreal Forum on Breast Cancer where survivors spoke forcefully about the need to improve communication between women and their doctors.