Throat Cancers

Paper Summary:

This paper relates that head and neck cancers account for some three percent of all cancers in the United States, are more common in men over fifty years of age with an estimated 38,000 Americans diagnosed last year. The paper explains that therapy for throat-type cancers usually involves a laryngectomy, removal of the larynx, radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy; whereas, rehabilitation may include physical therapy, dietary counseling, speech therapy, and/or, after a laryngectomy, learning how to care for a stoma, an opening into the windpipe through which a patient breathes and due to eating difficulty, patients may receive nutrients directly into a vein or feeding tube. The author stresses that the patient must be supported by the extended family, friends and support groups to help achieve recovery.

From the Paper:

"In coping with cancer or any fatal and debilitating disease, "deep-rooted psychological and systemic factors come into play as do social and religious or existential ones". Certain automatic forms of behavior may kick-in to help one deal with the suffering. Psychological defense is a vital "homeostatic" principle that in itself is neither good or bad and may be helpful at one time and disruptive or obstructive at another depending on the influence of "spiritual factors and social aspects of the spirit of the times". A few decades ago it doctors usually concealed a painful diagnosis from patients; however, today patients are often confronted forcibly, and at times brutally, with the reality of a diagnosis that may lead to feelings of anxiety, helplessness, depression and impotence. Ideally, a patient should be confronted somewhere in between the sugarcoated white lie and the blunt information. When the reality of the diagnosis sets in so do defense mechanisms to cope with feelings of anger, fear, grief and guilt affecting not only the patient, but relatives and caregivers as well."

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