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
BooksandAuthors.net: 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.
BooksandAuthors.net: 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.
BooksandAuthors.net: 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.
BooksandAuthors.net: 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.
BooksandAuthors.net: 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.
BooksandAuthors.net: 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.
BooksandAuthors.net: 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.
BooksandAuthors.net: 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
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.
