When you are managing metastatic breast cancer, planning for the future is both daunting and necessary.
Understanding your care options through your diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis is essential to navigating metastatic breast cancer.
During this phase, your disease may change rapidly.
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You may be having more symptoms, and your cancer may be spreading rapidly.
Your care team will carefully monitor your disease, overall health, and symptoms.
They’ll focus their care on controlling your symptoms.
They will work to decrease the cancer in your body and stabilize the disease, slowing its progress.
To help you cope with your symptoms and treatment side effects, work on developing comfort strategies.
Talk to your care team about speaking with a mental health counselor or seeking a support group.
Find a breast cancer community explicitly designed for those with metastatic disease through theMetastatic Breast Cancer internet.
Survivorship Care Plan
You should also talk with your oncologist about creating a survivorship care plan.
This document summarizes your cancer treatment plan and outlines your ongoing care.
Your treatment is tailored to you and your cancer’s characteristics.
Your team will consider your previous treatments, their effectiveness, and any side effects that develop.
For some people, the stable phase lasts a few months to a few years.
During the stable phase, you’ll be feeling a bit better.
You may continue some treatments, such as hormone and targeted therapies.
You’ll be monitored regularly for the progression of cancer.
Discuss your wishes with your care team, family, and friends.
Create a living will.
This written, legal document spells out what treatments you would and would not want to prolong life.
It also includes your preferences for pain care and organ donation.
Consider your preference for care in your final moments.
If and when your heart stops beating, what pop in of life-sustaining treatments would you prefer?
Progressive Phase
The progressive phase of metastatic breast cancer is when the cancer recurs or gets worse.
The disease becomes unstable and progresses.
At this point, you’ll need to start thinking about yourend-of-life decisions and concerns.
Revisit your living will and healthcare proxy and evaluate if those decisions still feel right for you.
Make any necessary changes.
When metastatic breast cancer progresses, you gotta reconsider your treatment goals.
This may mean stopping some treatments.
Talk to your care team about their reasoning for specific treatments and ensure you’re on the same page.
They may think that continued chemotherapy could cure their cancer, while their oncologists believe it’s unlikely.
It may feel impossible to plan for the end of your life.
While you may not be able to fully prepare emotionally, you could take legal and financial action.
Make a plan to discuss these considerations with your loved ones.
Talk openly with your care team, your loved ones, and even inmetastatic breast cancer support groups.
If you are struggling, tell your care team.
Talk With Your Care Team About the Financial Side of Cancer
Costs can be high.
You may have transportation costs to appointments and additional childcare expenses.
Talk with your care team and social worker about the costs associated with metastatic breast cancer.
They can help you findfinancial support from local or national organizations.
To be legal, these documents must be signed by you, a witness, and a notary.
Caregivers can get support in groups or online communities and talk with a therapist on their own.
Summary
Planning for metastatic breast cancer is essential but hard.
Called stage 4 breast cancer, this disease is incurable.
Treatments can help with symptoms and prolong life.
Metastatic breast cancer has three phases: acute, stable, and progressive.
In the acute phase, symptoms get worse quickly.
Care focuses on improving your symptoms and slowing the spread.
Work on your coping strategies and create a survivorship care plan.
Symptoms may lessen during the stable phase.
You should focus on physical and mental well-being.
You’ll be monitored regularly, and you should make healthy lifestyle choices.
Creating a plan for end-of-life care is key.
Create a living will and appoint a healthcare proxy.
In the progressive phase, the disease worsens.
You may need to reassess your goals, focus on quality of life, and move to palliative care.
Talk with your care team and loved ones about these decisions.
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Johns Hopkins Medicine.Metastatic breast cancer
American Cancer Society.Managing cancer as a chronic illness.
Johns Hopkins Medicine.Nutrition and cancer survivorship.
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American Cancer Society.Understanding your options and making treatment decisions.
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