What to Expect When You Have Liver Cancer

It could happen to absolutely anyone. A sudden lump or abdomen pain, a casual visit to the doctors, a non-threatening blood test, and bang! Your general practitioner fears that you might have liver cancer.

You get referred to a specialist, and the fears are confirmed. What follows is denial, panic, chaos, and fear of how uncertain life will become from here on.

But you can’t let cancer win. A way to ensure that is to try and push away all the feelings of uncertainty. Which is why I give you the ‘What to expect’ on liver cancer.

If your cancer is confirmed, you will see a lot of medical practitioners. Depending on what liver cancer stage you are at, your health history, and the treatment you are about to receive, you will see oncologists, radiotherapists, or chemotherapists.

The nurses, tests, invasive diagnosis techniques, there is too much for you to endure in the coming days. It could easily overwhelm a person, seeing his or her life involve so much new in such a short time.

The trick is to remember that the crowd is there to try and bring you back to your regular life. The sooner you accept it, the easier it would be to go through the treatment.

Let’s say that you still haven’t made peace with the fact that you have a shitty disease. Then, it could become difficult for you to sit through a meeting, discuss your chances, and partake in decision-making without bursting the volcano of emotions.

The thing is that it is important. You have to understand just what is going on with your body. No matter how loved or trusted a family member is, it is after all your life. It has to be your decision unless you are a minor of course. Even then, you must be made aware of all that is going on, and if nobody attempts to, you should try and get involved.

Knowing what you can do, what others can do to deal with the cancer is helpful. It gives you the sense that cancer is a war that can be won. Psychologically, a sense of control helps a bucket.

With different stages of liver cancer, the treatments will vary. With varying treatments, the side effects will differ too. Other than feeling tired, or dealing with pain relief, there will be other things, new things, that your body will go through on a regular basis.

Talking to a doctor helps you to understand what you’ll face. It can regulate the shock to a level where it gets bearable and doesn’t throw you into a sudden panic.

Expect this before anything else. While the advanced treatments have done a good deal to improve liver cancer life expectancy, the cancer stem cells have the tendency to hide very well. They can cause a relapse and it isn’t always in the hands of your doctor to prevent it from happening.

There Is much More That’ll Be Coming Your Way

Be it primary or secondary liver cancer, you will never be enough prepared. There will be expenses. There will be factors you'll anticipate. And there will be unexpected ones.

You’ll fear death. You’ll fear life if you conquer death. But the most important point is to remember that you can win over cancer. And well, that is the most sincere expectation you need.