{"id":1753,"date":"2013-03-26T15:46:45","date_gmt":"2013-03-26T15:46:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theaccent.org\/?p=1753"},"modified":"2013-03-26T15:46:45","modified_gmt":"2013-03-26T15:46:45","slug":"campus-closeup-support-for-survivors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/campus-closeup-support-for-survivors\/","title":{"rendered":"Campus Closeup: Support for Survivors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Story and Photo by Era Sundar, Editor in Chief<\/p>\n

Young cancer survivors are part of a growing population.<\/p>\n

According to an American Cancer Society report published this year, \u201cMortality rates for childhood cancer have declined by 68 percent over the past four decades.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, a patient\u2019s experience with cancer doesn\u2019t end with remission.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Young adult] survivors face many challenges after treatment is over, including medical problems that may show up many years later,\u201d Seton Shoal Creek Hospital and Community Care President and CEO Diana Resnik, said.<\/p>\n

ACC graduate Heather Thomas is a childhood cancer survivor. At age 4, she was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia which affects the blood and bone marrow.<\/p>\n

Now 24, Thomas is married, the recent owner of a house and a nurse at Seton. But she remembers when her life was not going as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could feel really good when you were on treatment and you could have days when you just didn\u2019t feel like moving, \u201d she said.<\/p>\n

When her treatment was complete, Thomas, then age 6, had a pill smashing party.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt meant I didn\u2019t have to take the dreaded pills anymore,\u201d she said. \u201cMy mom and dad lined them up in the garage and gave me a hammer and away I went at them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nurse Navigator Maria Marek works with the Seton Cancer Survivor Center to help young survivors like Thomas transition from pediatric oncologists to adult doctors, and deal with their unique needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome chemotherapy can cause low bone density, fertility issues and heart complications,\u201d Marek said.<\/p>\n

Thomas said she has not seen any residual effects of having chemotherapy at a young age, but carefully follows a health maintenance plan with her doctor.<\/p>\n

The Seton Cancer Survivor Center is holding a special event April 6 for young adult survivors like Thomas. The event starts with lunch and will include a video booth so survivors can record their stories, sessions of laughing yoga and cooking demonstrations by chefs. The event is free of charge. For more information visit the Seton Cancer Survivor Center Facebook page.<\/p>\n

\"Maria<\/a>
YOUNG SURVIVOR — Nurse Navigator Maria Marek and ACC graduate Heather Thomas discuss cancer survival.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Story and Photo by Era Sundar, Editor in Chief<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4015,"featured_media":1656,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[137,240,290,397],"class_list":["post-1753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-cancer-suvivor","tag-era-sundar","tag-heather-thomas","tag-maria-marek"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4015"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}