The Blog Has Landed!

Welcome to the blog section of the website.  
 
My name is Dr. Kerry Forrestal and I have written a book for those of you who have been diagnosed with cancer, and the family and friends of those people. I hope to dispense a bit of medical knowledge, a story or two. Fair warning I’m a seanchaí or an Irish Storyteller. I’ll try to keep them relevant and tell you what I’m trying to accomplish with this site and the book. 
 
Over the years as an ER doctor, I’ve found a lot of cancer in people. It's never sat well with me that I can’t do more for those people. Imagine telling someone they may have cancer and then having to say, “Good luck with that,” as they get discharged. (Only a minority of them admitted) You might ask why didn’t you just go into oncology? Emergency Medicine is my first love and as much as I want to help people with cancer, I couldn’t give up helping people with all the other ailments who are in crisis. It takes a certain mindset to tolerate the uncertainty of working in a dynamic clinical environment and enjoy switching from task to task while being interrupted constantly. I think most ER people would be diagnosed with some flavor of attention disorder sprinkled with an unhealthy fascination with the foibles of people and a distinctly different interpretation of what constitutes an “Interesting” surprise. 

Squirrel 
 
I’ve also dealt with a lot of the complications of cancer care and have seen time and again patients who could have avoided the Emergency Department if only they had reliable information available to them BEFORE things got out of hand. 
 
Thus was born the first incarnation of this project “The Warrior Stance” which was a cancer journaling website. The idea being that I would capture the stories of people going through care and assemble them into books to help guide people with cancer. Generally, this was accepted to be a great idea and a novel approach (I seem to have no shortage of novel approaches to things and it turns out that’s not necessarily a good thing)  
 
Fly in the ointment, I could not get anyone to write on a sustained basis except one woman who wrote for a couple of years. I didn’t have the heart to turn it off as she found it cathartic to vent about more life related issues than cancer care. Finally, she symbolically banished her cancer into the past and that symbol was to stop writing about it. She was happy, and I was off the hook for the website maintenance. 
 
During the run of the Warrior Stance, a dear friend Elizabeth Haydon who was a college friend turned New York Times bestselling author (Rhapsody and Ven Polypheme series) suggested writing a “Seed book” a book that would raise awareness for the cancer journalling site. Thus, was born “Crushing Cancer- A Patient’s Complete Guide to Managing a Cancer Diagnosis” 17 chapters of everything you need to know about dealing with a cancer diagnosis. 
 
First, I did not make the mistake of telling patients what I thought they needed, that would come eventually ONCE I asked as many cancer patients as I could what THEY felt they needed. I recall vividly a research paper that was presented at a research meeting at Columbia University in NYC where I was presenting a poster on Domestic Violence. I wandered the hall looking at the other papers, all of which I have forgotten now, except one. This paper asked a simple question (I am paraphrasing here) “Do the stated needs of homeless people meet what we anticipate the needs are?” They surveyed physical, occupational, and speech therapists as well as social workers for what they thought homeless people needed and then asked homeless people. It was about a complete disconnect. Please understand that I’m not dinging the professionals here, I thought their list looked good and I would have given many of the same answers probably if asked. That said, the professionals felt the homeless would need things that we all use daily. I can’t recall the list but something along the lines of a phone for emergency communication springs to mind. What they needed were things we take for granted like socks and toothbrush/paste. The details are foggy in the mist of time, but the bottom line is not, what we think people need as professionals does not exactly match what they really need. 
 
So before I investigated and opined, I asked the cancer patients I knew and could contact what they needed and THEN started to assemble to book. I talked with the smartest people I could find about all aspects of cancer care. Not only the medical parts of it but the financial parts as well. 3% of all people undergoing cancer care will have to declare bankruptcy and many more will experience financial toxicity meaning it will be years or even decades before the bills are retired, if ever.  
 
Employment considerations and protections are another significant element of navigating cancer care. It’s really a travesty of our healthcare system that people must continue to work through cancer care to keep their health insurance, but here we are.  
 
Legal documents and considerations are examined as well, and I thought it wise to put links using QR codes to relevant documents like advanced directives by state for ease of use. 
 
Then there is the interpersonal material. This can often be the hardest part of cancer care. Jean Paul Satre, a dusty old French philosopher once wrote Hell is other people. I’ve read his comments regarding how people misunderstood the quote and yet it still kinda holds true at times. Perhaps better said, people can make cancer care harder. (Hint- avoid these people) 
 
CANCER SCAMS abound, and a big part of the book is avoiding cancer scams. I will go into GREAT length about sham medicine. There are three broad categories of medicine, or better said two categories and one trash can. Traditional and Complementary Medicine and the trash can of homeopathy/naturopathy. I can hear the screeching halt for some people who are big proponents of the latter. Sorry, if you want my support, show me your numbers. Show me peer-reviewed prospective controlled research. 
 
A nurse I work with was a big naturopathic fan and maintained the only reason there is no research on naturopathic medicine is a lack of money. Take a look for yourself, naturopathy and homeopathy are a multi-billion (with a B) industry. The money is there, but would you fund legitimate research that would PROVE that your product is worthless?  
 
Finally, we talk about palliative care, hospice, and funerals. While I hope everyone who uses the book will go on to live another 100 years (If they so wish) life is currently 100% fatal so we’ll all EVENTUALLY need this information. Not a happy conversation, but necessary. 
 
So there it is, Crushing Cancer and the Warrior Stance. My attempt to help people who have been newly diagnosed with cancer. Cancer is ever more beatable with each passing day. Breakthroughs are coming fast and faster and if you go away from this first blog post with anything it should be the fact that you have a LOT of reason to be hopeful. We are getting better and better at beating this and tomorrow. . . . 
 
We will be better again! 

Crushing Cancer- On sale at Amazon