Cancerous Diseases
DIAGNOSED WITH CANCER - A FATEFUL EXPERIENCE AFFECTING EVERY ASPECT OF LIFE
Today, in most of the cases, cancer can be healed, whereas some years ago, it would still have been incurable. This evolution is essentially due to early detection tests and coordinated therapeutic measures in competent medical centres as well as to progresses in medical science.
Frequently, a combination of surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy is required to heal the disease or, at least, to halt its progression. Unfortunately, it is still not possible to vanquish medically all types of tumours. However, if a cancer turns out to be incurable, we strive nonetheless to minimise and manage the consequences of the cancerous disease.
Cancer always affects every aspect of the patient’s life. The mere cancer diagnosis is a severe blow for any person and upsets the mental balance. Anything taken for granted in the past becomes questionable and has to be reconsidered: values and habits, family life, affective relations, career and life planning. The confrontation with the potentially life limiting disease, death and grief inevitably entails an alteration of the attitude towards life.
Therefore, any cancer therapy must include assistance and support to the patient in the difficult process of coping with the disease in order to avoid physical and psychological harm and open up new opportunities for the future life.
Consequently, rehabilitation is a crucial element of a modern oncological treatment. We take care of the physical, psychological, mental and social consequences that may arise from the disease or from the therapy. The Specialist St. Georg Clinic provides an integrated rehabilitation concept for patients suffering from cancerous diseases, which comprises all the above mentioned aspects.
Cancer: A diagnosis that scares you! But does it have to be that way?
Today, the disease is curable in many cases. This requires interdisciplinary therapy. Only in combination with surgery, radiation therapy and internal oncology can these good results be achieved. Today's surgical techniques such as laparoscopic surgery (so-called keyhole surgery) are much gentler compared to the previously common procedures. Radiation therapy is also significantly better tolerated by the modern computer-aided three-dimensional planning and implementation.
The chemotherapy could also be improved and expanded so that today the medicine based treatment by the use of new special targeted drugs can be strongly geared to the individual tumor characteristics.
But this development has its price. While in the past only survival was in the foreground, today with a much better prognosis, the long-term consequences are becoming more and more important. And here rehabilitation has its most important importance. Some examples of this, which are very successfully and consistently tackled in our clinic, are listed below.
Many sufferers experience a stressful change in overall performance with increased fatigue and rapid fatigue in all areas of their professional and private lives. This affects both the body as well as the mental and spiritual abilities. Here an improvement can be achieved by psychotherapeutic interventions and regular, performance-related endurance training. The regular yoga gymnastics also offers promising prospects.
Unfortunately, many medications that have helped to improve the prognosis and are indispensable to us today unfortunately lead to chronic inflammation of peripheral nerves. This is noticeable with numbness and tingling in the hands and feet, sometimes also in movement disorders, which can lead to significant limitations in everyday life. In addition to close monitoring and possibly prophylaxis in the acute phase of treatment, the measures during rehabilitation can contribute to significant improvements. Apart from medicines, ergotherapeutic procedures are used as well as vibration training, the so-called Galileo training. The positive development with continued therapy leads to measurable improvements of the motoric and sensitive functions.
Major surgery in the pelvic area (e.g., prostate gland or gynecological tumors) is often associated with the development of incontinence. In addition to the intensive pelvic floor training, we perform a neurostimulation and the Galileo training. Often, during the three-week stay in the rehabilitation clinic, these progresses are pleasing and can not only be stabilized but also further improved by the independent continuation of the techniques learned.
Special attention is paid to therapy and secondary prophylaxis of lymphedema. In addition to the diagnostic and prophylactic measures and intensive consultation by an experienced, lymphologically-trained doctor, this includes the consistent manual and apparative lymphatic drainage, accompanied by a lymphatic and decongestive gymnastics.
The very often experienced existential threat that we take the diagnosis of a cancer very seriously. Intensive individual psychological discussions are supplemented by therapy groups and relaxation exercises in order to reduce the existing fears and depressions as much as possible. This often succeeds in achieving a degree of stabilization which counteracts the development of a chronic condition of the condition and can avoid further outpatient treatment.
These are just a few examples from an extensive catalog of follow-up complaints that require a variety of interdisciplinary measures. Together, doctors and psychologists, nursing staff, physiotherapists and physiotherapists, the occupational therapist and the social service determine the individual treatment plan in consultation with the person concerned and adjust it at any time during the healing process as required.
In addition, women with breast or abdominal cancer are supported by an oncologically experienced gynecologist. Under psychological guidance there is the possibility to participate in an oncological group of women.
Our goal is to restore as far as possible your mental, social and physical performance, so that you can return with joy and with as few complaints as possible and, above all, less fear of the future of your employment and in particular enjoy your life.
Indications
- Myeloproliferative diseases and leukaemia
- Mammary carcinoma
- Oesophageal cancer and stomach cancer
- Kidney, bladder, abdominal, prostate and testicle tumours
- Colorectal cancer
- Thyroid cancer
- Hodgkin’s lymphoma, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, connective tissue tumours
- Soft tissue sarcoma
- Bronchial carcinoma
- Skin cancer (malignant melanoma)
Therapy goals
The aim of our therapies is to enable the patient to resume daily life vigorously without pain and to regain self-esteem and develop a positive attitude towards the own body. This requires the patient to undergo a learning process involving various new experiences, whilst withdrawing from everyday life (disengagement) to rediscover the own identity.
Therapeutic services
- Climate and spa therapy
- Pharmaceutical care
- Physiotherapy
- Prescription of medical equipment
- Nutritional therapy
- Nutrition counselling
- Psycho-oncological therapy
- Psychosocial assistance
- Stoma care and irrigation
- Lymphatic drainage
- Social and medical assessment for reintegration
- Consulting and training
- Expert lectures
- Chemotherapy upon request
- Palliative therapy
- Restoration of the functions of the affected organ
- Relaxation therapy, mindfulness exercises (Yoga, Qi Gong)