Adolescence Puts Added Stress on Teen-Age Cancer Victims

The best years of a person’s life can be also be the worst years if they must deal with cancer, according to a nurse who specializes in the care of teen-agers stricken with the disease.

“Normally, you wouldn’t expect in your teens that you would have to face the possibility you are going to die,” said Judith Dunlop. “It’s the furthest thing from your mind.”

The pain, isolation and disfigurement that often accompany bouts with cancer can be especially hard on adolescents who are going through a sometimes difficult period of development in the first place.

Many, however, show remarkable courage coping with a situation that may be one of the most frightening imaginable. Dunlop said.

Dunlop spoke recently to cancer nurses at the Scripps Cancer Symposium in San Diego.

Dunlop, who directs the hospice program for Medical Personnel Pool in Walnut Creek, said it was the job of the nurses in the cancer ward to provide understanding as well as tend to their patients’ medical needs.

The changes that youths go through in their early teens can be difficult and they can’t be put off just because a person is sick.

“That whole change in height, weight and secondary sexual characteristics gives you (the cancer patient) a whole new person to deal with,” Dunlop said.

Loss of hair, long periods in the hospital and frailness make it difficult for the cancer patient to adjust to life in school, a place that is vital for social development.

“Going back to school without your hair or minus a limb is a major event,” Dunlop said.

Absence from school is the most serious problem the adolescent cancer patient must face. Not only do students fall behind academically, but they also miss out on friendships.

Although many casual chums will fade away, visits from close friends become very important to ailing teens.

Homework Also Important

Equally important, although less obvious, is homework. Dunlop said anything that links patients to school and keeps their minds occupied is beneficial.

“It’s really important,” she said. “It keeps them in touch with who they are. That is what they are supposed to be doing then: going to school.”

Nurses can help get a patient through the difficult emotional periods, Dunlop said, but they cannot become surrogate parents.