Cancer is a scary diagnosis and one that most men and women are afraid of with good reason
. Even after many years of cancer research there is little hope for survival once you receive this kind of bad news. Of course, cancer does not have to be a death sentence but unfortunately as of late on most occasions it is.
When somebody is first diagnosed with cancer they will quite possibly have to follow up with several doctor's appointments in order to make sure what type of cancer it is as well as how far it has traveled through the body. Of course, receiving a diagnosis normally comes with a prognosis and suggested treatment plan that will be laid out by your doctor. This can be quite a process of being poked and prodded and in many cases a biopsy may perhaps be needed in order to understand exactly what is occurring within the body.
The important thing to realize is that any plan suggested by your medical doctor will need to then go through your health care insurance and in some cases your medical insurance might not allow you to follow through with your doctor's recommendations or will suggest that you have to pay out of pocket for any of the recommended treatments. When it comes to treatment options it's always best if your doctor and health care insurance company agree.
Once you start undergoing a course of treatment you'll very likely receive a set amount of treatments and they're going to be followed up with a re-evaluation. At re-evaluation time your doctor will most likely need to rerun some of the initial tests in order to make certain that the treatments are working and progressing otherwise you may need to have your course of treatment overhauled or stopped if things are not going well or if the cancer is advancing.
If you have a type of cancer which is incurable or inoperable then it is likely that you will in the end be left with only one of two options, to undergo hospitalization until death or have hospice care administered at home. Those with young children usually opt to have care given in a hospital setting to help the children not be traumatized while those who have a strong family base tend to want to die at home and hospice care usually allows them to die with dignity in a comfortable setting.