Robin’s Colorectal Cancer Experience During COVID-19
Robin’s Colorectal Cancer Experience During COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has been difficult for everyone, but especially for critically ill patients like Robin. In this video, she talks about the challenges she has faced in receiving necessary care for her stage 4 colorectal cancer because of changes to the way healthcare is delivered during the pandemic.
Getting patients the best possible care is at the core of Amgen Canada’s values as a company. We believe patients should receive ongoing, active communication with their healthcare providers. Watch the video and see Robin talking about how telemedicine has helped — especially if you or a loved one might also benefit from more contact with healthcare providers.
The day the lockdown was declared in my province was the day that my family doctor called me to say, “You know, you need to, we have a PET scan here, which shows that your cancer has recurred.” I have Stage 4 colorectal cancer, and right now I'm undergoing chemotherapy for that.
COVID really does complicate cancer care, I think both at the provider end and certainly at the patient end. So it has had a huge influence on my experience. I've had cancer for 10 years and I've had a serious treatment for cancer two previous times in the past.
So this third time, I have a basis for comparison over what it was like before and what it is now. Ordinarily, it takes about a month to access chemotherapy. It took me three months and it was four and a half, almost five months before I could even speak to a surgeon, which is way off compared to previous experiences.
I would say I'm not receiving the same access to health care that I did prior to COVID. There's no question that it's been diminished in its ability to respond. Earlier on in the pandemic, it would have been helpful to have information either coming from the doctors or from the cancer care center generally saying, “We're aware that you just got diagnosed or going to be, we'll get to you eventually.”
Some kind of reassuring message to say you haven't just sort of vanished off the board. Ordinarily, when you go for chemotherapy, you can have a friend or a spouse with you.
Under COVID conditions, you could not do that. You had to go in alone. Telehealth facilitated oncology appointments and avoided a risk of exposure to COVID. And also you could have your spouse present at a Zoom meeting, whereas you could not in person. What I'd love to see is an uptick in the use of telemedicine.
Patients have been seeking for telemedicine to be financially compensated for doctors for years. And it was, and for years they said,” Can’t be done, too difficult.” You know, a wise nurse once told me communication is medicine. Communication is medicine. Meaning the more a doctor and treatment in the clinic can communicate with a patient to reassure them about their treatment, that is medicine that is helpful.