Episode 2: Survivorship and Hope

Aviva describes both the relief and fear of completing active treatment for marginal zone lymphoma. Survivorship, life after disease, has been an emotional journey that Aviva manages using writing, humour, meditation, and outreach as a patient advocate. Aviva talks about perceiving hope as relational - something she can move towards through interactions with others. She hopes that health care providers will hear her story and see patients as a whole person. Aviva’s memoir is titled “Lost and Found in Lymphomaland”.

Dori, Giovanna, and Irene talk about the concept of Survivorship and what kinds of physical and psychosocial issues can arise post treatment. The doctors discuss how hope can be framed and re-framed to be realistic at each stage of life, with or without disease. The pressures of the patient is included, when the hosts describe how to be helpful to a patient. The whole person approach is important to gauge the well-being of each and every patient.