Navigating the future with hope and resilience | Navigating Now

COVID-19 has been and continues to be a huge challenge. What is happening to our world is a tragedy, maybe even a nightmare. Many people have lost their lives; some did so alone. Other people have lost their jobs and their medical insurance as well. The implications of the pandemic are seemingly never-ending, and our hearts ache for all who are suffering.

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, hope and resilience are valuable commodities. As U.S. leaders make plans to reopen our country, we know we will all need hope and resilience and some fearlessness to navigate “the new normal”.

The stress felt by us all is magnified for patients with other diseases, like cancer. From SURVIVEiT®’s community of cancer patients and caregivers, we’ve heard everything. Some patients are giving high praise to their medical teams for providing better communication and support than ever. Other patients are facing delays in their treatments and follow-up scans to see whether the treatments are even working.  Some are coping with changes in their treatment options and many are reporting greater feelings of isolation than before.

But the SURVIVEiT cancer community has been conditioned for a time like this.  Our community is so often in uncharted and difficult waters.  We look to our community of cancer patients, survivors, and their caregivers as fearless, hopeful, and resilient. COVID-19 is a setback, but it’s nothing we can’t handle. Our community is strong, fearless, and resilient as hell. We will get through this.

The Washington Post noted in a recent article that COVID-19 has become America’s “leading cause of death” for the past few weeks. Scary!  But we all know that number is starting to shrink and will continue to shrink.  However, the cancer numbers are only slightly less in terms of deaths per week and unfortunately, this will remain once COVID-19 is behind us.  We as a community understand these difficult numbers and live with them every day.  It has built us into a resilient, strong, hopeful community.

So as the rest of the world talks about “what’s next” in the face of COVID-19 and tries to navigate a confusing changing and complicated medical landscape, we at SURVIVEiT® are one step ahead on this.  We understand living in this world of confusing, changing, and complicated medical information.  We have been living in this world for years.  But now, as a community, we are finding ways to use our wisdom and experience for the benefit of others. We are excited that in the coming months we’ll have even more to share about our new concept – our tool – that will help us all navigate this world of cancer.  It will make what is confusing complicated and changing more manageable.  It will empower our resilient and hopeful community to be that much smarter, stronger, and united.

I can’t think of anyone I would want by my side more than this community.

“I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.”
― Maya Angelou

Joy Brewster Rusthoven
Executive Director