Breast Cancer Survivorship Resources

• Cancer Care—Coping with Cancer:  Tools to Help You Live
• National Cancer Institute - Facing Forward:  Life After Cancer Treatment
• Cancer.Net
• Breast Cancer Survivors: Life After the Treatments End
• Susan G. Komen for the Cure
• Sisters Network Inc:  National African American Breast Cancer Survivorship Organization
• National Breast Cancer Coalition
• American Cancer Society - Look Good Feel Better is a free, non-medical, brand-neutral, national public service program to help women offset appearance-related changes from cancer treatment.
• Breast Friends is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for breast cancer patients and their friends and family.

Reading Suggestions

• BREAST CANCER HUSBAND: How to Help Your Wife (and Yourself) Through Diagnosis, Treatment, and Beyond
  By Marc Silver
• Intimacy After Cancer - A Woman's Guide 
  By Sally Kydd, M.D. and Dana Rowett
• Living Beyond Breast Cancer: A Survivor's Guide for When Treatment Ends and the Rest of Your Life Begins
  By Marissa Weiss, M.D. and Ellen Weiss
• Spinning Straw Into Gold: Your Emotional Recovery From Breast Cancer
  By Ronnie Kaye
• The Breast Cancer Survivor's Fitness Plan (Harvard Medical School Guides)
  By Carolyn M. Kaelin, M.D., Francesca Coltrera, Josie Gardiner and Joy Prouty
• To Be Alive: A Woman's Guide to a Full Life After Cancer
  By Carolyn Runowicz and Donna Haupt
• Advanced Breast Cancer: A Guide to Living with Metastatic Disease
  By Musa Mayer

Caregiver Support Resources

• Family Caregiver Alliance
• Gilda's Club - Cancer Support Community

Possible Physical Side Effects of Treatment

Fatigue - can be an issue for weeks or up to months after treatment.  It is known that exercise at a moderate level, 4 to 5 times a week for up to an hour a day can improve and slowly decrease fatigue.

• Cancer-related fatigue and anemia
• Managing fatigue

Peripheral Neuropathy - numbness and tingling sensation in fingers and toes which can take months to repair.

• Cancer Care - Understanding Peripheral Neuropathy
• Cancer Care - post treatment survivors

Sexual Dysfunction - can be anything from decreased libido, to decreased flexibility of tissue and lubrication.

• 6 Steps for Easing Back Into Sex After Breast Cancer
• Breast Cancer: Sex and Intimacy

Nutrition - healthy eating and physical activity after treatment are important as you recover from treatment and begin your life beyond breast cancer.

• Healthy Eating After Treatment
• Breast Cancer Survivors: Nutrition and Fitness Tips
• Pilates for Cancer Survivors

Fertility Issues - for both women and men can occur due to surgical effects especially for those undergoing Rectal cancer.

• Livestrong Fertility
• Resolve: The National Infertility Association
• OHSU Infertility Program
• American Society for Reproductive Medicine

Lymphedema - is the swelling in hands, feet, ankles, legs, and arms that doesn't resolve for months to years after treatment.

• The National Lymphedema Network
• Lymphedema: What Every Woman With Breast Cancer Should Know

Hot Flashes - chemotherapy and estrogen suppression can dramatically lower your estrogen levels causing hot flashes.

• All About Hot Flashes

Chemo Brain - over the past few years, a lesser-known side effect of cancer treatment-- the cognitive dysfunction commonly called "chemo-brain" has been recognized.

• Chemo Brain

Bone Health - read about the basics of bone health, bone health tests, breast cancer treatments that affect bones, and ways to keep your bones strong.

• Bone Health