Opportunities

December 20, 2010

Scott Capozza, MS, PT

If you’ve ever gone through cancer treatments, have you ever stopped and said, “I know this sucks, but I’m sure that I’ll have so many more positive experiences and great opportunities when I’m done?”

I didn’t.

I remember thinking that all I wanted to do was get through treatment, finish grad school, start running again, and never look back.  One of my doctors early on told me that cancer was a speed bump, not a roadblock, and that I’d be able to get through it.  I took his advice to heart, and plowed forward as fast as my body (and my doctors) would allow, so that I could be rid of my cancer and, more importantly in my mind, be rid of the title of cancer patient.

But a funny thing has happened in the 12 years since I was diagnosed.  I’ve learned not only to accept my title of cancer survivor, but I’ve also learned that it has in fact allowed me experiences and opportunities that I would never have been exposed to had I not had cancer.  Well, I probably would have been exposed to them, but because I’m a survivor, I have more of a vested interest in them.

For example, if you had told me that I would raise money and go riding with Lance Armstrong, I would have said, “who the hell is Lance Armstrong?” (I was diagnosed one year before he won his first Tour de France).  I would have never had the desire to train all winter long on a bike trainer and bundle up like the Michelin man for outdoor rides in February and March to prepare for the Lance Armstrong Foundation’s Ride for the Roses in April 2002.

In 1998, nobody really knew about Lance.  If you did, you were a true hard-core cycling fan.  But by 2002 he was a household name and his mission to empower cancer survivors really got my attention.  Being a runner my whole life, I knew that training for a 100-mile bike ride was a big task.  Nevertheless, I got some informal coaching, bought a trainer for my bike, and made plans to fly down to Austin, Texas.  Meeting and riding with Lance was a true honor and a lot of fun.  I’m sure that had I not had cancer, it wouldn’t have been on my radar.

If you had said that, as a physical therapist, I would be working with cancer survivors instead of athletes, I would have said you were crazy.  My goal in becoming a PT was to work with high school and college athletes, because that’s who I was.  I wanted to work with the population that I was a part of,  the idea being that ‘you do what you know’.  But as I recovered from my surgeries, I never received a PT consult while I was in the hospital, and none of my doctors ever thought to have me see a PT to regain my strength and endurance following chemotherapy.  Sadly, I wasn’t alone.

There are many survivors who would benefit from either an occupational therapy or physical therapy evaluation.  These evaluations look at areas such as range of motion limitations due to surgery or radiation therapy; strength deficits from surgery, chemo or radiation; and most importantly, the impact on a person’s quality of life.  Over the past four years, I’ve had the ability to educate and empower survivors by giving them home exercise programs and referring them to specialized OTs and PTs in the field if they need lymphedema management.  I have traveled to conferences around the country to learn more about working with cancer survivors through physical therapy to help return them to a quality of life that is close to or equal to where they were prior to diagnosis. So I guess I did end up doing what I know...

I realize it’s hard to see through the fog of chemotherapy or to plan past the multitude of doctors’ visits, because I had a hard time when I was in the throes of treatment.  However, I think there really is an awareness and clarity that we are given, or rather, that we earn as we become survivors.  It’s unique to us, and it’s just one more reason why I’m glad to be a survivor.

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