Cinco Vidas

If you have a loved one with cancer, you may automatically (or by choice) be placed in the role of advocate. If so, what can you do to be sure he/she gets the best treatments and care?

Your loved one will probably be going through all types of emotions and physical hardships, making your help invaluable as he/she fights to recover. We’ve gathered a few tips here to help make your journey a little easier to navigate. Try not to be overwhelmed as you review this list. Remember to take things one step at a time, and to do your best to continue to exercise, eat right, and get enough sleep. Maintaining your  own health is equally as important during this difficult time.
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Cinco Vidas – a lifestyle brand of products and services – is working on groundbreaking projects to make life better for cancer fighters, survivors and caregivers, and we need your help.

You can participate by being part of a focus group, taking a survey, or sharing your story through a personal interview. It will mean a lot to others who are now, or may one day be sharing the journey of cancer.

Write to info@cincovidas.com and tell us if you’re a fighter, survivor or caregiver (or combination of these), your phone number, and what state/province you live in. Don’t worry- we won’t release your information to anyone else. (more…)

Guys, if a woman you love has breast cancer and you’re feeling lost and alone, there’s help. We know most of the books and support materials out there are targeted toward women, with good reason. However, male caregivers face their own challenges, and now, author, editor at “U.S. News and World Report”, and caregiver Marc Silver has written a book just for them. It’s called, Breast Cancer Husband: How to Help Your Wife (and Yourself) During Diagnosis, Treatment, and Beyond.

In 2001, Marc’s wife, Marsha, was diagnosed with breast cancer. Like most people, he didn’t know what to do. He looked for resources that would help, but found nothing that spoke to the unique perspective of a male caregiver. So he decided to write his own book. According to “Publisher’s Weekly,” Marc helps men weed through the confusion and anxiety of breast cancer with practical tips on what to do and what not to do, gives examples of how to best help a loved one, explains different types of treatments, and even explores ways for finding intimacy after mastectomy. (more…)

Britta Aragon and her father, Javier.

I pride myself on being a positive person. After surviving cancer myself, I felt I had experienced firsthand the power of believing you can, and you will get well. I did it, and later, when my father was diagnosed, I watched him do it not once, but five times. His strength and optimism stay with me to this day, and fuel all my efforts for Cinco Vidas and all the cancer fighters, survivors, and caregivers that we touch.

However, despite my father’s triumphs, after the fifth recurrence of the cancer, there came a time when I knew that even with all his positive energy, my father was not going to survive. I’m not sure how you come to know this. It’s not just what the doctors say, or what the test results show. After a certain time of fighting battles—some you win, but some you lose—you see that the body is breaking down, and like a machine with too many broken parts, there’s just no fixing it anymore, despite the strength of the heart that lives inside. (more…)

You feel it in the pit of your stomach, as if you’ve been punched. The doctor said the word—cancer—and your world spins around you, echoing, unreal. Not only do you feel the pain of what that word may mean for the future, but a worse feeling that shrinks you down small in your seat—helplessness. Because it’s not you the doctor is talking about. It’s someone you love. (more…)

My mother provided care for my father for 8 years. She enjoyed going to the spa to relax and rejuvenate.

As anyone touched by cancer knows, it’s not just the person receiving the diagnosis that struggles—those caring for him or her face their own challenges. In a Harvard School of Public Health poll of cancer survivors and their families, one-third said cancer caused someone in the household to have emotional or psychological problems.

Unfortunately, as you may know, most caregivers suffer in silence. According to the Hospice and Caregiving blog, only 20 percent of Americans who provide support to a loved one with cancer consider themselves a “cancer caregiver,” well below the national estimate of 60 percent. Make no mistake: If you are emotionally, physically, financially, or logistically caring for a cancer patient, you are a caregiver. (more…)