My name is Eileen Dwyer, and I am a nurse manager at St. Francis Cancer Institute. My oncology nurses utilized art therapy to battle compassion fatigue, and this is the artwork of one of those nurses, Adriana Wise. From there, we decided to make her artwork into a card. We give our patients this card, individually signed by the nurses, for different celebrations such as birthdays or completion of treatment. Our patients love this card!

The Men&rsquo;s Art Group at Karmanos Cancer Center (Gerald Mitchell, Ken Pieti, Tim O&rsquo;Neill, Jeff Levinson, Howard Katz, Suneel Sekhri, and Andi Sandles) collaborated to create this artwork to represent what it feels like to try to be in the present moment as cancer survivors. With cancer and its anxieties, cancer thrivers are constantly haunted by what the future will bring. While engulfed in fear of the next doctor&rsquo;s appointment, during the limbo period waiting for test results, wondering what the source of that new pain is, and everything else the brain twists and latches onto to ruminate over, time in the present moment is slipping away. Time that was once considered plentiful now seems scarce. &ldquo;Think Ahead&rdquo; is the reminder to use what is experienced in the present moment to plan for the next thing coming instead of living in fear of the possibilities that might or might not come to fruition; to accept that the battle of learning to let go is a constant journey and what it looks like to be on that strenuous journey post-treatment.

Think Ahead

I&#39;m Eileen Dwyer, nurse manager at St. Francis Cancer Institute. My oncology nurses utilized art therapy to battle compassion fatigue, and we turned the artwork of one of my nurses, Adriana Wise, into a card that we give patients on special occasions. I submitted an image of the front of the card; now, here&#39;s an image of the back.

Art From Our Heart

By eileen dwyer

February 9th, 2020

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