Rest and recovery after a cancer diagnosis and treatment

It is very necessary to spend time resting and recovering after cancer diagnosis and treatment.

Many of us who survive lung cancer and other life-threatening cancers are happy to hear that we have achieved remission, or even declare ourselves survivors. Many feel great and are eager to get right back to work and a variety of other responsibilities they were fulfilling before being diagnosed. Some of these individuals successfully resume all their previous responsibilities without significant problems.

Despite craving what I considered normal after a year and a half of treatment, and ultimately achieving remission, my body and mind still needed rest and recovery. Still, I wanted to move on and resume my enthusiastic, active life. Because I wasn’t given enough recovery time, I struggled with physical, mental, and emotional health issues for most of 2020. What a shame I hadn’t read something similar to some fellow CURE blogger Bonnie Annis wrote in early September this year.

Yes, 2020 was the biggest year of the pandemic, but that year certainly didn’t bring normalcy for any of us, and for me it brought several new and different challenges into my life. I’m sure more than one caring person in my life has advised me to slow down and get more rest, but I wanted my normal life back. I wanted to fully participate in the second chance at life that God had given me.

Like me, Bonnie tried to live a conscious life after cancer, making sure she achieved everything she wanted or needed. She wrote that after she told her husband she was tired one day, he reminded her that she could finish that day’s project the next day. As she thought about it, she realized he was right: that adequate rest was necessary and valuable after cancer diagnosis and treatment; Bonnie slowed down.

I definitely had to slow down too. My journey through the steps leading up to being diagnosed with stage 2 lung cancer was challenging in itself. Then I underwent the first of what would be two lung surgeries, which led to my lung cancer being restaged to 3B after the lymph nodes removed from my chest turned out to be malignant. My second surgery was followed by chemotherapy, radiation and immunotherapy. Shortly after completing my immunotherapy, I achieved remission and believed that the arrival of my normalcy was just around the corner.

I don’t know if it was a physical response to fighting the life-threatening disease, or if I couldn’t see myself as weak emotionally, even after being told that my cancer was unlikely to return. Regardless, and unfortunately, I didn’t have the presence of mind to slow down and rest, which ultimately resulted in a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

I was able to enjoy my “I used to have cancer” party on March 1, 2020, but two weeks later the COVID-19 pandemic caused a national lockdown. Twenty years before my diagnosis, I had been running a successful and hugely rewarding tutoring business. When I started treatment, I lost about half of my twenty or so school-age students. Then the pandemic made things worse and the number of students decreased further…10, seven, four,. three… Not technology oriented at all, I had to learn online tutoring, which was a challenge, in order to continue helping a few students. I also had to master the Pennsylvania Unemployment Assistance website in order to receive the compensation I was entitled to, and truly needed. My business wasn’t successful or rewarding at the time, and I was frustrated.

My daughter and son-in-law both have jobs in essential services. However, there was no childcare and schools were closed. I watched my grandchildren, which was fun, except for the fact that I had to learn cyber school for my active, social granddaughter in second grade… the technology was difficult for me, as was keeping my kids focused and behaving. granddaughter. I started to feel a little depressed.

The following month my elderly father passed away. He had had a nice long life, but the end of his life, locked in his room in an assisted living facility with no visitors, must have been devastating for an outgoing, mentally competent 94-year-old.

Over the next two months, both my physical and mental health deteriorated. There was an online celebration of life planned for my father, and I was mostly disinterested. In my eyes it was not a real memorial to him or a real celebration of his life. I attended the Zoom meeting, but was not there in spirit.

The highlight of that online session for me was when my sister-in-law told me that a few days before her mother’s death, her mother had told her a similar story to what I told the group about my father. I had shared with our family group, “I was talking to my father a few days before his death and he told me that when he looked out the window of his room he had seen a large bird sitting on a small tree branch; the branch did not break and the bird flew away.” We understood each other’s sadness.

A few weeks later I made a truly wise decision. At the beginning of August I called and made an appointment with my GP, whom I had known for about 15 years and was very fond of. Since my doctor’s office is only about a mile from the hospital’s cancer center where I would have my semi-annual appointment with my oncologist, I scheduled it an hour later. My response was, “I don’t need a sedative, and I would be afraid to take it.” The doctor turned to my husband and asked, “How long has she been like this?” At that point I stopped listening, but by the end of that week I realized something was terribly wrong.

In addition to side effects from the chemotherapy and radiation I received, I suffer from dry eyes, which causes a lot of irritation and strabismus. Despite all the discomfort, I had canceled two eye appointments. I had undergone psychological therapy throughout my cancer journey, but even as I struggled emotionally, I had told my counselor that I no longer needed help. I have made appointments with both healthcare providers for the next two weeks.

My youngest daughter was planning an outdoor bridal shower in September 2020, and a beach wedding in Florida in November 2020, and while it was challenging at times, I took charge of the shower, and it went well. I felt almost like my normal self in November and enjoyed her wedding with my mother-of-the-bride mask.

I felt happy when I reached the almost normal self mark.

Thank you, Bonnie, for your simple solution, which I will use anytime in the future when I overdo it on a special project, Christmas decorating, or even mastering yoga.

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