In a family, the mother died of cancer first, and the father was also diagnosed with cancer. When the daughter was worried, she was shocked to learn that she also had cancer. What will happen to this family?
I recently heard a real story told by the Anti-Cancer Association. Because my daughter is regarding the same age as me, I feel it very much. In the 1990s, nasopharyngeal cancer and liver cancer had taken away her mother; maybe she was young and her daughter didn’t know much regarding the disease. More than 20 years later, cancer came back to this family once more. This time, he took a fancy to his father. When he was diagnosed, he was already in the fourth stage of lymphoma. Apart from going to work, the daughter accompanied her father. After three years of exhausting life, her daughter received bad news.
During a gynecological examination, she was diagnosed with the first stage of ovarian cancer, the tumor reached 9 cm, and then underwent surgery and chemotherapy. After the first injection, she felt extremely unwell and thought she would die, so she entrusted her bank account to her husband. The father and daughter share the same illness, and the daughter is under more pressure because the father often expresses fatigue. When the daughter feels a little unwell, she will nervously associate it with the recurrence of ovarian cancer. Fortunately, during the treatment, the two supported each other. It is very hard to get chemotherapy injections, but when I think of the other party, I am motivated to continue the treatment. The duo is recovering, but there have certainly been challenges.
When hosting a medical show, I have a very deep feeling. Whether it is cancer or the new coronavirus, it can be roughly divided into 3 stages: prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation. The government promotes primary medical care, and “prevention” is valued; under the precise and individualized development, “treatment” is not too worrying; the process most people ignore is the longest and most painful “rehabilitation”.
Just like the family mentioned earlier, patients and caregivers are also suffering from cancer, how can we help? Colleagues from the Anti-Cancer Association said that fortunately, her daughter is on the lonely road of fighting cancer. She consciously wants to help herself, participates in the support plan of the Anti-Cancer Association, and obtains useful information from the comprehensive handbook for cancer patient caregivers “Walking Through the Stormy Waves”, including Chinese and Western medicine conditioning, financial arrangements, etc. My daughter started hiking and became a volunteer. She won’t be at home all day, and she is happier than before.
When the disease strikes, we sometimes have no choice, but we can choose to face it optimistically, and with the support of our partners, we will be able to embark on the road to recovery. (This column is published every Monday)
Written by: Fang Jianyi Media workers, including TV and radio program hosts, masters of ceremonies, part-time university lecturers, media consultants, etc.
Column Name: Potian “Fang”
