Being diagnosed with blood cancer was awful – but hardest part was still to come | UK | News
It is terrible to say that you have cancer and it is difficult to be sick. For me, it was the most difficult part of going back and trying to get some normality back. At the end of 2021, blood cancer was diagnosed. My first treatment year failed, so there was a stem cell transplant in May 2023. Three -year chemotherapy, hospital visits and fatigue were extremely difficult, but it was much more difficult to go back to something that approaches a “normal” life. When I was diagnosed, I knew my life would look very different.
In lying for the hospital’s boredom, the monotony of the normal hospital was very dangerous considering my weakened immune system to go to crowded places – these were new during treatment. Reconteying in the beginning of 2023 was destructive because I started to bring my life together again. It was cruel when a great perspective was given from the normality to be sick for months and then to grab again.
As a stem was passing through the transplantation, the care I received was extraordinary, and the nurses and doctors did their best to keep me as comfortable as possible. As I started to strengthen slowly, everything became difficult.
On the one hand, I was incredibly impatient to return to “normal, and I felt angry because I was ready when I had no body. On the other hand, I was afraid of taking a virus and excessive and pushing myself to a decline due to fatigue.
Although the fear of recurrence hanging on me like a ghost – not after a stem cell transplant, I had recurred once before, and it was almost impossible to rely on the idea that the idea of taking my freedom again was messy and confusing.
Friends and the family wanted to see me (and I, them!) And I wanted to go back to work to help pay the bills, but I didn’t know how to feel from one day to another. Some days I felt energetic enough to take an hour walk, and the others felt never leaving my bed again.
Although he had to keep his job to pay the bills, I often felt like a terrible friend and a terrible partner for my fiancée, who had to make me a nurse.
When I could work, I often made mistakes because of the “Kemo brain ve and I felt guilty for not giving a clear answer for people who asked that I was free to visit and disappointed that I could not find the same rhythm or consistency of being sick.
From time to time I lost the belief that I could cope. Despite the support of my wife, friends and my family, I felt very lonely.
I was directed in a clinical therapy and helped me to process what I had experienced, the threat of repeating and how to manage it with anxiety.
I also joined a weekly group session for other stem cell transplant patients and heard of shared experiences and worries, helping me to understand that I was not alone in what I live and that there were others who understand and sympathize there.
Gradually, I began to accustom, to gain more confidence and to do the tasks more competently. I started to find that I have a more consistent energy and I became better to realize that a period of fatigue was about to begin.
If I didn’t have access to therapy and support after transplantation, I would see it was almost impossible to return to my old life. I defend Daily Express’s better care and mental health support campaign for cancer patients.
As the time gets over, I was increasingly like my old self. Now, two years after the transplant, I feel mostly going back to something that is normal. I went back to full time, went to a mountain and even married.
I’m not perfect in any way – I’m still going to therapy and I know there’s more to explore, but when I need it, I feel much better equipped.
