I am not a cancer survivor or a caregiver, but I have seen the journey of cancer so closely. I have two utterly different journey experience, and one was a youngster while other was above 50-year-old person. That Youngster was my senior in school and was a good friend. In a fight with his sibling, he got hurt in the area where he had some lump. It started paining, so the family took him to the hospital where doctors scanned and suggested having Surgery so that they can test what kind of tumor it is. His family decided to have Surgery within 4-5 days. When the Surgery was done, and the tumor was tested, it came out to be the 4th stage of Lung Cancer. They started the treatment, but after one month, he started feeling weak, so due to weakness, doctors stopped his chemo and started radiation.
After some time, he started feeling better, and his report shows no evidence of cancer. So doctors told him that his cancer is over and he can now begin his normal life. He started going to college, but day by day, he started getting weak again, so while leading a normal life, he sometimes took radiations in between. When he got weaker, again, the test was done, and it was now positive for cancer. Chemo and Radiotherapy were started again, but this time he got mentally tired, he was tired of feeling weak and taking medicines. He started giving up and told his family that he doesn’t want to get hospitalized; he wanted treatment from home. The family understood his mental condition and took him home and started ayurvedic treatment. This went on for two years but after that ayurvedic medicines started affecting his kidneys and he used to have severe fever and pains, he would be on a bed all day and could not even stretch his body. His condition got worst day by day, and then he left his body and moved to heaven.
On the other hand, a 50-year-old uncle was my neighbor:
He was suffering from cough and cold from some time, so doctors suggested having an X-Ray. When X-Ray reports came, it was an infection in his lungs. Doctors gave antibiotics, but that too didn’t work, and cough was still there, so doctors got confused and thought it might be TB and started providing treatment for TB. He took TB medicines for two months, but his condition remained the same, so his family thought to have a CT scan. When reports came, there were lots of black dots which doctor doubted can be an infection, so he again gave antibiotic injections, which made him weak, and he got entirely dependent on family.
After seeing his condition getting worse, his family stopped giving antibiotics and took him home. He started feeling better and started walking again. He soon joined his job back and got an infection back. CT scan was done, and doctors said he would survive only for 18 months.
Doctors started his chemo, and he was hospitalized for a week, but then his family took a discharge and took him home telling the doctors that they will bring him to the hospital on his Chemotherapy days. After taking him home, his family was not taking much care of him, and he was not getting that comfort to recover much, so he started getting many complications, and then he left for his heavenly abode.
Parting Message:
In both cases, both patients had same cancer, and both took the same treatment for that, and neither of them had any financial crises, but one survived for two years and other just for 4-5 months when even doctors said that he could survive for 18 months. It’s only because of family support; one had positive vibes and support from his family while others had negative vibes, and this is the reason why I and even all say family support matters.
Give your loved ones positive vibes and support them mentally and make them mentally strong.
