Recovery from Childhood Cancer

Although I cannot tell you what it is like to be a parent of a child who is battling cancer, I can tell you what it is like to be a child dealing with and surviving cancer.

While I was in the 5th grade, I seemed to have a never-ending soar throat that discomforted me so much so that I barely ate anything. As a result of not eating, I had lost 15 pounds (I went from 60lbs to 45lbs) and I ended up going to the emergency room because I was weak and dehydrated. Although my initial visit to Boston Children's Hospital gave me a diagnosis of strep throat, just two weeks later, they (Cambridge City Hospital) discovered a massive spread of cancerous tumors growing at a rapid speed.

The story of my hospital experience merits a book in and of itself, but this article is not about my experience while in the hospital. It is about my recovery.

I have to admit that the joys of being free from the hospital (getting to go home) were like a blinder to me. I did not realize how weak and fragile I was from having been bed-ridden for so long. Additionally, I continued to receive radiation treatment for quite some time, even after leaving the hospital. The said that I was "In remission" and thus the reason to continue the treatments. Years later though, as I look back and recall my recovery experience, my eyes have become opened to what all I went through as a child.

when I got out and had enough strength to run_ as most children love to do, my knees would knock together. I was fragile and had to learn to run and even to walk again. My mother told me that when I used to take 10 minute walks with my sister's and brother, that it would take me an hour because I was constantly needing to take breaks. I had limited breathing capacity, but I really didn't notice back then. To be honest, I was just grateful to be out and though it may have taken an hour for me to take a 10 minute walk, it never seemed that long to me.

Besides learning to walk again, I also had to learn to eat again. My jaws would constantly become displaced while I was eating. For months after being released from the hospital, I could only swallow food if I had a drink to help me. Then one day I discovered pickles. And eating pickles was the first time that I was able to swallow food without a drink. Gradually, I tried other things, and eventually, I could eat whatever I wanted.

The road to recovery after surviving cancer is a slow but steady process. You will not leave the hospital the same as before you began battling the disease. You will be weaker and if you are smart, you will receive physical therapy to help you get back to normal. That is the one thing that I feel I have missed out in my experience_ receiving physical therapy. If you dealt with cancer that affected your lungs or breathing (as I did), then you will have difficulty breathing as you once did. But I know that if you practice breathing, then you can get your breath back again.

Don't forget that once you come out strong, share your experience with others. Let them know that they can survive and that there are positive values to take from the overall experience. The doctors told my parents that I would never be able to have children. And guess what... I have TWO children!