How the company of a puppy provided the right amount of post-trauma comfort to help navigate in a post-cancer world.
PUBLISHED June 13, 2019
A native New Yorker, Shira Kallus Zwebner is a communications consultant and writer living with her husband and three children in Jerusalem, Israel. Diagnosed in 2017 with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, she's fighting her cancer battle and blogging about the journey at hipstermomblog.com
At some point during active treatment, I felt this tremendous need to nourish, cultivate and care for something other than myself. Of course, my husband and three children were my top priority, in addition to caring for myself as I went through months of chemo for Stage 4a non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. But as days stretched long and lonely while I was isolated in my home for hours at a time, I yearned for companionship. During the winter months, my kids would come home with runny noses and fevers, and I would have to further quarantine myself so in my immunosuppressed state so I wouldn't catch any illness. Having socially isolated myself for so many months, re-entry into the world after reaching remission was difficult.
Initially, I tended to my little porch garden, growing kumquats and basil, cucumbers (unsuccessfully!) and tomatoes. While gardening helped with my need to cultivate something other than my family and myself, it did little to solve my social isolation. I started retreated into myself, withdrawing completely from the outside world.
For years, our kids have been asking us for a puppy. And for years, we have been saying no. With three children under the age of nine, we felt ill-equipped to handle the extra work that comes with caring for a pet. But our kids were relentless and after a year dealing with a mom with cancer, we wanted to bring some joy and happiness into their lives.
Initially, I tended to my little porch garden, growing kumquats and basil, cucumbers (unsuccessfully!) and tomatoes. While gardening helped with my need to cultivate something other than my family and myself, it did little to solve my social isolation. I started retreated into myself, withdrawing completely from the outside world.
For years, our kids have been asking us for a puppy. And for years, we have been saying no. With three children under the age of nine, we felt ill-equipped to handle the extra work that comes with caring for a pet. But our kids were relentless and after a year dealing with a mom with cancer, we wanted to bring some joy and happiness into their lives.
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