Survival strategies for her best life help this metastatic cancer patient navigate a new world in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
PUBLISHED March 28, 2020
Martha lives in Illinois and was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer in January 2015. She has a husband and three children, ranging in age from 12 to 18, a dog and a lizard.
Metastatic cancer puts me in one of the least-best spots in this new world with COVID-19. Cancer patients, like others with possibly life-shortening conditions, are right to be especially concerned about staying safe.
I've had five years of practice thinking about what is most likely to happen to me over time with stage four cancer. Good practices and good luck has meant that, to the outside world, my life has remained much the same as pre-cancer: I am a parent, I write and edit words, I walk my dog, I watch movies with my husband, I go to soccer games, I drop my daughter off at college, I have hair and I exercise.
These outer signs of normalcy can be at odds with my inner world, where I worry that I won't get to see my daughters or my parents again, that my husband will have to watch me get sicker, and, most recently, that I may need care but will not receive all that I need.
I've had five years of practice thinking about what is most likely to happen to me over time with stage four cancer. Good practices and good luck has meant that, to the outside world, my life has remained much the same as pre-cancer: I am a parent, I write and edit words, I walk my dog, I watch movies with my husband, I go to soccer games, I drop my daughter off at college, I have hair and I exercise.
These outer signs of normalcy can be at odds with my inner world, where I worry that I won't get to see my daughters or my parents again, that my husband will have to watch me get sicker, and, most recently, that I may need care but will not receive all that I need.
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