One survivor reflects on how quarantine amid the coronavirus outbreak is impacting her life and reflects on current events.
BY KATHY LATOUR
PUBLISHED MARCH 30, 2020
Kathy LaTour is a breast cancer survivor, author of The Breast Cancer Companion and co-founder of CURE magazine. While cancer did not take her life, she has given it willingly to educate, empower and enlighten the newly diagnosed and those who care for them.
Our current quarantine reminds me of the day when my oncologist told me I needed to stay away from people because my immune system was zilch. In other words, he told me to begin a self-imposed quarantine. My immune system, he explained, had been decimated by the drugs I was taking to beat the breast cancer in my right breast, leaving my body an open vessel for anything that landed on me and wanted to take root. Bottom line, if someone had a cold or fever, I would get it. This was brought home to me by a young woman in my support group. She had the bad kind of asthma acquired in childhood and had had some respiratory problems with her treatment. It was quite a shock when our support group leader told us she had died as a result of the flu, which came on quite quickly.
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