COVID-19 has dramatically altered the lives of millions across the globe, but for patients with cancer, the new restrictions and new challenges are ones they have already managed to handle.
BY KIM JOHNSON
PUBLISHED MAY 18, 2020
Kim is a nursing student who is hoping to find her place amongst the phenomenal oncology nurses and doctors who cared for her sister. She loves reading, volunteering and enjoying the outdoors of Colorado.
Cancer causes a certain amount of hysteria in one’s life and the lives of those who care about them. As I have watched the news, like so many others regarding COVID-19, I can’t help but think back to the times that my sister had cancer. While the COVID-19 pandemic is much bigger than a cancer diagnosis, and the impact is being felt on a global scale, a cancer diagnosis changes the world of the diagnosed and their family. The comparison of how people have reacted to this virus and how one reacts to cancer is not lost on me. When my sister was diagnosed, everything changed, and it changed often.
The uncertainty that came with her illness was one of the hardest parts. Initially diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, that diagnosis lasted less than 24 hours when her first biopsy revealed that is was actually stage 4 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma that was ravaging through her body. In the days that followed, everything seemed to change by the hour, and while the rate at which things changes slowed, the fact that they changed never did.
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