Guest blog: My dad's health is in your hands
By NICOLE BURRY LINN
March 26, 2020
Covid-19. Coronavirus. Pandemic. I’m sure by now you are sick of hearing these words, but they will be around for quite a while and eventually written into history.
As a 29-year-old “millennial”, I have a wide range of people within my network. Despite this variance of people, I see a lot who are either failing to heed warnings to stay home or are viewing this as a grand conspiracy. Maybe both. I love a good conspiracy theory and I try not to take things too seriously, but knowing someone who is a high risk gravely shifts your perspective.
My father, Bob, survived stage 3 colon cancer. He is 70 years old. Right now, he is “head of household” and still does all of the driving, the errands, cooking, etc.
Growing up, my dad was the leader. When he was diagnosed with cancer in March 2018, I didn’t know what the hell was going to happen. As the oldest of three kids, I tried my best to step into that leader role, despite his pride. At that point I was engaged and living on my own, but I had two younger brothers and my mom to take care of as well.
I took time off through FMLA so that I could drive dad to chemo infusions. Chemo and radiation were brutal. He described it as having a foreign poison in your system. He’d get the infusion, feel like total crap, and as soon as the poison wore off in two weeks, it was time to do it again!
“Chemo brain” was one of his biggest side effects. He would constantly forget things and he had to get a prescription for Ativan to relieve the anxiety and stress that became exacerbated by chemo. But the treatment was working. Every time we got blood test results, we could see that his tumor activity was dropping. He still lived his life as if he wasn’t going through treatment. This was hard for me because I felt I wasn’t doing enough to relieve the pressure.
It wasn’t until fall of that year that I’d truly be able to step up. On October 12th, he had robotic surgery to remove three tumors, as well as get an ileostomy. I was able to take off work for the week to cook, clean, run errands, and take my family to visit. A few days after he returned home, I went for a walk with my dad. He had tears in his eyes, hugged me, and thanked me. It was a very simple “thank you honey”, but it was all I needed to hear. He healed from surgery very well and was declared “cancer free” by his oncologist a few weeks later.
Collectively, we spent great care and lots of time knitting his health back together. Think of it as a gently woven sweater. Although he is in good shape now, his weakened immune system represents a slight snag in the thread. This new Coronavirus threatens to unravel the whole thing. When people don’t heed the advice to stay home and slow the spread of the virus, they are pulling the thread, putting my dad’s life at risk.
With all the people out and about in my area, seemingly without a care in the world, I wonder how many of those people could be carrying the virus and not even know it. I worry dad will come into contact with one of those people, or a surface they touched, and that he will get sick.
I not only think of my father during this time, but of other cancer patients who are going through immunocompromising treatments. I think of people with cancer and other serious illnesses whose treatments may have to be put on the back burner to make room for treating new COVID-19 patients. I think of high risk populations, and anyone who will experience bad reactions or even death.
There is so much political, financial, and social unrest that certainly should not be ignored. But these things will eventually recover. Not everyone’s health will recover. Consider those who are more vulnerable. Stay inside and stay home. A few weeks of boredom and cabin fever is worth it if it means saving someone’s life.
