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* By Marisse Bonfim
October Rose is an annual campaign that takes place around the world, with the aim of turning the eyes of women and society on the importance of early detection of breast cancer, as, once detected at the outset, the chances of healing is 95% of cases, according to research.
The campaign’s approaches are the most diverse, from pink building lighting, mutiro mammography, quality of life lectures, self-examination approaches, to more in-depth discussions, such as the rights of cancer patients. For example, the Law 12.732, which establishes 60 days for the start of cancer treatment in SUS and the approval of the Law (PLS) 6330/2019, which expands access to oral chemotherapy for users of health plans, as well as discussions of a specific nature. social, such as the right to humanized care of patients, especially those undergoing treatment for metastatic cancer.
This year, the Brazilian Mastology Society (SBM) launched the awareness movement The sooner the better. The idea is to draw women’s attention to adopting a healthy lifestyle on a daily basis, with the practice of physical activities and good nutrition, to prevent diseases, including breast cancer. Furthermore, it should be emphasized that there is a lot of life after breast cancer and that women’s health care should be watched carefully, especially at this time when diagnosis and treatment have been compromised and are still being resumed due to the covid pandemic. -19. .
The Instituto Vencer or Cncer, through a web series produced by Dr. Fernando Maluf, “For Health There is no Quarantine”, draws attention to the fact that with the covid-19 pandemic, cases of advanced cancer will grow this year. Many people have stopped undergoing routine exams, and many cancer patients have given up their treatments on their own, which can result in a significant increase in late-stage cancer diagnoses over the next few years.
If on the one hand the covid-19 pandemic has shown a vulnerability in the health system, on the other it has led to food for thought, such as those considered in the campaign: the need to keep up with health and a sharper look for oneself .
Real case
When I had cancer in 2017, during a year of treatment, I experienced and shared with patients and former patients situations that, when the pandemic began, I saw reflected in the current context, but which until then seemed invisible to society in general. Situations that emerge in October Rosa and fall asleep for the rest of the year.
The aspects that bring former patients, cancer patients and society closer to the pandemic are: resistance, resilience and resignation of life. By analyzing my year in prison for treatment and the suffering of society in general due to the pandemic, I was able to draw some parallels:
Access to health: the Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated a weakness in the health system, further exposing the inhabitants of small towns, whose hospitals do not even have ICU beds, let alone respiratory. For cancer patients, especially those dependent on SUS, the struggle for dignified and humanized treatment overcomes geographical barriers. In addition to covid-19 respirators, there are problems ranging from early detection equipment to hospitals that provide care. Patients have to travel miles to have a chemotherapy session; others die from lack of access to specific treatments for their type of cancer.
Learn how to deal with losses in difficult and delicate times: Much like cancer, which has a long treatment period, the pandemic has spread further than we expected. In almost a year we have seen people from the same family get infected and get sick together: while one gets sick, the other dies. The reality of the cancer patient is not very different, but unknown to many. Long cancer treatment.
During this time, caregivers end up weakening and natural losses occur. As in my case, where I lost my father to a heart attack at the start of treatment, I have heard several reports of patients who have suffered losses or had another close friend discovering cancer along with treatment.
Uncertainty about tomorrow (anxiety): when we got diagnosed and started treatment for cancer, an unknown world. We don’t know where it’s going. As well as those infected with the new Coronavirus. The fear of the unknown, the uncertainty about the effectiveness of the treatment, if the respirator will be efficient, if the person will come out alive and that debt: will I be free from this virus?
So are the stages of cancer treatment. Each in his own way: surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and always that doubt: am I free of this cancer? I remember when I took the first quiz, I spent the night waiting to be sick, hoping to hear the reactions I had read on the internet and seen in the movies. But I didn’t hear it. I’ve had other times, other times, and so are the reactions: unknown and unexpected, drugs and diseases.
Reduced income: in the pandemic, part of the population had a low income, there was flexibility in the working day and unemployment. Small businesses were devastated and people reinvented themselves to survive financially. When a healthy person, in full activity, is faced with cancer, undergoes surgery, undergoes the second, most often he resorts to colds, holidays, then sick pay (INSS).
In some cases, the income drops absurdly. The financial issue surrounding veiled cancer. What guaranteed me the peace to stay for a year was my financial balance and the insurance I paid that paid the premium in life, for women’s health-related cancer cases.
Market repositioning: there is already a latent discussion on how to be the post-pandemic market, positions and jobs, in short, how careers will be directed. The cancer patient, on the other hand, when the treatment ends and returns to work, often does not even have the chair in its place. The employers do not know that the employee is still totally psychologically and physically shaken. Very few companies have the sensitivity to look at this moment of reintegration.
Getting closer or losing family members by living together: the pandemic revealed a society of people who discovered themselves in their own homes. Couples who strengthen bonds and others who separate. For the woman with cancer, this is a much discussed point. Many are abandoned by comrades in full treatment. Many caregivers turn away from the patient. In other cases, families are strengthened, unfortunately to a lesser extent.
Extra care with immunity and personal hygiene: A person undergoing chemotherapy, more often than not, has compromised immunity and needs extra care with food. I remember that during the treatment I could not eat outside the home, especially raw food. And I love the salad. It was 11 months eating at home. Without taste. Most patients undergoing treatment go through many limited situations. How many times have you seen someone bald and wearing a mask in the supermarket before the pandemic? So, it was someone who was undergoing cancer treatment.
Vanity: in times of pandemic, what is the price of vanity? I recently remember hearing complaints from celebrities and anonymous people like, “I haven’t brushed my toothbrush in four months, I grew my eyebrows, I haven’t had a nail in six months!” Shock in the media, because the actresses have taken the white threads. And when does a patient start cancer treatment? We lose hair, eyebrows, sometimes nails fall out; some lose or breasts, others, a part of them; weight loss, swelling. And what’s left of it?
Moments of introspection – f: in the face of all this scenario, a lot of time at home, I spent almost a year in treatment due to complications. enough time to test your beliefs, whatever they are. I know former cancer patients who have changed professions, who have taken a gap year, who have decided to have a dog or have decided not to have one. The pandemic has also brought us this moment of introspection and reflection.
What do these parallels reflect on Pink October and the 2020 campaign proposal – The sooner the better? For me some points are key: we need to keep up with physical, spiritual, emotional and financial health, because we never know when we will be triggered. That adopting a healthy lifestyle is the rule, not a condition. We are not “measuring” pain! Everyone knows the pain of being who. And finally, the same vision of mobility for all the issues that are raised with the pandemic, of humanization in the face of chaos, must be given to the cancer patient.
* Marisse Bonfim Hughes tax coordinator
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