“Life Event” — another term I learned to like.
From encyclopedia.com: “Life events are defined as discrete experiences that disrupt an individual’s usual activities, causing a substantial change and readjustment.”
I’ve experienced many life events throughout the years, most of them were voluntary — marriage, changing a job, moving to a new country.
But a “Major Illness”, which is one of the top five major life events, is a significant involuntary one, and as such, it could be overwhelming, dreadful, mentally draining, and even if you’re generally optimistic — it could lead to negative thoughts.
So to avoid drowning in negativity, and with the hindsight of having gone through multiple chemotherapy treatments by now, I decided to try and find the bright side of My Hodgkin Lymphoma.
Or in other words, take the lemons and make some good lemonade.
Lemon #1: “Lymphovid”
(Lymphoma + COVID = stress on steroids)
Lemonade:
Being diagnosed with My Hodgkin Lymphoma around the same time COVID-19 popped into our lives — no words to describe the amplified stress levels.
However. Turns out that there was something positive about the Coronoavirus presence. The tech industry adjusted very quickly to the situation by extending work-from-home policies, so literally over one weekend I was able to turn my home into a home-office and continue working from home indefinitely (at least for the time being).
I like my job and my work is important to me, so I feel fortunate I am able to keep my full-time job — thanks to the extended work-from-home policy, and it’s much easier when everyone else also works remotely.
Lemon #2: Feeling tired, lack of energy, fatigue
Lemonade:
Clearly one of the most common side effects.
However. I’ve never been a good sleeper. Maybe many many years ago, but I think motherhood adversely affected my sleeping abilities and nowadays I can hear even the slightest noise outside the bedroom during my sleep.
Guess what? The days after every treatment I’m sleeping like a baby! So exhausted and tired from the chemicals, I can hit the bed and go into a rare deep night sleep.
Lemon #3: Weight loss
Lemonade:
Another common side effect.
However. In order to avoid losing “too much” weight as sometimes happens with cancer patients, I found myself eating more than usual without watching my weight. Admittedly this was kind of nice, eating whatever I wanted and counting on the fact it will offset itself with the inherent weight loss of people with cancer. Alas, several months into it I actually found out I added around 8 pounds, so definitely something to focus on post-treatments.
Lemon #4: House chores and running errands
Lemonade:
It’s difficult to continue worrying about the day-to-day of running a house, family and children, when the days after each treatment I feel awful — to say the least.
However. I am getting more help from family members (children included!) and friends. They don’t ask — they do, they take action. And if not by offering a direct or concrete assistance, then they are trying to find ways to make me feel better — and happier. Whether it’s surprising me with a fancy breakfast the day I have chemo, or washing the dishes more often, buying a fun book I wanted to read, sending meals for the entire family for the weekend — this is indeed sweet lemonade.
Lemon #5: Not being able to participate in some events or gatherings
Lemonade:
See #1 above, Lymphoma + COVID means I belong to multiple risk groups and need to think twice before visiting crowded places or attending multi-person events.
However. Now I have the best excuse to pick and choose which events I attend vs. skip. A get-together with a third-degree relative I’ve never heard of — hmm, sorry I won’t be able to join, after all I need to be more careful and take a good care of myself!
