Because cancer doesn’t take vacations, it’s vacations to adapt. Alexandra * organizes her summer as her daily life around care: “I cannot afford to take breaks in my care because some treatments to be active have to be given with metronome regularity. ” This sixty-year-old suffering from triple negative breast cancer that has become metastatic currently has to go to the hospital every week to take treatment adapted to the evolution of her pathology. In fact, it is difficult for him to be absent for more than a week. “I manage to leave between two courses of treatment, she smiles. This summer I will stay in France and I would like to go two or three times. ”
On the program: sightseeing walk, tasting of local specialties and maybe a swim… and some precautions. “With my chemotherapy I can’t stay in the sun, she explains. I can’t go on a hike either because you have to take into account the fatigue induced by my treatment. ” However, going on vacation is also a “mental exercise”: “IYou have to get off the hook and tell yourself that for 5 days ‘you are no longer sick!’ “, she laughs. Even though the pain can sometimes appear on certain days, Alexandra assures us that good humor and the desire to undertake allow her to often overcome the disease.
The hassle of hospital disorientation
Added to this is the continuation of care which punctuates her days: Alexandra takes a blood test every Thursday to check her constants. The data is then sent to the medical team that follows them, then another day is needed to prepare their medicine according to the course of their disease and their body mass. She must then go to the hospital – where her treatment is composed in the establishment’s pharmacy – to take her remedy. “I can go on vacation if I want to, but I have to be back on Monday to take the medicine. I can take my blood samples elsewhere, laboratories are used to having passing patients, I have done so in almost all regions of France! ” However, she must make sure before the summer opening of the laboratory in order to carry out this blood test on time.
This rhythm greatly constrains his vacation. However, Alexandra recognizes that other patients choose to change their place of care during the summer in order to make the most of another region. “I don’t like the idea of changing the place of treatment at all, she admits. We must ensure that the pharmacy of the new hospital is sufficiently stocked to be able to manufacture the medicine recommended by my doctors. In addition, I am more reassured if it is the same team that follows me, otherwise I fear the erroneous interpretations of my exams if the practitioner – who does not know me – does not take the time to read all of my documents. folder.”
If the summer period does not disrupt the functioning of laboratories or radiotherapy, it does, however, upset supportive care. “This is one of the positive points of containment! I realize that it is possible to continue the sport including the summer, she enthuses. Usually everything stops during the holidays and I have to fend for myself. There, it’s nice to continue the work and see the same people regularly during the videoconference sessions. ” In addition to overcoming isolation, adapted physical activity above all helps maintain the body, maintain muscle mass and thus reduce the side effects of drugs. A treatment with beneficial effects including for morale: “This morning, I had feelings of fatigue and pain, but after the workout, we all noticed that we felt better both in terms of fatigue and pain., she assures. We are better off afterwards than before, always. ”
* The first name has been changed
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