One in four women with breast cancer she is forced to leave her job. It is one of thes sequelae of the second part of the disease: the first is the acute one, the treatment of the disease; the second is the “most invisible”the psychological, social and physical consequences for three or four years after eliminating the cancer. “It takes years to return to someone similar to who you were before cancer,” explains Almudena Puchades, a survivor who has shared her testimony on the occasion of World Breast Cancer Day. His story is the testimony of How hard is it to rejoin the world after treatment?. “Your life pauses, but the world continues to spin and, when you want to re-enter, you have to accelerate to be able to engage with the rhythm of society,” he acknowledges.
Son part of the less visible consequences, with whom the surviving women live. There is physical problems. Almost half of them have regular low-intensity pain or fatigue. But there are also psychological and emotional ones: loss of cognitive abilities, deterioration in memory, lack of concentration or prolonged stress. And that, in the end, affects them when it comes to reentering the world of work. He 64% suffer from some impairment to get it and more than half have not felt supported for his boss or co-workers. According to figures from the Valencia Cancer Observatory, the professional projection of 7,704 Valencians who are going through the disease “it will be limited” because the five-year average prevalence of this tumor in the Valencian Community is 16,498 cases.
Almudena Puchades, breast cancer survivor. / C.V.
One in seven women
From Cancer Valenciathey wanted to put the focus on the social, labor, economic, physical and emotional impact of this disease, breast cancer, which affects one in eight women in Spain, although forecasts estimate that it will continue to grow until reaching a prevalence of one case for every seven women. “This is due to life changes and is within the average of other European countries,” explains Dr. Antoni Llombart, head of the Oncology service at the Arnau de Vilanova hospital.
Despite the increase in incidence, The number of surviving women continues to increase, with figures between 85 and 86%. According to Llombart, it is due to two issues: early diagnosis with the implementation of “very effective screening” programs and the improvement of treatments and technology in the health system. Compared to other pathologies, only 25% of lung cancer patients manage to survive the disease.
The “most chronic” consequences
These types of consequences after the disease “they do more psychological damage than the treatment of it”. This is how Marcos Calvo, psychosocial coordinator of the entity’s provincial associated board, tells it. So much so that, as Almudena explains, “It’s hard for us to express it because we think we have to be fine.when we really are not.” In his case, has lived for four years with fatigue, cognitive difficulties and sudden mood changes.
In the workplace, she feels lucky because her illness coincided with the pandemic and His return to work was quite “simple” thanks to teleworking. “At another time, it would have been more complicated,” he acknowledges. Even so, he emphasizes the prolonged impact of the disease: “When you are diagnosed, the doctor tells you that it is going to be a bad year. It is much longer, in reality.” But she wants to bring positivity: “In the end, we all move on. why we can endure more than we think“. In her case, she is sincere: “I am recovering my life and, each time, cancer occupies a much smaller space.”
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