7 Ways the Pandemic Helped me Through Cancer
By Lara Skaarvold
I’m not here to say a world pandemic is something good, which obviously it is not. Not in any way. I do believe there is a silver lining to absolutely everything in the world, if not to you, to someone else. I’m not saying that the upside evens out the bad side, but even a broken clock is correct twice a day, right?
I was diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2020, right in the beginning of the pandemic. It has without a doubt been the worst and most challenging year of my life, as it has been with everyone. Mine was maybe a little worse than most.
There are many challenges when dealing with a disease, especially cancer itself and cancer treatments. There’s chemotherapy, than radiotherapy, debilitating fatigue, hair loss, in my case also a double mastectomy and medication induced menopause. Let alone the crippling anxiety and fear that comes along with all that.
As odd as it may seem, the coronavirus and all that came with it has eased my journey through it all. Here’s how the pandemic has helped me beat cancer!
1. Social Distancing was for everyone!
It’s probably not news that chemotherapy lowers your immunity. So as oncology patients going through active treatment, we are advised to stay away from people, avoid crowded public places, buses, and wear masks if you need to be in a place like that. Normally that can be very difficult keeping a distance, and very awkward having to explain to people why you are keeping a distance. Well, Covid-19 made everyone already stay away, easing this process for me.
2. Nobody saw me bald or breast-less!
One of the things I dreaded was having to go to work bald. Seeing the look of pity on my colleagues’ faces, having to explain to clients and listen to the ‘I’m so sorry’ routine dozens of times a day. You see, I had long curly blond hair, which I loved, so it wouldn’t have been very convincing to say I just opted to have it cut/shaved. Turns out we had to go into home-office since before I lost my hair, so I was able to avoid all this. Same thing after my mastectomy, I was able to return to work without having to see the faces or explain why a large breasted girl is now flat as a cutting board.
3. Business was less demanding.
Lockdown was a huge hit to all businesses, and the company I work for was no exception. Thankfully we were able to keep our head above water by adjusting operations, and therefore I was able to keep my job during both the pandemic and my treatment. However, I am only able to say today that I managed to work full time throughout my entire chemotherapy because of Covid-19. The company survives, but the business and therefore my work requirements diminished greatly during this time. Because of this, I was able to take days off for treatment, or to handle side effects, to do half-days, or just take it slow because of my chemo-brain. I felt like less of a burden to the company, because they needed less of me.
4. Government had facilitated paid-leave.
I told you I worked through chemo, but surgery was another thing altogether. I had to take a few months off for recovery and radiation. Normally, the process of requesting government financial aid for sick leave required documents and took some time. With the increase of such requests caused by workers being home due to Covid-19, and the need to quickly help all these people, some of these documents were no longer needed, and the processing time between the request and the first payment was cut short.
5. Things I had to quit were closed anyway!
While healthy, I would go to the gym and French classes. That’s something I would not be able to continue during treatment, with the side effects and all. To my luck, the gyms were closed and/or with controlled attendance, so I was able to freeze my membership for the whole thing. I didn’t have to pay my fees while unable to go, nor lose benefits I had acquired when the membership was set up years ago. As for the French lessons, the whole school went online, so I was able to attend my classes from bed, in my pajamas. If not for this, I would have lost my spot.
6. Virtual contact with friends and family.
Everyone was suddenly kept from meeting other people physically, and had to find a different way of connecting, to keep sane. So friends and family that I would normally have to stop seeing due to my reduced immunity and body image issues, were now compelled to have long phone-calls, video-calls, group-calls. We actually had a birthday celebration through a group-call!
7. Everybody is in the same boat!
This will sound very selfish, and it probably is. I don’t fully understand why, but there is some relief in the fact that you are not going through this alone. The fact that my friends’ summer and year also sucked gave me that ‘we’re all in the same boat’ comfort feeling. Similar to when you are in school and get a bad grade. You are upset, but when you see everyone also had a bad grade, you somehow feel better about your own misery.
Covid-19 sucks. Cancer sucks. But being able to look for the bright side of bad things is a gift that makes life easier. You need that positive attitude to maintain hope, smile, and at the end of the day, find a way to be happy through it all.
