AFTER CANCER: ASKING FOR HELP AFTER TREATMENT. URGE TO HELP OTHER CANCER SURVIVORS
How Can I Ask for Help Now, after Treatment, When I Asked for So Much during Treatment?
You may feel that it was acceptable to ask for help, support, and attention during cancer treatment but that now you should be taking care of your own needs. On the contrary, physically and emotionally you are still experiencing the effects of treatment. In many ways you bear the brunt of the experience after treatment is completed.
Cancer treatment and recovery must be considered one long process toward health. The cancer treatment was the dramatic part of the process to get you well again. Your body still has to recover physically from the cancer and the treatments. Your emotions and spirit still have to recover from the trauma and changes. The dramatic part of making a clay statue is the painstaking molding and carving. The passive last step of heating the statue in the kiln is critical in creating a lasting artwork. Making the batter and baking the cake take the most time, but icing the cake transforms it from a food to a celebration.
Physical and emotional recovery after cancer treatment is a demanding, energy-consuming process. An analogy is the case of mountain climbers who, after reaching the summit, expend great care and energy in descending; without this expenditure of effort their successful ascent might be followed by disaster. Your recovery after treatment is part of your path to wellness that began with treatment.
After you complete your cancer treatment, you deserve help and support during recovery at least as much as you did during treatment.
What If I Feel the Urge to Help Other Cancer Survivors?
Helping someone else
• makes you feel that something good is coming out of your experience
• is one way to give back for the help you received
• gives you a sense of control over cancer
• allows you to save someone else a few of the hardships you may have experienced
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Tags: Cancer