Raising a child when breast cancer knocks on your door

[Inkriql]

Breast cancer came to Ana Cardona's house in February 2018 as a hurricane that devastates everything. “It sat like a blow. My diagnosis was hard. He had triple negative breast cancer - difficult to treat and aggressive - in an advanced state. They detected it, they did a biopsy and the next day I already had the CT scan ”. According to this 47-year-old woman, "they tell you something like that is very impressive." "Initially, my husband and I endured nervousness and said nothing to our son Andrés, who was six years old then." Cardona, who is a psychologist, acknowledges that the first 10 days after knowing that she suffered a malignant tumor were horrible, "I had a very bad time, everything went very fast."

Cardona's is a story of the thousands of women affected by this disease that celebrates this Saturday, October 19, its World Awareness Day. This type of cancer is the most frequent among women, and the second cause of death due to malignant tumor in this po[CENSORED]tion group in Spain, according to data from the Spanish Cancer Association (AECC). Every year 32,825 new cases are diagnosed in Spain and the five-year survival is 80%.
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After the diagnosis, Cardona, who has been treated in the hospital October 12 and is the first case of this disease in her family, underwent a first combined chemotherapy and immunotherapy treatment, “I was lucky to enter a clinical trial with a new medicine. " This woman emphasizes that thanks to associations such as the CRIS Foundation against Cancer and her support for research, breast cancer today has a better prognosis, "it is important that we bet on scientific and medical advances." In this way, experts minimized the tumor until they could operate and finish the planned chemotherapy.

Cardona has also undergone radiation therapy to fight the disease. One year and four months of treatment with ups and downs in which he had to face very difficult situations, such as being told that the medications were not working "although, finally, they did." On October 14, he went to review, “everything is going well, there is a lump and you have to see what it is. They sent me an ultrasound. But everything is going well, ”says this woman.
Raising a child when cancer knocks on your door

“When I was diagnosed with cancer, my son Andrés was six years old. I remember how 15 days after knowing my situation I bought a blonde wig, and I am brunette. My son found her and asked me: And this? I replied that I was sick and that they were going to put me on medicine that would make me bald. I started comparing my wig with the costumes of superheroes and how everyone, they and I, fought against the bad guys. I remember that we laughed mogollón ”, this woman tells with a smile.

Cardona says that it is not that he tried to hide Andres's illness, but he preferred to give the information gradually. Slowly. She had a very good consultation with a psycho-oncologist: “It was very useful for me. And I told him how we were doing at home. At what rate we were going. He told me emphatically: Remember that you have to handle the information. ” And so he did, after leaving the consultation, this woman went to look for Andrés at school and told him, he told her that she was sick and that she had cancer: “I ended up with a don't worry, I'm going to heal. And I kissed him. The only thing he said was: Is it contagious? I answered flatly: No ”. Cardona acknowledges that this phrase "I'm going to heal" came to torment her at some point: "When they told me that the treatment was not working, I came to think about it, to feel guilty, I didn't worry so much if I was going to be cured or not, but have lied to him. "
World Breast Cancer Awareness Day.
World Breast Cancer Awareness Day.

In full treatment, Cardona acknowledges that she was tired, some days she could not go to pick up Andrés at school, "but he knew she was ill and that it was for medicine." She recognizes that the support of her husband, her parents and her friends has been fundamental: “During my operation, Andrés had a great time, he was from one house to another of friends. The hardest part was finishing the second round of chemotherapy. I was very tired, my body was exhausted, I was out of play. I threw up after 14 sessions due to accumulation of treatment, I couldn't take it anymore. If it doesn't happen to be because of my husband, family and the mothers of the school, I don't know what would have happened to me. I was very passive. ”

In spite of all this, Cardona was advised by doctors to do sports, “a situation that I take advantage of to go rollerblading with Andrés to Madrid Rio or to go on field trips on weekends. Although I was not at my best, it was good, we had fun. ”

“In addition to skating with me,” Cardona continues, “Andrés has been very affectionate the year of treatment; He wrote me letters and made me drawings that I have hanging on a cork, I also prepared the bed and the sofa to rest with the pillow and the blanket. And the coolest thing: I prepared baths with salt because they told me they were good at removing toxicity from the body, and he prepared them for me. ” In this way, the little boy felt that he was a participant and took care of her, “although I tried not to do it too much because it is the parents who always have to take care of the children, but he liked to do it,” says this mother.

To cope with the disease with Andres, it was very good for him to find out what he knew or what he had about cancer: “I remember one morning we were having breakfast with the toaster and, suddenly, he said cancer. I answered no, that on the device it said cancel. But I took the opportunity to ask: Do you know what cancer is? And he replied: "It is a disease that kills." Without a doubt, he gave me a clue about how to talk about it with him.

Finally, “it has been very good for me to overcome every day, write about what I have learned from cancer, fears of death, start-ups, day to day. I have even shaped it in a book. ”