When will we return to "normal"?

Having a cancer diagnosis and then having treatment is a daunting thing; it changes your life, often forever!

So the thought of returning to normal after treatment has ended is something that we all hope will come soon!

However, sometimes we have to find a new "normal" as its often impossible to return to the way of life we had before.

Whether that is because of physical reasons or psychological ones, it is often hard for us to come to terms with those changes.

Very often, when we are going through treatment we are looked after by a team of people who we feel connected to and we know that if something crops up or we need to talk to someone then we can contact them. But when treatment ends, we can feel that we are cast adrift and left to cope on our own.

The number of people surviving cancer is increasing but very often there is little or no long term support for those of us that have health problems as a result of the treatment.
A recent study has shown that around 3 out of 4 patients are not given enough information on coping with long-term effects of the illness.

According to the Dept. of Health, a national survey of cancer survivors indicated about a quarter of people were feeling isolated after being treated for cancer, and almost 30% said they had many issues that were not being addressed, including fears about their cancer spreading.

Currently about 1.8m people in England alone, are being or have been treated for cancer - a figure that is set to rise to 3.4m by 2030.

There needs to be more support there for patients who have finished treatment but are often still not able to return to "normal" - many of us will be left with long term problems that are often left ignored or we just put up with them. This can then lead to stress and depression, especially when close family members and friends fail to understand the long term emotional and psychological effects.

Being told that you "must be glad its all over" or "you are looking a lot better" (when you actually feel really ill!!!) or even worse, "what are you moaning about, you havn't got cancer anymore" are really not helpful. Neither is going to see your GP and being given the brush off and a prescription for anti depressants!!!

So, we struggle on, trying our best to see some positives in the fact that we no longer have cancer! We try to pick up the pieces of our life and hope that one day we can "get back to normal"

Whatever "normal" is!!