Dave's Family

The Role of Family and Friends in the Recovery of Cancer Survivor, Dave Colligan

Leading on from his post about the importance of family, Mike encouraged me to write about my own thoughts on the subject. I mentioned in my previous post about the phases of recovery one of the bad side-effects of the chemotherapy drugs I was on is that it practically wipes out your immune system for the period of the treatment, so any type of infection, even a minor cold, can be dangerous

Given that danger, the hospital were very keen for me to call an ambulance whenever I needed to come in. “You shouldn’t ever feel embarrassed, just call one!”, they’d say!. But I was too embarrassed because it didn’t feel like I was that sick – just that I had a bit of a temperature – so Mum and Dad became my personal ambulance service. They would throw me in the car and quickly drive me down to the hospital - just about as fast as any ambulance.

Mum would also make me nutritious meals that I could put in the freezer and just heat up on the weeks that I had my chemo. She was more keen for me to leave my flat and move home with her and Dad, but an important part of my recovery for me was that I still had my independence so this was a bit of a compromise! My sisters and friends would be happy just to sit around and chat or hang out and watch TV on days that I didn’t really have the energy to do anything else. That was important to me because I never felt like I was the only one going through this experience.

Like Mike, I think one of the most important parts of my recovery – both the treatment phase and post treatment - is having a fantastic support network. I’d really like to thank my family, friends and medical team for helping me and continuing to help me through a challenging time in my life.

Dave