First arriving at home:

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When first coming home from treatment there is a lot of excitement, you can finally relax in your own home, you are able to see family members that you might not have seen in a long time, catch up with friends and so much more. While this is all great, I found when I first went home from the hospital I was constantly worried something was going to happen and I didn’t have the security of being in the hospital anymore. To get over this, having access to the phone number for your hospital is a great idea. Being able to ring them and make sure everything is okay can give you a lot of relief and I used this a lot when I wasn’t sure if I was okay, the hospital staff are always friendly and happy to offer their support. Overall, the first stage of returning home was so great, I was just so happy to be back in my own space and doing my own thing again.

 

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Getting back to life:

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After settling in at home and getting the hang of things again I decided to go back to school, this might be returning to work or university for you. School was very different when I returned, I felt everyone treated me different but I just wanted to be like everyone else. I found it hard to concentrate at times, my memory seemed to have been affected and I felt my handwriting, typing and thinking skills had slowed. When returning to normal every day activates after treatment it’s important to get a rehabilitation assessment from the hospital. This is where an Occupational Therapist test various abilities to see where you are at after treatment, a report is written so if you have some changes you can advise your school, university or work to help them adapt to your new challenges.

 

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Finding your identity:

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After treatment is over it is quite normal to feel as though you have lost your identity, this might have been because of the way people see you, the girl/boy with cancer, or the new limitations you have in your life, not being able to participate in certain activities and do all the things you might have done pre-cancer. When I went through this stage I found it very difficult, I just wanted to hang with my friends and do all school activities but with many hospital appointments and have limitations I was unable to. I felt lonely and no one could understand why I wasn’t able to do certain things. After a few years and once I had matured a little more, I found an occupation that I wanted to do, something to focus on and put my energy into, something that kept me motivated. This was occupational therapy. In high school, I discovered that I wanted to be an occupational therapist, I felt like this was a long-term goal that I could possibly achieve. By having this goal, I devoted my time and energy into achieving this and after completing high school, I could begin my journey. This was my new identity.