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The uncertainty of being immunosuppressed patients, in-person treatments in hospitals or the impossibility of having contact with family and friends are some of the problems they face.
Cancer patients have been facing a double battle for almost three weeks in which they try to combat their disease while facing the fear of contagion by the coronavirus and the special social isolation measures to which they are subjected for belonging. to a risk group.
The uncertainty of being immunosuppressed patients, face-to-face treatments in hospitals or the impossibility of having contact with family and friends are some of the problems for which they continue to resort to specialized psychology services, which have not stopped during the confinement period.
This is the case of Verónica Cruz, a 41-year-old nurse, who was diagnosed with a tumor in the intestine in 2015. After undergoing successful surgery, the cancer reappeared in July of last year and she was forced to start a new treatment with medication.
“When you are diagnosed, so many fears, insecurities and anxieties arise. Now, there is one more added,” explained the patient, who has avoided going out since the start of the state of alarm and has entrusted the task of food shopping to her husband.
Cruz now fears that a complication in his illness will force him to go to a medical center, where the risk of becoming infected with the coronavirus is greater and “the health system is collapsed.”
“I hope nothing happens to me these days because going to the emergency room is an ordeal,” he expressed.
For this reason, the nurse also asks for greater flexibility in some of the security measures, so that cancer patients can, for example, go accompanied to their oncology appointments when they receive the results of the disease.
Elena Melgar is in the same situation, a 49-year-old teacher who has received a disability pension since she was diagnosed with rectal cancer in 2017, which has become chronic and has forced her to undergo several operations.
“For us it is a double punishment: that of the illness and that of being at home,” lamented Melgar, who currently does not have to go to the hospital, since he is in a rest phase, after an uninterrupted year of sessions of chemotherapy.
The teacher did have to travel in person to have a CT scan, an odyssey for which she decided to go on foot, wearing a mask and gloves, with the aim of preventing infections.
“When you have to go get a test, that's what matters. I am afraid but for me it is vital to know if I have to receive treatment,” she explained.
