Some people who have survived cancer as children have to face the fallout of what has happened to them as adults due to no follow-up professional support, writes Jennifer Lowman of Glenside for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Lowman’s husband, Matthew Anzideo, survived testicular cancer. He was diagnosed just three weeks ahead of his 18th birthday and a week before he was supposed to start Saint Joseph’s University.
He was given just six months to live, but after surgeries and experimental chemotherapy, Anzideo became cancer-free. However, with no support system to help him deal with the aftermath, he developed an animosity toward doctors and the healthcare system due to the pain he suffered as a teen.
And no matter how many times his wife tried to get him to go for a regular physical exam, he refused. So when he finally saw a doctor for his lower back pain, it was too late – a huge mass had developed in his abdomen. He died four weeks before his 48th birthday.
In the end, wrote Lowman, “he really could have used professional support to help him deal with the psychological effects of having cancer as a teenager.”
Read more in The Philadelphia Inquirer by clicking here.
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