Essay Sample on Cancer and the Family

Introduction

People face family health crisis at some point in their lives. It can occur directly to them or through a family member. When a health crisis occurs, it creates a huge change in the perception of the victims' life as it changes how a person feels or thinks about life (Foster et al., 2015). Majorly one has negative thoughts due to the financial strains, deterioration of the patient's health which makes a person worried about the family member, as well as more time, demanded to spend time with the sick person. One of the health crisis I have observed is from my neighbors where their father was diagnosed with brain cancer.

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My neighbor's father discovered that he had cancer after it had spread which made the family abruptly find ways to adjust to the new issue in their lives and seek ways that would enable them to survive normally before the father was treated and his condition was over. The father was the breadwinner in the family. However, after the cancer diagnosis, he reduced his contribution to the family which led to the wife footing most of the bills at home. The father was to save and use most of his money in the treatment of the cancer condition. He also has symptoms such as seizures, headaches and blurry vision which limited his ability to drive as well as work efficiently. His wife would, therefore, drive the children to school as well as drop the husband at the workplace. Therefore, the roles of the wife increased at home. The neighbors who have their children in the same school as the family would also offer support by driving them to school as a way of relieving the mother the stressful life. On weekends, sisters and nephews in the family visited as a way of helping out various chores in the house hence ease work pressure from the wife.

My neighbor's cancer condition was critical and it made many people realize that it was important to offer both financial and emotional support to the wife to enable her to continue supporting her husband and children. They also noted the need to take the children to school and bring them back home, play with them and involve them in the weekend activities as ways to ensure they do not feel left out when their mother is busy at work and the father has traveled for treatment. On the other hand, they supported the father to encourage him to take up the journey. Relatives, friends, and neighbors all took part in the support of the family which made the people turn to one another to share roles in different days based on their availability. Therefore, most of the people were supportive of the health crisis.

Despite many people being supportive to ensure my neighbors had an easy time handling the cancer issue, there were relatives who felt that it was a bother especially when the treatment duration went more a year. Some people complained that the assistance interfered with their schedules and times they left all duties to the wife and some neighbors. When one has challenges facing him or her, he or she expects family members to be the most supportive people however in my neighbor's case, the support from family members decreased over time (Nguyen et al., 2016). It would be better if all family members met up and shared roles to support the family instead of neglecting them as time went on. Consistent support would enable the neighbors to manage the health crisis easily because the neglect led the wife to my neighbor to have more burden on taking care of her family as well as stress to the man as he felt that his condition is the one that led to the reduced support from the family members.

References

Foster, C., Myall, M., Scott, I., Sayers, M., Brindle, L., Cotterell, P., ... & Robinson, J. (2015). 'You can't say,"what about me?" I'm not the one with cancer': information and support needs of relatives. PsychoOncology, 24(6), 705-711.

Nguyen, A. W., Chatters, L. M., Taylor, R. J., & Mouzon, D. M. (2016). Social support from family and friends and subjective well-being of older African Americans. Journal of happiness studies, 17(3), 959-979.