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Duty to listen: The terminal patient who caused Maayan Adam to cry

Dana Shoham, 36, a terminally ill cancer patient, described her feelings since the cancer was discovered in her: "I had a lot of time to digest it and realize that I will not reach the age of 120 anymore."

Listen to the exciting interview with her from Maayan Adam's social program on 103FM

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culture

Thursday, 29 July 2021, 15:00 Updated: 15:31

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Is it possible to come to terms with death? Dana Shoham, 36, a terminally ill cancer patient who contracted leukemia 5 years ago, spoke with Maayan Adam on 103fm and told about life with the disease over the past few years. She talked about the mental struggle, and the understanding that the current months are her last months. Next, she addressed the listeners, sharing the message she wanted to convey; And called on the government and the public to do everything in their power to help young people with cancer.

At the beginning of the conversation, Maayan Adam said that she contacted her followers on Instagram, and offered them to go on the air and tell about an injustice they wanted to correct. Dana Shoham turned to her in response, "she said she was terminally ill with cancer, that she had a few months left to live and that she was my age. I did not continue reading, I could not. I asked for the phone but did not call. I wanted her conversation to resonate, be remembered and recorded forever."

The opening remarks moved Dana, who admitted: "I'm already starting with tears, it's terribly exciting to me," and asked to correct: "Unfortunately these are weeks and not months, but it 'finished finished'".

She explained that in leukemia the estimates are just a guess, "We do what needs to be done, but it can stop in seconds. Two months ago treatment that was supposed to prolong my life by a few months and suddenly the doctor announced 'this is it, we've run out of options. Your bone marrow is full of disease '".

"It's not really life"

Maayan Adam tried to understand where she draws her strength from to continue knowing that her days are numbered, and Shoham explained: "I have been hearing 'this' for 3 years. You have a lot of time to digest it, come to terms with it, understand that you will not reach the age of 120." Dana said of the struggle after receiving the news that she had leukemia: "I feel like I stayed at 31, these are 5 years you are not really alive. You are more alive in the hospital, it is not really life." Before she was diagnosed with the disease, she taught literature in high school, "I already intended to advance to a master's degree because I thrived in academia and realized it was my place. I really like to talk and teach."

The diagnosis, Dana Shoham said, came after two months in which she suffered from terrible pain, "Every day 40 degrees fever, every day she visits the emergency room and is told 'Madam you imagine going home'. At the end it erupted in blood and they saw it in a simple blood test. Everyone cried and I I said 'now that you know, will you take care of my pain? I'm not imagining'? That's what interested me,Because my body was in a lot of suffering. "

Afterwards, the two burst into tears and found it difficult to continue the conversation.

Shoham said that her immediate surroundings had receded over time, and she found the cure for pain among members of the young hospital community, aged 44-18.

"It's important for me to say it's tragic and a young girl, but I'm really coming to an end, these are 5 very difficult years and I say 'enough, I'm already resting. I have no more strength.'

"There's no one next to me"

She later called on the government to help young patients, "This is a population with different needs, you do not have your family, the base, the older children; and there are no parents as your guardians, this is you in the world. This is a population that needs to be treated differently. "Young cancer does not have permanent jobs between the ages of 20 and 20, once they recover they need to return to the community. This is not an easy thing to do because they do not have a specific foundation. On issues of economy, fertility, sexuality we would be happy to receive response and help from the state."

She asked relevant authorities, including Social Security, "not to make it difficult in terms of rehabilitation assistance, benefits, preparation for return to work, which are things an outside association does and not Social Security. "They canceled her because the nurse is supposed to feed me. The nurse does not have time to give me a glass of water, and if there are hours that my mother has to work, there is no one to be with me, I do not have a spouse or a child. This is also loneliness."

At the end of the conversation, Maayan Adam prepared a surprise for Dana, a message from her favorite musician Idan Raichel.

"I was very excited to go on this broadcast, to tell you that I was excited to be a high school teacher. You had the right, the burden and the responsibility to educate a generation. You will always be a link in a chain, a chapter in students' lives. That's what we are, always a link in a chain. ".

In a broken voice, Dana said: "You do not understand how it excites me, my good friend passed away from treating the disease, and since she passed away I hear the song 'Everything Goes By' in loops. I dedicate it to my friend Noa who passed away. Thank you."

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