Her chronic pain had first been diagnosed as a likely inflammation, and then possibly some problem in the muscle that could be fixed with a few physiotherapy sessions. But on that day, October 31, 2019, we found out that it was Ewing's Sarcoma, a rare and extremely aggressive form of bone cancer. The cancer had started deep in the sponge bone of her humerus and then broke out through the bone surface, causing excruciating pain, then metastasizing to several other parts of her body.
But that changed on March 15, with the arrival of the novel coronavirus in Malta. It was a Sunday, and I was covering the arrival of rescued migrants, as I've had to do so often these past 15 years. Marisa called me in a panic, saying they were going to impose a lockdown on the ward. On the home front, paranoia set in. The obsessive measures needed every time I went out, every time I stepped into a shop, got back to the car, returned home, removed shoes and disinfected their soles, unpacked the groceries, wiped everything down with sanitizer, all the effort that went into cleaning and disinfecting absolutely everything that came into the house sometimes felt overwhelming.
The globally worsening COVID situation meant Rebecca's treatment plans had to be changed. Her doctors decided to carry on with chemotherapy beyond the original nine cycles envisaged, and to include the cycles she would have undergone after major surgery in Oxford. As cabin fever began to set in, the authorities relented on some measures and started allowing the use of the ward's terrace again, with people taking it in turns and for a few minutes only.
By this time, Becs was also undergoing a grueling daily regime of radiotherapy, the side effects of which weren't pretty. Apart from it playing havoc with her blood counts, the resulting skin burns were extremely painful. In an effort to cheer her up, the nurses threw a small party for her at the end of her radiotherapy treatment. By then she had become fascinated by the whole idea of medical imaging and radiotherapy, even looking into it as a possible career choice.
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