Even
when you're sick you can have fun
ELYSHA FOLEY
MY HEALTH EXPERIENCE: ELYSHA FOLEY is 14 years
old. And although she looks and sounds like most other girls of her age, she
has led a completely different life to date.
When she was just four years old, the Clare girl had problems with her
eyesight and a strange compulsion to sink her teeth into things. For over a
year she underwent a battery of tests to try to find out what was wrong with
her and, at the tender age of five, was diagnosed with a brain tumour.
She has spent the past decade fighting this crippling disease, putting
up with endless tests and lengthy hospital admissions, enduring gruelling bouts
of chemotherapy and several operations but has finally come out the other side
as a happy, healthy teenager.
WHEN I was four, I had a problem with my vision. My left eye was getting
weaker and weaker and I had to wear an eye patch and glasses. Every morning I
would pick out a cartoon figure sticker, usually a Disney princess one, and Mum
would put it on my patch. I hated wearing that patch as it was very
uncomfortable.
I would also leave teeth marks on everything and got into trouble at
school because I used to eat all the pencils and crayons and bite the corners
off the desks. I even bit a girl’s arm once. The doctors later said I might
have done this because of pressure in my brain but I never felt any pressure
there. I felt normal.
I had a lot of tests done including Cat scans, MRIs, ECGs, kidney tests,
hearing tests and lumbar punctures.
When I was five, I was diagnosed with a brain tumour on my optic nerve,
at the point where the nerves cross each other, right in the middle of my
brain. It was inoperable. That means you can’t have an operation to take it
away. So I had to start chemotherapy.
On my first day in St John’s ward in Crumlin I met my oncologist and my
neurosurgeon. They were very nice, they explained about my tumour and showed me
a picture of it from my MRI. It was a shiny circle in the middle of my brain.
It actually looked very pretty, like a bright star in the middle of my brain.
I remember thinking that everybody was lovely – the nurses were so nice.
All the kids had no hair and were very white. I had surgery the next day to
have my broviac line put in. This is a white tube that goes in to my main vein
just above where my heart is. All my meds, chemo, infusions and transfusions
went through this.
The minute the chemo goes into the line you can feel it burn up through
your body. It stings for a while but it’s okay, as Mum says it’s good/bad
medicine and you have to get sicker to get better.
I had fun when I was in hospital. We were all in the same boat. In the
outside world people would stare at me. But in Crumlin we were all the same, we
had no hair and we all had wonky blood counts. We would play lots of games.
When we were on our chemo, which takes hours, my friends and I would run and
then jump on the wheelie thingy that the chemo bag [was hanging] from and have
races down the corridor. The doctors and nurses would have to jump out of our
way.
There is lots of goofing around in Crumlin. It’s important to know that
even when you are sick you can also have great fun.
Throughout my sickness, Mum was always with me, she never left my side.
She slept in a fold-away bed beside me. At times when I was very sick she would
sleep with me in the bed and hold me so tight. I liked that. It was very hard
on my family when I was sick. Mum had to give up her job. Dad had to mind my
brother at home and this was hard on them. I missed my brother (Gearóid) and
Dad so much.
Dad is a big softie and although Mum can be a softie too, she is very
calm when things go wrong. She minded me all the time; she would clean my
wounds, change my dressings and make me my favourite food in the kitchen on
John’s ward so I would feel like I was at home.
I would like to say I was always brave and most of the time I was but
there were times when I was so ill I wanted to give up. I was just so tired but
Mum would always say, “You have the best doctors, the best medicine, but you
have to do your
part too, you have to fight it.”
She always pushed me on.
Last summer I went to Barretstown and it was brilliant. We didn’t just
sit around being sick, we just had non-stop fun. We got to ride in rally cars
through country roads which was terrifying but great craic. Then when we
arrived back at the castle, there was a red carpet waiting for us and people
asking for autographs – we were like film stars.
I made loads of friends from different countries and even though we
didn’t speak the same language, we understood each other because we have all
gone through the same thing.
When I was sick I lost my confidence because I missed out on doing
normal things. My time in Barretstown gave that back to me. I got to do things
I never thought I would be able to do. I felt more at ease, I was able to open
up, to let go and just have fun.
Every night I went to bed with a smile on my face, exhausted from doing
lots of crazy, fun things during the day. Having cancer turned out to be a
really good thing as I got to go to Barretstown and will return there when I’m
older to work as a Cara and give back what it gave me – smiles.
As my mum
said, the chemo may deal with the physicality of cancer, but cancer leaves very
deep hidden scares and that’s where Barretstown comes into its full power.
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