Fighting 'for every breath': Physician with cancer urges people to stay home during pandemic

Family doctor Krysta Pike Au has seen a lot of pain and joy at her St. John's medical practice but says it didn't prepare her for her own breast cancer diagnosis in 2019.

"You feel very close to your patients. Whether it be a terrible news or the birth of a child, all of it you experience with them, but to go through something this profound myself was absolutely excruciating. Very humbling and very scary," she said.

Pike Au is not working right now. She's had surgery, received radiation treatment and chemotherapy at the Dr. H. Bliss Cancer Centre in St. John's. While there recently, she was struck by the impact COVID-19 has had on the centre.

"Normally it's an upbeat place. It's a place of hope. You can feel so much love there. There is so much kindness. We all feel like we are there together," she said.

But because of restrictions on visitors and supporters there are fewer people there, and that's made treatment more difficult for some.

"My nurse and caregivers were all wonderful to me but I looked around and I could tell that there were some people in the chemotherapy unit who were there alone and they were scared," said Pike Au.

It inspired her to write a message that was posted on social media by the Dr. H. Bliss Murphy Cancer Care Foundation.

Pike Au says it made her think about what dying might be like for a cancer patient during the ongoing pandemic.

"Anyone who gets COVID-19 they're not allowed to have people around so you would be alone," she said.

"All the people that were in the chemotherapy unit with me that day I kept thinking if any of us were to get COVID-19 we wouldn't just be alone in our treatment, we'd be alone in our final days," she said.

With that in mind, Pike Au is strongly urging people to follow all possible measures to prevent the spread of the virus.

"We are there doing everything we possibly can to fight for every minute, for every breath, and to know that there are some people who are not respecting the physical distancing recommendations is just beyond me because we are so vulnerable right now," she said.

Pike Au, who's made a career of taking care of others, says she feels guilty about not being able to be on the front line with her colleagues fighting COVID-19.

She hopes her post will make a difference by reinforcing what health experts have been repeating.

"Stay home in your own protective bubble. The virus only moves if we move. Don't give the virus a means of continuing," she said.

As for her own health, she says she's fighting to stay healthy for her three daughters and family but she's also thinking about other people who are receiving cancer care or waiting for answers.

Pike Au said women are still having babies and people are still getting treatment for broken bones but the health-care system's focus has clearly shifted to overcoming COVID-19.

"A lot of things are on hold. I think about and pray for all the people who are waiting for a diagnostic procedure, a cancer diagnosis, or cancer surgery," she said.

"I've been down that road and the waiting is probably the hardest part. To have that extended is heartbreaking."

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