On the last day of March 2019, my year and a half of idyllic expat life in Prague was abruptly disrupted by a major health crisis. Tingling, numbness and leg cramps that I had been dismissing as something minor turned out to be something much worse. With a sudden loss of the ability to walk I landed in the Emergency Department at Nemocnice Na Homolce where I learned that I had two life-threatening metastasized tumors on vertebrae in different places near my spinal cord requiring immediate emergency surgery.
Thus, began my transition from enthralled, busy expat to patient-in-a-foreign-land. And not as simple as one surgery and done. Two high-risk, dangerous, long spinal surgeries each one with two outcome goals: tumor removal and vertebrae stabilization, one with titanium screws. The second surgery was one the neurosurgeons didn’t even want to do initially, deferring to non-surgical treatment, but reversed their decision based on rapid tumor growth. Before the second surgery was an embolization procedure which, for me was far more emotionally traumatic than the big surgeries. And this was after every test, scan, ultrasound, image and lab draw imaginable, each done multiple times all while under hourly stabilization checks for a full week while the source of the tumors was confirmed. Add in a few post-surgical complications for good measure. And following all this, a Nuclear Medicine radioactive treatment at yet another hospital requiring two weeks of isolation after a dreadful month of preparation. Not anything I ever expected in my new expat life, nor like anything I had ever experienced.
Needless to say, the emotional toll of this was as severe as the physical. My husband came across the website for Amelie. Amelie provides psychosocial support to oncology patients in Prague and at three other locations in the Czech Republic. I called them with trepidation and not much hope, explaining that I am not a Czech citizen nor do I even have Permanent Residency yet. As luck would have it, by chance I got a psychologist fluent in English answering the phone. She assured me services were available, free of charge, for anyone living in the Czech Republic with a cancer diagnosis and that she was one of a few staff members who speak English.
It’s difficult to overstate how much of a support Amelie has been to me through this challenge. And this situation will go on many more months with Physical Therapy and body braces and lifelong checks and a prognosis undetermined at this point, but with hope, good. I have kind expat friends here, IWAP women and others who have been very generous to me. My husband has gone above and beyond in every way a spouse possibly can and continues to do so, and of course I have friends and family in my home country from whom I get long distance emotional support. But what is sorely missing at a time it’s most needed is professional counseling and support from someone who understands the big picture of experiencing a life upheaval with a body weakened from surgeries and treatments and questioning your own mortality while living in a foreign country.
Amelie was originally conceived in 2005 to complement Czech oncology healthcare and “humanize” it when it was clear that medical needs were well met, but the psychological component largely ignored by the system. For me, even though I cannot participate in many services Amelie provides, because they are in the Czech language, being eligible for regular counseling by a qualified psychologist knowledgeable in the field has immeasurably improved my life here. My Amelie therapist has helped me navigate everything from the clinical – physical challenges I’m experiencing, the effects of many hours of general anesthesia on my aging brain and understanding my emotional reactions…to the logistical – helping with second opinions, translations and wading through the Czech health system. All lifesavers in different ways.
I am, I would suppose, the rare IWAP member who has, and continues to, greatly benefit from a charity IWAP has determined as worthy of support. A decision well made and for which I’m grateful. When we give, we many never know the lives we touch. That life may be our own.
Amelie
Amelie is a not-for-profit organization which has been providing psychological and social support for oncology patients and their families since 2008. They do not provide medical care, but complement it with a range of individual and group services which aim to humanize the experiences of people who are coping with cancer, at a time when the medical model can be overwhelming.
Amelie was nominated as an IWAP-supported Charity in 2013 and again in 2017, and received 90,000CZK in 2013 and then 95,000 CZK in 2017 from the proceeds of our fundraising.
Like other IWAP supported charities, Amelie provides services primarily in Czech, but they do actively support people who do not speak Czech as much as they are able. We are happy to support what they do.
More information about Amelie at https://www.amelie-zs.cz/en/
