Here is a brief summary of my story and my journey with the disease.
It was 2007, I was 17 years old, and I suddenly started experiencing increasingly intense abdominal pain over the course of several months. I was in high school and I loved dancing, practicing for hours every week despite the pain.
Then one day, I found myself in the emergency room of a clinic, where I had an abdominal and pelvic ultrasound and they discovered an abnormal amount of ascites. In light of this, a laparoscopic biopsy was recommended. The wait for the results was long, and almost six months passed before I was diagnosed with malignant peritoneal mesothelioma.
What a discovery, when I was just a teenager! The medical team informed me about the existence of HIPEC, which I underwent at a specialized center. The procedure lasted nine hours: I went into the operating room at 7:00 a.m. and came out around 5:00 p.m. From there, I spent seven days in intensive care. The medical team encouraged me and my family and friends every day to overcome this condition and, above all, this life challenge… Yes, for me it was a life challenge that allowed me to discover many resources and helped me move forward beyond the present moment.
Following this, I was hospitalized for a week in a traditional room. Aplastic anemia developed postoperatively, and I also experienced hair loss one week after the HIPEC (7% of cases, I was told at the time). Then, 15 days after the operation, I returned home to rest and take a break from treatment. A month later, I began chemotherapy treatments with CISPLATIN and ALIMTA, spaced three weeks apart for three months.
March 2008: deliverance, the treatments are finally over. Regular check-ups followed, initially frequent and then less frequent over the years, giving way to the hope of a certain cure.
December 2012, five years later, the remission period ended, and I was cured! I resumed dancing six months after treatment and passed my high school diploma, which I studied for at home, with honors. I then went on to enjoy five wonderful years of university studies and became a psychologist, a profession I am passionate about. Each project allowed me to move forward, the desire to live my youth and fight no matter what, at any cost, whether it be fatigue, exhaustion, or sometimes moments of doubt… But I still had the strength. So yes, the operation can be scary, you can be apprehensive about it, but once it’s over, a new life begins, with a quality of life that is similar or even better than before, because this stage teaches us that life is worth something, so we enjoy it more.
This recovery allows me to move forward today. In February 2015, I was diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma. In a week, I am scheduled for another surgery, which will last about 10 to 12 hours, followed by new courses of CISPLATIN/ALIMTA chemotherapy. So this first step allows me to believe in recovery again, and the doctors themselves remain convinced of this.
Simply put, stay positive and keep believing; you are never alone when facing illness.