No one can guarantee that you will never get cancer. Even a healthy lifestyle does not give you immunity. Jantien (32) was nineteen when she was diagnosed with lymphoma.
«When you are eighteen and have completed your secondary education, you are convinced that life can really begin. For me it was no different. I obtained a degree in tourism and worked as a hostess on the ground on weekends and during all holidays. I spent my first academic year with my fingers crossed, so I was ready for a summer of rolling up my sleeves at the airport. But the work was much harder than I was used to. Fatigue crept into my clothes, colds piled up and a bad cough showed up regularly, but I blamed it on the early hours of knocking and the fact that I was in an environment where the air conditioning ran non-stop.
Unexpected
After several doctor visits and antibiotic treatments, no improvement was seen. When I also started experiencing wheezing and having an incredible amount of mucus, my doctor directed me to have photos taken of my lungs. The professor who was shown to me entered the doctor’s office pale as a ghost and said that they were waiting for me at the university hospital in Ghent. I left there not knowing what awaited me.
There I didn’t pay attention to which department I ended up in and what posters were hanging there. The alarm bells only went off when four doctors approached my bed and informed me that I had cancer of the lymphatic system. At nineteen I should have been in my prime and from one moment to the next I was diagnosed with cancer. It’s not possible, right?’
Before and after
‘A bad draw, karma or bad luck… Who knows? Sometimes I wondered why I had to experience all this. In the meantime I know that life is like this, but when you are nineteen you think above all about yourself and everything you will have to miss. For a year my life was dominated exclusively by cancer. When you’re young and dealing with cancer, that reality is even harder to place. After all, at that moment you don’t yet realize what the consequences will be for the rest of your life.
At the time I didn’t want to show anyone what cancer was really doing to me and I pretended to be stronger than I was to spare those around me. I still go to the psychologist.
Even though many years have passed, it still leaves its mark. At the time I didn’t want to show anyone what cancer was really doing to me and I pretended to be stronger than I was to spare those around me. I still go to the psychologist. Meanwhile, one of my best friends is battling breast cancer and it brings back a lot of bad memories. The impact her battle had on me made me realize even more that I had never fully processed my cancer story one hundred percent. There is a Jantien before and a Jantien after cancer diagnosis.
Even though we can talk about remission after five years without relapses, I still have a check-up every year. I prefer to play it safe, because if the cancer comes back, at least we will be caught quickly. Now that I have two young children, I have another reason to follow them. Cancer will forever be a part of the past, but I live mostly in the present and grasp with both hands the second chance I have been given.’
Text: Marijke Clabots
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2024-01-21 13:01:02
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