2024-02-21 11:47:34
In 2015, I am 35 years old and I am the mother of a one and a half year old little girl. I run a watch shop in the resort. When I’m not working, I challenge myself to hike higher and higher with my dog. Life is beautiful. At Christmas that year, the first symptoms appeared: as soon as I took a sip of alcohol, I felt paralyzed from the jaw down to the tips of my fingers. The months pass, I feel exhausted. But I put that down to my role as a mother. I have nightmares at night and wake up in a sweat. One evening, during our little reading ritual with my daughter, no more sound came out of my mouth. I’m out of breath and feel a sharp pain in my chest. I look at my husband: “I really have the feeling that something is serious!” Not one to complain, this sentence sounds like a cry of alarm. However, I don’t investigate further.
During the summer, I develop a nasty cough, I put it down to the pollen that tickles my throat. At the end of September, I still cough a lot. One morning, I coughed up some blood in the bathroom, but since I had just brushed my teeth, I thought it was coming from my gums. A few days later, I started coughing up blood again, this time a lot. My body sends me signals and I immediately look for excuses not to hear them. Yet they are striking.
One month to live
The rest follows quickly. It is October 2016. A first scan reveals a huge spot on my left lung. After a biopsy and around fifteen hypotheses, the verdict is in. Three doctors and my husband surround my hospital bed. I am told:
“Madam, we have just read your file. You have a 2 year old little girl, right? Your family must consider what happens next without you, we’ll give you a month.”
Diagnosis: stage 4 Hodgkin’s lymphoma. My first reaction to the medical profession was: “It’s not possible, you have the wrong file.”
I no longer hear the words that follow clearly. In this nebulous flow, however, a few words emerge, such as: “rapid progression, Hodgkin lymphoma, cancer of the lymphatic system, tumor measuring 11 x 7 cm, stage 4”. At this point, I don’t know how many stadiums there are, but seeing the expressions on their faces, I understand that the situation is serious. My husband starts to cry, I make him promise to start his life again.
Will to fight
My days are numbered, I struggle every evening not to fall asleep for fear of never opening my eyes again. How to react to such a diagnosis? From home where he takes care of our daughter, my husband video calls me. Mathilde stammers a few words and demonstrates her dancing skills to me. My life is there, alongside them. I can’t give up, they need me. From that moment on, my mantra became: “As long as you breathe, you fight!”
I then decided to continue my chemotherapy treatments at the Genolier Clinic, where I had the happy surprise of being taken care of by an extraordinary oncologist, attentive to his patients, available and eager to see the patients recover. take in charge.
During my six months of chemotherapy, I also followed the advice of a doctor specializing in anthroposophic medicine with the aim of helping me to tolerate the treatments, to drain the products, to modify my diet. This period reveals a lot to me. Starting with my determination. I discover this desire to fight, without ever feeling intimidated by the opinions around me. By force of circumstances, I also discovered how the human body works, at least in part.
I am sure, if I get through this, I will be more attentive to this body which had sent me so many signals that I had ignored.
Understanding how it works helps me take care of it.
Reinventing yourself after illness
At the end of six months of chemotherapy, followed by a month and a half of radiotherapy, I am out of the woods. At least, almost… At the end of this marathon of treatments, examinations, medical appointments, blood tests, life afterward turns out to be the most difficult for me. The questions keep coming: what is my place in society? Am I still able to work? Will my husband still love me with this diminished physique? How can we perceive life now that we know that everything can stop at any moment?
At that moment, I decided to put into practice my resolutions to better understand the human body. I am starting training in anatomy, physiology and pathology, as well as a course in naturopathy. At the same time, I am starting a new job in watchmaking and am training in nutrition, specializing in micronutrition. Today, my driving force is to inform my clients of the importance of nutrients for the proper functioning of the human body.
I also want to develop nutrition courses for children, so that they understand and take care of the incredible machine that is the human body.
In January 2024, I open the doors of my Health Prevention Center in Crans Montana and collaborate with one of the most beautiful five-star hotels in the resort, the Guarda Golf Hotel & Résidences. Together, we offer a nutritional rebalancing and detoxification program that combines both personalized nutritional support and the hospitality and well-being expertise specific to the Swiss hotel industry. It’s a source of pride for me, but also a new challenge to take on: to make people understand that illness is not inevitable and that understanding your body also means preserving it.
Do you know someone whose life experience could enrich this section? Write to us at: redaction@femina.ch
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#Testimony #prognosis #beat #lymphoma