While waiting for a bone marrow transplant due to cancer of the blood cells (leukemia), Jessica Guido (37) points out that the disease she is going through made her “fall in love” with herself like never before and, paradoxically, she decided never to do it again. “bad blood” for anything not worth it, from his new perspective.
“I embraced my illness, I began to understand why this was happening to me and I decided that it would never hurt me again. This illness made me value much more, accept myself and fall in love with myself like never before, because I embraced my body and each feeling like never before. before”, reflects Jésica before Télam.
Jesica’s story begins one night in July 2021, in the midst of a pandemic. “I had a very strong back pain -he remembers-, which left me lying on the floor but SAME did not send ambulances due to the health situation. A doctor who saw me gave me analgesics with corticosteroids that for days did not manage to calm the pain”. She clarifies that days before she had perceived that she felt tired.
Suddenly several more symptoms appeared, such as bleeding gums, nose, or coughing up blood.
“The Gymnastics ‘teacher’, exponent of healthy livingI was receiving a diagnosis of a disease in the lymphatic system”, he expresses. And he adds: “On my friend’s day, July 20, they confirmed the diagnosis, I had leukemia, and I was hospitalized for 5 weeks in the Italian Hospital”.
Although they were difficult days with punctures, catheter, chemo and crying, Jésica decided that she was not going to give up. In some of the talks she had with her mother, Patricia, who is an oncology coach, she understood that “you have to accept that the less I resisted, the more chances I had to heal and surrender.”
“I began to study and read to see what was the best at a physiological and nutritional level,” he remarks, and then tells how his reaction was when he found out that he was going to lose his hair during the treatment: “I decided to cut it up and donate it earlier (because) I thought: how can I make a good thing out of this and help others?'”
Due to the context, she could not receive visitors – she was only allowed her mother – but, always optimistic and willing to get ahead, she narrated that during her hospitalization she dressed up as Wonder Woman, danced with the nurses, and decorated her room with photos of all the people who were there for her. “Everyone who was outside the hospital was there with me the same,” she remarked.
“I received blood from about 350 people,” he says with a broken voice, as he emphasizes the importance of the donation, while he questioned why he had never been a donor.
“There is no such thing as a fight,” affirms Jesica, “fight means one against the other and one can win, in my case the disease came to occupy my body until I understand the message and when that happens it will go away.” And he concludes: “I put everything that depended on me to make that situation better, I dealt only with what depended on me and what didn’t, I just let go and gave myself and trusted.”
Jésica is one of the people who testify in the campaign “Living With Cancer”which the pharmaceutical company Bristol Myers Squibb presented, for the third consecutive year, together with the Argentine Association of Clinical Oncology (AAOC), “Living With Cancer”.
The initiative brings together testimonies from people connected by this disease and emphasizes the importance of prevention, timely diagnosis and patient support. And it will be available via Webin addition to in Youtube.
