To talk to Arantxa is to do it with a person who shows optimism on all four sides. His is a case of overcoming, of falling and pulling forward again. For four years, this salmatina has counted the days in positive. Imagine the scene of someone who leaves home carrying only a suitcase and does so in search of a future. This is what the protagonist of this report did. “I arrived at the fourth left floor of the Hospital -Hematology- with my suitcase, like when one goes to look for a future”, he confesses, adding: “The day of the second transplant was like being reborn, that is day 0”, relates to the other end of the phone. They probably don’t know what he’s talking about, but Arantxa Agudo’s life took a 180 degree turn in February 2017, when she was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma – cancer that originates in the white blood cells, that is, in the lymphatic tissue and found in the lymph nodes, spleen, liver and bone marrow, among other sites.
At that time, she did not know what a lymphoma was, in fact, after a process of half a year of tests and having a history of a case of breast cancer in her family – one of her sisters – her first thought was that it was a breast cancer. “He had very strong sweating and a small lump on his chest,” says Agudo. But this possibility was soon discarded and he began to know what the famous Hematology plant hides. “I didn’t even know how to place Hematology in the Hospital,” acknowledges Arantxa. At that moment he discovered what that fourth floor on the left wing hides. “There is always a word of kindness there. They are excellent professionals who fight for their patients ”, details a 50-year-old mother who landed there“ with great fear ”.
After a few months of chemotherapy treatment, Arantxa was able to return to her job as a Nursing Assistant. 18 months later, her “tenant” – that’s how she refers to lymphoma – returned.
In October 2019, he received his first autologous transplant, that is, made from his own cells, but “it did not go well from minute 0. He had a fever. It was not known very well what was happening, “he says. Sure enough, his body was not reacting as it should. Hodgkin’s lymphoma had transformed into non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma – something that is extremely rare to happen – “I won the lottery.”
“On Three Kings Day 2020 I had to be operated urgently to remove my gallbladder,” she recalls excitedly. The autologous transplant had not worked. Three years later, Arantxa was back at the starting box: “We were once again in the fight to live. You take a stick and you wonder why it happened to me ”. But there is no time for regrets. Her brave nature and the support of her entire family – her husband, her two children, ages 21 and 24, and her siblings – pushed her forward.
And in this process that has already lasted four years full of “many fears”, Arantxa underwent the second transplant. This time allogeneic -one of the 90 that were developed in 2020 in the Hospital-. June 15 was his “infusion day”, that is, the day of his transplant, thanks to the 100% genetic similarity with one of his siblings.
More than 10 months later, there is no sign of the lymphoma, and when asked how she is doing, she responds: “I feel fine. Now I am very present ”. And he adds: “I did not choose to have the disease, but I do have the option to choose how to live it.”
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