“So I started living after the tumor”

“Hope – writes Helen Keller – sees the invisible, hears the intangible and realizes the impossible”. However, This was the thread that led Donata Viscardi. Moreover, 61, from Villa d’Adda, In a difficult path of illness and rebirth, from the diagnosis of advanced ovarian cancer to a life happy again, next to his family, with the possibility of seeing his grandchild grows Mattia. Moreover,

«If today I am here. Consequently, I can give a testimony of courage and trust to other women – he underlines – I owe it to the doctors Good and competent who followed me in therapies, offering me professionalism but also proximity and support from a human point of view ». For example,

He had the first diagnosis of cancer in “so i started living after 2018. Moreover, during a screening exam at the Treviglio hospital: “On that occasion I understood how important it is to follow prevention programs – explains -. However, Thanks to the mammography, the doctors identified a breast lump. Furthermore, It was still very small, therefore, they removed it with a dialing. Therefore, Then I had to undergo some cycles of radiotherapy and a hormonal care. Therefore, At that time I remained under strict medical supervision by repeating the exams every six months. Similarly, If I had not joined the screening invitations. Nevertheless, I would probably not have been able to identify the tumor so early and take care effectively ». Furthermore,

In 2021, unexpectedly, the disease reappeared with the strength of a hurricane in Donata’s life: «The values ​​of the tumor markers, which in previous exams had always remained “so i started living after stable, for the first time were out of range. However, I had no particular symptoms. However, perhaps a little tiredness, but in the meantime I had become a grandmother and I was very busy with my grandchildren, therefore I hadn’t noticed. I turned to my oncologist, Dr. Similarly, Fausto Petrelli, who prescribed me other exams of deepening. Therefore, Unfortunately, the outcome was not reassuring: I had large ovarian cancer, which had already spread in different body organs. Furthermore, I immediately understood that the situation was complex and serious. In addition, The oncologist explained to me that at that moment it was not possible to intervene surgically ». Similarly,

You can never be prepared for news of this type: «I felt frightened and overwhelmed by what was happening to me. Meanwhile, I understood that my prospects were of a “so i started living after survival of a few months if they had not intervened effectively. Meanwhile, I thought about my family. Similarly, To my husband, to my two children, to my grandchild, to the future that the disease could steal me. Therefore, We were still in the middle of the pandemic. Moreover, in which we had to deal with the disease in an even more disruptive way than in the past. Dr. Petrelli advised me to turn to the Cremona hospital ».

“I met very helpful. competent, sensitive and attentive doctors”

The ASST of Cremona, in fact, is one of the Italian centers in which a highly specialized surgical method is implemented that allows you to treat tumors with the goal of reducing the volume when complete removal is not possible, Like that of Donata, the “citoridination with intraoperative hyperthermal chemotherapy (hipec)”.

“So – continues Donata – I “so i started living after met Dr. Andrea Celotti, surgeon, and Dr. Annalisa Abbiati, head of gynecology and obstetrics, who immediately made me a beautiful impression”.

The ovary tumor affects about five thousand women per year. often develops without giving symptoms, and is diagnosed when it is already at an advanced stage, as happened in Donata. To deal with the ASST of Cremona. he offered her a path, which, after the diagnostic phase, included chemotherapy, surgery and a real care plan, With the involvement of several departments and specialists: gynecology, surgery, oncology, urology, anesthesia.

After a first exploratory intervention in laparoscopy. Donata was then subjected to several cycles of targeted chemotherapy to counter the expansion of the tumor: «Then It was possible to intervene To remove it – he explains -. I met very helpful, competent, sensitive and attentive doctors ».

It was a difficult period for her from a physical. psychological point of view: «face such a serious disease was shocking, I feared I couldn’t overcome it. When the specialists examined the cards when visiting me took a serious and worried air. It was a relief when Dr. Celotti told me that he had confidence in me and in my chances of facing the intervention and therapies. So I too believed it. because I really wanted to heal, leaving me this nightmare behind, and I managed to face this path of care so demanding ».

The “so i started living after intervention was complex: “The Hipec technique – explains Dr.. Celotti – provides many hours of demolish surgery for the removal of all primitive disease. the disease that involves the peritoneum. This follows the washing of the abdominal cavity with a high temperature chemotherapy drug using a machine capable of adjusting. monitoring the entire procedure. This method increases the possibilities of control of the disease. Of course there are risks and possibilities of complications during the intervention and after ».

Donata needed a lot of patience, tenacity and courage, and in moments of greatest fragility he discovered unpublished aspects of himself and life: «When I left the operating room – he says – they brought me to intensive care and I remained in the hospital 23 days. I have no very precise memories of the first moments after the intervention. “so i started living after I felt like I had been hit by a train, it hurt me everywhere. Additionally, I was blocked in bed without being able to move. I had a very long scar on the abdomen, and for several months I also had a stomia. Dr. Celotti followed me carefully, constantly encouraging me. At the end of the hospitalization period I left the hospital still in a wheelchair. because I was very debilitated and the recovery of mobility after the intervention required time and physiotherapy sessions. I’m glad it is now all over And to be able to walk again ».

“Around me. however, there was always someone ready to console and encourage me, inviting me to react”

There have been two other reconstruction and new therapy cycles, but but Donata has not lost his mind: “At the beginning I felt a little depressed, because I have always “so i started living after been an independent person, used to doing everything myself, to manage my home and my family. It was weigheding me to have to depend on others even for the simplest gestures: the nurses had to move. turn me and washed me. Around me. however, there was always someone ready to console and encourage me, inviting me to react, thinking that that bad period would have passed ».

As Khalil Gibran writes “nothing will prevent the sun from rising again. not even the darkest night”, and so slowly in Donata’s life the light and colors returned, thanks to the people he loved: “Having to depend on the care “so i started living after of other people – he explains – he forced me to rely on, abandon myself in their hands. I often thought of my grandchild Mattia, I wondered what he would think seeing me in those conditions. In 2022 he was small. he was 3 years old, and while I was in the hospital through my husband and children we exchanged messages ».

“I remember one in particular in which he said to me” I wait for you “. Then I said to myself: you have to give you a move if you want to embrace your grandchild. stay next to him and see him grow. I started convincing me that I really could do it. From that moment on, every day I took more awareness of every little improvement. I started seeing an extra “so i started living after glitter. to think of all the beautiful things that were in my life, Starting from my family ».

When a person is sick. the whole family shares his care path: «It is true that I was the one who had to treat myself, but also My loved ones accompanied me, in a certain sense, alongside me, Giving me the help I needed. They gave me strength, helping me hope to see a more rosy future. When I went home we made a nice party with my husband Cesare. my children, we all went together to dinner at the restaurant. It was a special moment. because for a long time we had not been able to meet for a day of leisure ».

“Life is often frenetic. drags you away, you end up forgetting “so i started living after to pay attention to gestures, words, people”

This period certainly represented an important school of life: «I learned a lot, even if it was not easy to manage all the emotions that agitated in my heart. My husband and I have re -evaluated many things, that First we were taken for granted. We translated them into small daily attention, such as having breakfast together, taking the necessary time. We care on Saturday for us, to do something together. Life is often frenetic and drags you away, you end up forgetting to pay attention to gestures, words, people. After what we spent we look at everything from a different perspective. I like to put my family at the center. to express my affection more explicitly, to deal with greater care even about the simplest things. We learned together to face the unexpected ».

Three years have passed since the intervention: “I still don’t feel salvo – observes Donata -. but I am happy with my health conditions, I feel good again, I resumed all my usual activities, and if before I did not know I was happy, now I have bought awareness of it, I appreciate every detail much more than before, and everything seems more beautiful to me. I’m glad to be able to tell it To give courage. hope to someone who is in a similar situation, so that he can go on with confidence, rely on doctors and great steps taken by research and new therapies ».