Suleika Jaouad keeping cancer at bay. Pic courtesy: Seamus
Suleika Jaouad’s latest weekly column in New York Times, ‘Keeping Cancer at Bay’ introduces you to the tribulations that continue to haunt cancer survivors. Suleika is a writer par excellence and paints a poignant picture of herself, her family, her brother and stem cell donor, and her neighbors enjoying a Memorial Day barbecue against the backdrop of her waiting for her chemotherapy sessions to begin which would help to keep her cancer at bay.
Suleika Jaouad, a young woman in her early twenties, was enjoying life and career to the fullest, when a diagnosis of cancer catapulted her into a routine of CT scans, biopsies, chemotherapy sessions, X-rays and as Suleika writes, The Waiting – with not much else to do. Suleika, the brave girl that she is, took to writing and sharing her cancer journey with millions across the world. Her weekly columns that appear every Thursday, on New York Times – Well are much awaited by supporters and well-wishers. In her latest post, she personifies her cancer to a junkyard dog that is fenced in, but snarling and ‘always trying to dig under the fence’.
CureTalk has been following Suleika, through her cancer journey and you can read Suleika’s first interview post diagnosis here.
Suleika has had a bone marrow transplant at MSKCC. And, the good news is that her first biopsy post transplant shows no cancerous cells. However, she has to begin the inevitable chemotherapy sessions immediately to keep her cancer from returning. As of today, she has completed 50 days after transplant and is halfway through to the critical period that confirms bone marrow engraftment.
She signs off, saying… ‘A year from now I’ll be past Day Plus 300’… and to that I raise a toast and wish her many many Day plus 100s to come.
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