Female student with cancer awakens young people: Love more, stop burying your head in your phone!

“It's okay, Mom and Dad, calm down!”

At the age of 21, the most beautiful age of one's life with many ambitions and dreams, but for Van Anh, everything seemed to collapse under her feet when the doctor informed her that she had leukemia (Acute Myeloid Leukemia M2).

In less than a year, the young girl from Thai Binh will graduate from the University of Foreign Trade, majoring in Business Administration, put on her bachelor's gown, go to work to support her younger brother and have a wide horizon ahead. She thought everything was within reach, but in a moment... it all fell apart.

Beautiful image of Van Anh before getting sick.

Van Anh said that in recent months, her health has not been good, she often feels tired, her heart beats fast, her teeth start to bleed, and every time the weather changes, her bones and joints ache. She also noticed that her shoulder-length hair is getting drier. When Van Anh's mother heard her daughter complaining, she personally cut her daughter's My Linh hairstyle in early August.

Two days later, Van Anh had a high fever for 3-4 consecutive days. After taking medicine, it got better but then the fever came back. Her parents took Van Anh to Thai Binh General Hospital for treatment.

“While I was in the hospital, I saw the doctor giving me a blood transfusion, so I thought I was anemic. Then I felt my head jerking and couldn’t walk, so I was transferred to the National Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion. At that time, I only had time to see the word Leukemia in the medical record, but I still thought it was just the name of some disease, not blood cancer,” Van Anh recalled.

While lying in the waiting room, the young girl began to panic when people around said this was the floor for leukemia patients. Everything became clearer when the doctor gave her a prescription, Van Anh looked it up and found out that these were drugs that inhibited cancer cells.

Holding the results in their hands, Van Anh's parents collapsed and cried uncontrollably. Ms. Pham Thi Nhung, Van Anh's mother, said that it was the first time she saw her husband cry so much. Both of them could not stand still when they thought that one day soon, their little daughter would leave their arms.

Wiping away her tears, Ms. Nhung approached her daughter and whispered: "I didn't intend to hide it from you because you already know", then burst into tears. When she heard the news, Van Anh was silent, without a single tear, her ears were ringing, her head was blank, her face was expressionless.

“Then I ran into the bathroom and cried, looked at myself in the mirror and was extremely shocked. A million questions came to me. Why did this disease come to me? I thought about how heartbroken my parents would be if I was no longer here,” Van Anh said as she watched her mother’s figure in the hallway.

Van Anh's mother said that on the first day at the hospital, Van Anh was shocked to see two people in the same room die, but after that, her little daughter was surprisingly strong. With a strong voice, Van Anh told her mother: "It's okay, just calm down!", the young girl accepted the truth.

Van Anh in the first days of hospitalization.

Van Anh's parents cried for many days in a row and couldn't eat, but when they heard their daughter say that, they gradually became happier to help their child become more confident.

On August 20, after 6 days of transfer, Van Anh began her first chemotherapy session. Van Anh’s mother said that before the day of chemotherapy, her daughter was still happy and smiling, and whenever anyone came to visit, she would look in the mirror, comb her hair, and put on lipstick.

But then the side effects of the chemicals caused Van Anh to have a high fever of 39.5 degrees Celsius, stomach pain, vomiting a lot, acne on her face and her hair started to fall out.

Love more, stop burying your head in your phone

The doctor said that after the first chemotherapy treatment, Van Anh will have to stay in the hospital for another 2-3 weeks to see how she responds. If it doesn't work, the regimen will have to be changed.

On the hospital bed, the young girl had lost weight but her eyes were still cheerful, occasionally looking out at the blue sky in front of the balcony and smiling.

Van Anh said that since she was sick, many teachers and friends at school asked about her, some gave her gifts, some gave her books, including many books about Buddhism. "Although there were some parts that I did not fully understand, after reading, I felt everything was lighter and more peaceful."

Books friends gave Van Anh.

Van Anh confessed that even though she had mentally prepared herself to accept it, she still couldn't be optimistic all the time. Negative thoughts sometimes arose, and at those times she listened to music, read books, and talked to people to forget.

Around her, there are more than 500 patients who are also fighting leukemia, also fainting with constant high fevers, their hands bruised from injections and IVs... but among them, many people are still very optimistic.

Van Anh said she knew a 19-year-old patient and a 26-year-old woman who had undergone 7-8 chemotherapy sessions, but she was very calm: "This disease is normal. After treatment, I was discharged from the hospital. I still go to work normally and am very healthy."

Besides the times when they are tired due to side effects, whenever they are well, many patients invite each other to go out to the hallway to sing karaoke.

Before leaving the hospital, there was a woman who meticulously applied sunscreen, makeup, lipstick, and wore a very pretty wig. When she saw Van Anh looking at her intently, she turned around and smiled: "Even when you are sick, you have to be optimistic, right?"

Van Anh said that in the first days when she heard the news of the lightning strike, seeing images of such strength made her feel calmer and less confused.

The days in the hospital also made Van Anh miss the happy times before, her sister, her two best friends, the difficult times of the whole family, the days of volunteering...

That is the motivation for Van Anh to write down her innermost thoughts about her unfinished dreams and hopes that young people will read it and reflect on themselves, not waste their youth, and live more enthusiastically and usefully.

This letter was written by Van Anh in a closed group called confession room, and then spread widely.

“You see, life is very fragile. Although my illness has no cause, I still hope that you will live a healthy life, exercise, eat regularly, and not stay up late anymore. Don't be like me, sitting there looking at the sky outside and seeing it as so far away, just wanting to return to a normal life that will never be again,” Van Anh wrote.

She also hopes that everyone will cherish every moment they are living, live truly, not just exist, and stay healthy because she had to go to bed at 2-3am for several years in a row.

“Every day I remind myself to go to bed early but I can’t do it. After finishing my homework, I pick up my phone and surf the web and social networks. Later, when I got sick, I realized that phones take up too much of our time. Even in this hospital, many people who come to take care of their loved ones are glued to their phones. When friends meet, instead of talking, each person holds a phone, engrossed in chatting, no one talks to each other,” the young girl concluded.

She also hopes that young people, outside of school time, will participate in activities that are beneficial to society, so that one day when something bad happens, everyone's affection will help make up for it.

Perhaps that is why Van Anh answers the phone less often now. Many phone calls come in but she refuses to answer.

For those unfortunate patients with cancer, she hopes everyone will live more optimistically, accept and fight to the end. Read books, listen to music, and talk to your loved ones more!

When talking about herself, Van Anh looked into the distance and said: “I have not imagined what I will look like when my hair falls out, but maybe I will prepare a wig for myself. The women in room 723 all wear beautiful wigs and do their own makeup, so when they go out, no one will recognize them as cancer patients.

dantri.com.vn