Suleika Jaouad was diagnosed with Leukemia at 22- these 7 things Suleika wants you to know about her experience.
Jaouad, who was given a 35% chance of survival, recently published a memoir about her cancer journey.
The following written content by Colleen Murphy
Suleika Jaouad was a 21-year-old college senior at Princeton University when she felt the first symptom: a “maddening, claw-at-your-skin, keep-you-up-at-night itch.” The itch started on the tops of her feet, eventually moving up her calves and thighs.
It was myelodysplastic syndrome, also known as pre-leukemia, a rare bone marrow disorder. But no one knew that at the time; none of the doctors she went to could figure out what was causing the itchiness. So Jaouad tried to not make a big deal out of it, hoping whatever it was would clear up on its own. It didn’t.
She would soon find out that the itch was the beginning of a years-long journey of diagnoses, treatments, recovery, and self-discovery. And it was a journey that Jaouad, author and former New York Times columnist, wrote about in her recently released memoir, Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted ($18.24, amazon.com).
In addition to the itch, Jaouad developed fatigue so extreme after she graduated college, no amount of sleep helped. No one knew the cause of her exhaustion: that her undiagnosed pre-leukemia was progressing into cancer. This came to light when Jaouad was 22 and finally received her diagnosis: acute myeloid leukemia, an aggressive form of leukemia that attacks the blood and bone marrow. She was given a 35% chance of survival.
After almost four years of grueling treatments that took a huge toll on her mental and physical health, Jaouad, 32, is considered cured of her cancer. Now that she’s no longer fighting for her life, she shares with Health the details of her experience and seven things she learned from her cancer journey.
When you’re sick, you have to be your own advocate
From her first symptoms to her leukemia diagnosis, Jaouad visited close to a dozen doctors—who routinely dismissed or played down her symptoms and even told her how healthy she looked. “I remember thinking, I shouldn’t have put makeup on. I shouldn’t have gotten dressed before coming to this appointment. Because then maybe they would actually see what I’m feeling internally,” she recalls. “And so there was this sense that I had to somehow prove just how serious my symptoms were.” Read more from Health.
