QHSE Manager
Secondary Acute Myeloid Leukemia
Corsico (MI), Italy (Ospedale Humanitas Rozzano)
“After the birth of my son in 2015, watching him grow up, I realized that a parent's touch or hug is priceless and timeless. When my son started playing rugby, I became passionate about it too, and it soon became my favorite sport. However, after a few years in Milan, work took me far from home for a temporary assignment in Latin America, spending over 18 months between Brazil, Mexico, and Chile. I learned to appreciate my job and the challenges it brought over time. I’ve given a lot to reach the position I hold now. Additionally, I’ve learned that strengthening bonds with colleagues is very important for growth in a company.
Spending a lot of time abroad, I often found myself feeling like a child – in his shoes – living far from home, in a place where even the language was unknown, with different foods, new ways of doing things, and the local culture’s habits and customs that felt very foreign. From my work abroad, I began to understand my son better, his fears, his reluctance, and the need to be embraced by a welcoming family that cares for him and ensures as much serenity as possible.
After a period in Spain before the Covid-19 pandemic, satisfying my desire to be closer to my family, I decided to take a new job opportunity near home. Working in Milan, I also resumed some rugby training with the local team I had always frequented, but which my time abroad had prevented me from pursuing consistently. After resuming some training sessions, however, I began to notice a significant physical change. I couldn’t handle physical contact as I used to. I had many bruises, and when I fell, I felt much heavier than I was, as if my bones had turned to lead. I immediately thought of a more serious physical problem.
In 2020, I had some check-up tests to monitor my dyslipidemia and diabetes mellitus. During the visit, my doctor told me he noticed monoclonal anomalies that required a more specific hematological consultation. He referred me to a hematologist. During this period, I also developed bacterial pneumonia from which I recovered fully in a very short time.
During the additional specialist hematological visit, there were significant improvements in the values. However, many doubts and uncertainties remained concerning the origin of this random pneumonia, which we all thought was derived from the recently diagnosed monoclonal anomaly.
Despite the treatment and achieving optimal recovery from the pneumonia, the anomalies seemed to persist, and over time, things returned to how they were before. It was decided to further investigate my hematological condition, which remained volatile over time.
In June 2023, it was Myelodysplastic Syndrome, a disorder related to blood cell production, that became part of my life. From June onwards, despite continuing with my normal daily activities, celebrations, and vacations, exhaustion deprived me of the strength to fully enjoy these moments. I remember having terrible headaches that seemed never-ending.
At the end of September, following the recent hematological control tests, I received a phone call urging me to go to the emergency room as quickly as possible for an urgent transfusion. I went to the emergency room with the idea of a short stay, thinking the transfusion would indeed be very brief.
Unfortunately, that was only the beginning. After some tests, a new and different diagnosis was confirmed: the Myelodysplastic Syndrome had turned into Acute Myeloid Leukemia. From that day, perhaps the hardest battle of my life began: the one against the disease.
My wife has been the most important part of my life, along with my son. We met as teenagers and went through so much together. To this day, she has always encouraged me not to give up, to talk and listen to my body, every single cell, and to encourage them to resist and fight. Although I describe myself as a cautious optimist, also because I’ve learned that chemotherapy will not be enough to treat the disease and a stem cell transplant will be needed, I am sure that with the help of my wife and my son, even though worried, we will manage to eradicate the disease. All in all, I am doing well now. The chemo seems to have been successful, and the disease seems to be gradually going away.
Today, I think a lot about my life. About my family’s life. About the priorities we will set together for this new beginning after defeating the disease. I think I will give work the time it deserves. I will think about it only when necessary, and spend most of my time with my family and the close friends who have supported me so much during this period of suffering.
I’ve never hidden my illness. I’ve shared my fears and pains with many friends and colleagues. I’ve never felt ashamed of feeling vulnerable. In the hospital, I met wonderful people who, like me, were fighting to find peace in their fear and suffering. Then there was the medical and nursing staff I found in the ward, which I remember being excellent, both medically and humanly. There was never a lack of a smile, a joke, an extra bit of attention besides the care that made a journey as burdensome as mine a little lighter.
What remains incredibly human in being weak is that we are reborn with the people who go through and overcome the “sick” moment with us. And to all those who stood by me, I know I owe my life. I was NEVER alone.
And especially to those who remain hidden, who didn’t heal me directly, like all those who thought of me or offered a prayer or the anonymous blood donors whose gesture saves lives every day, not just mine, I want to send you a direct hug and say thank you.
When I was diagnosed with leukemia, I never fell into deep despair nor cursed the heavens or the earth. After all, I never backed down and was never afraid of the disease. The wounds this battle has inflicted on me are many. But the scars it has left remain on my body and not in my mind. I am reborn with a new way of understanding life, which becomes more respectful and less brazen towards it. And I will commit to reciprocating the love I received towards the next individual in difficulty who will need a shoulder, just like it was for me, to lean on and find hope.”
