Soon enough I would learn the specific diagnosis: myelodysplastic syndrome, a disorder of the bone marrow. In my case, the disease growing inside me had morphed into acute myeloid leukemia. I would need intensive chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant… — Suleika Jaouad Copy Share Image
The thought of going through a bone marrow transplant, which in my case called for a life-threatening dose of chemotherapy followed by a total replacement of my body's bone marrow, was scary enough. But then I learned that finding a… — Suleika Jaouad Copy Share Image
With a Catholic mother and a Muslim father, I've always had a great interest in religion, but I've never practiced one myself. After I… — Suleika Jaouad Copy Share Image
It felt like 10 years, but I was actually in treatment for three-and-a-half years. I finally finished in April. Two years ago, I had… — Suleika Jaouad Copy Share Image
There are days when I even long for the paralegal job that once upon a time made me so miserable. It wasn't the perfect… — Suleika Jaouad Copy Share Image
When I finally returned home after my five-week hospitalization, I could feel the stares of strangers on my bald head and thinning eyebrows. Everywhere… — Suleika Jaouad Copy Share Image
The bone marrow transplant procedure itself can be dangerous, but it is swift, which makes it feel strangely anti-climactic. — Suleika Jaouad Copy Share Image
Even amid the shock of my diagnosis, I held onto the hope that I'd be able to make the most of my down time… — Suleika Jaouad Copy Share Image
I'll never go so far to call cancer a gift. It's a really terrible disease. It's taken the lives of so many of my… — Suleika Jaouad Copy Share Image
I think often when we talk about things like cancer, the kind of final act at the end of the story comes with a… — Suleika Jaouad Copy Share Image
Before my diagnosis with leukemia, two years ago at the age of 22, I'd always excelled at making resolutions. But I was never as… — Suleika Jaouad Copy Share Image
Like a lot of other young people, I never thought about health insurance until I got sick. I was 22, and my adult life… — Suleika Jaouad Copy Share Image
And there came a point in my treatment where I couldn't see that end in sight. And that was the most challenging, I think,… — Suleika Jaouad Copy Share Image
But no conversation between doctor and patient can magically turn an uninsured patient into an insured one. Doctors are just as helpless as patients… — Suleika Jaouad Copy Share Image
