When every new day is a gift

Cheerful, smiling and courageous, forty-five-year-old Galyna loves her family above all else: her husband and two sons. They became her greatest support and motivation to overcome the terrible diagnosis.

When it was first pronounced, it sounded like a sentence. It all started, it would seem, innocently – fatigue, weakness, stomach pain. The woman explained it by work, stress, lack of sleep. But when the skin turned yellow and nausea appeared, she realized that she had to act. In the hospital, her anxieties received a terrible, cruel confirmation – adenocarcinoma of the rectum, stage IV.

It sounded as if someone had torn the ground from under her feet. Sitting in front of the doctor, listening to his words – "metastases", "liver", "lymph nodes" – Galina could not believe that he was saying this about her. Endless examinations began: CT scans, MRIs, tests, punctures. Each new day brought with it either hope or new anxiety. After numerous examinations and tests, the hospital awaited. In a white, cold room with a strange sense of security, her path to victory over the disease began.

The woman underwent an indescribable number of life-saving procedures: a puncture of the bile ducts to eliminate mechanical jaundice, and, of course, chemotherapy. Each was accompanied by vomiting, lethargy, a complete loss of strength. But the most unbearable was fear: the fear of losing strength, hair, control over her body. The disease took away part of Galina's old life, but in return opened up a new one - deeper, more real. She learned to rejoice in the little things: when her appetite appeared after chemotherapy, when her blood pressure remained normal, when I see a sincere smile on the doctors' faces. The woman returned home with absolute understanding: life is not measured by the number of days, but by their content. Every new day is a gift, and every small decision can change it dramatically. 

Galyna needs expensive medication to recover. Change her life for the better!