2023-07-22 10:02:28
The story of Betiana Guadalupe Ponce is a journey through the recovery from a disease that is on the lips of many Argentines these days: leukemia. A kind of cancer in the blood that today is “trend” because a famous person, like Wanda Narareceives such a diagnosis.
In this other story the protagonist is a young woman who had this kind of cancer in her blood at the age of 13 and that, although she got fed up with the hospital to the point of swearing that she would never set foot in one again, she decided to study medicine with the aim of helping other people who need medical assistance. This year, at 29, she will finish a university degree to which she was induced by her own life story.
Guadalupe, studying pediatrics in the same place where she received treatment for leukemia. / Photo: Courtesy
The discovery of symptoms
In a routine pediatric check-up, before starting high school, Betiana Guadalupe Ponce’s pediatrician palpated her abdomen and noticed that her spleen and liver were swollen.
He urgently indicated two studies, although he told the girl’s parents that it was just to stay calm, because he was about to go on vacation. It was January 2008. Over the phone that same night they dictated what the blood test said. Dr. Edgardo Trillini only replied: “He’s going out with the skinny girl at (Humberto Pediatric Hospital) Notti.” Although the doctor did not work there, when the Ponce family arrived, the entire team had already been notified for the girl to enter. The pediatrician was also waiting for them, without any vacation plans.
Before that, Guada had had no symptoms to worry about. The day before he had gone to the field to watch a game (Godoy Cruz vs. Independiente de Avellaneda) and he had felt very good. He yes he was sleeping more than usual, something that usually occurs in pre-adolescence. A few months earlier he had passed out. They believed that it was just because of nerves, in situations of public exposure, like going out at events with the flag.
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The diagnosis of leukemia
Guada and her twin sister Mayra, at a costume party with oncology children. / Photo: Courtesy.
What followed that summer night at Notti Hospital were more blood tests. She slept well, her parents didn’t. The next day, the 13-year-old girl was admitted to the oncology department, she received anesthesia and a lumbar puncture that quickly confirmed the diagnosis: leukemia.
Guada remembers from that moment a letter that he received from a doctor. She still has it, laminated. “She said that unfortunately I had a disease, that I had some white cells in my blood that were not good. That I had to think positively, that I was strong, that I watched love and funny movies, that I thought it was only going to be a while”, recalls the young woman today who, although she tried to locate that doctor again, never heard from her again.
his was a leukemia acute. This means that the disease progresses quickly. So she started receiving intravenous chemotherapy, every week, for nine months. When she finished, she had to complete two years of oral chemo, some pills. Depending on multiple factors, such as the age of the patient and the class and subclass of leukemia, a different protocol is indicated. They are international protocols, so that the same treatment is applied in an Argentine public hospital, as in China, or any country in Europe.
hair loss
A critical point in girls and women, who often wear long hair, is hair loss due to chemotherapy. Guadalupe (her family calls her that) had super long hair. A doctor recommended that it be cut to at least shoulder length, to prevent her fall from being too shocking for the girl. But no, at least the first seven months she lost little hair. Meanwhile, she distracted herself from her illness by doing schoolwork at home or in the hospital that her twin sister, Mayra, gave her. When she was discharged, she already had long hair again. / Photo: Courtesy
But in the last two months the story has turned. Guada began to lose large locks. On her head there were only three groups of hairs that did not come out. Dad took it upon himself to cut them. “I cannot measure what a father feels in that situation, seeing his face when he did it destroyed me,” the young woman recalls today.
The final discharge and the chemo dwarves
After five years, when the punctures yielded favorable results, Betiana Guadalupe Ponce was finally discharged. That moment had something bitter. She had two treatment partners. Jose and Denis. The first recovered and was discharged. But Denis, with whom she had become very fond, had a relapse and had to travel to another province to receive a bone marrow transplant. That went well, but she was soon discovered to have a tumor on one testicle. The child was treated with radiotherapy, Guada managed to visit him again at the Notti Hospital. Shortly after “the dwarf”, as she called him, passed away. With Franquito, one of her beloved “dwarfs”. She revisits them as often as he can. / Photo: Courtesy, with permission.
In the first two years of leukemia, the young woman told her family that as soon as she got out of all that, “I will never set foot in a hospital in my life.” In 2010 Guadalupe was already attending school regularly and she returned to doing sports (she had been a goalie in roller hockey but she started indoor soccer). One day Estela Abogarín, a Notti nurse in art therapy, asked the girl for a favor. An almost 10-year-old girl had arrived from San Luis that she had leukemia and he did not let himself be pricked. Guada, who had gone through a process of psychological therapy and had connected strongly with pain, warned that she was not going to lie to that girl. He remembers that meeting: “We talked about a lot of things. There are a lot of food prohibitions that bother you a lot when you are a child. We talked about hair, she told me how she felt ”. A children’s day in Notti’s oncology. / Photo: Courtesy.
That was a profound awareness. See that process from another perspective. This is how Guadalupe, who had to have more and more sporadic check-ups, began to visit the hospital more often. She also began to actively collaborate with the foundations that help children with cancer in Mendoza, Fundavita and Tras-Pasar. “The parents passed my phone number and I liked that more than I had thought”, the visits were repeated on every Children’s Day, Christmas and everything that could visit “the dwarfs”. She is guarded by staff from the Notti hospital, who is now also her family. / Photo: Courtesy.
So, when the time came to decide on a university career, Guada opted for medicine. After trying it a second time, she entered the National University of Cuyo. And this year she is going to graduate as a general practitioner. Regarding the specialization, the young woman says that she likes specializing in sports, although it is not fully defined: “The first objective is to survive December and after it ends, see.”
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