Suleika Jaouad's Cancer Returns
- At 22, Suleika Jaouad battled myeloid leukemia. Today at 33 years old, she’s again fighting leukemia. She’s undergone a bone marrow transplant and chemotherapy to treat it. The journalist, whose partner is Jon Batiste, recently got a surprise visit from fellow writer Elizabeth Gilbert during her hospital stay, which left her “feeling overwhelmed by love.”
- A bone marrow transplant is a treatment used for some cancers that replaces bone marrow with healthy cells; it is also called a "stem cell transplant."
- Leukemia is a type of blood cancer that develops when the body produces a large amount of abnormal white blood cells, which prevent the bone marrow from producing any other type of cell, like red blood cells and platelets.
She had a bone marrow transplant and is also undergoing chemotherapy. Through it all, Jaouad is staying brave and strong, and sharing her leukemia journey online on social media. She recently shared how writer pal Elizabeth Gilbert, author of bestselling memoir Eat Pray Love, create a special, twinkling heart for her outside her hospital window.
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“But my mom is quite the general,” writes Jaoad, “and eventually she got me up and over to the window. Then, instead of pointing up, she gestured to the street. There by the sidewalk was a heart made of twinkle lights, and standing next to it was my dear friend @elizabeth_gilbert_writer, waving up at me with a candle in her hand.”
The writer says how she’s “filled my whole windowsill with LED candles (which I think is beautiful, like a votive altar in a church, though my nurses have told me it's a little alarming because every time they pass my room they think it's on fire). I lifted one of the candles and we began a little dance, call and responsewaving it to the left, then to the right, then in circles. We even did the wave.
My mom is currently telling all the nurses to bring their patients to the window, to share in Liz's love bomb. There's enough for all of us.”
In an earlier post, the journalist shares her adventures in the bone marrow transplant unit. She writes, pictured with partner Batiste, “First 72 hours in the bone marrow transplant unit: co-sleeping in a tiny hospital bed, painting, prank calling (includingby requesta nurse's boyfriend), blood draws and bags of chemo, hospital room choreographies and hallway laps (14 = a mile), and never not rubbing my newly bald head.”
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What is a Bone Marrow Transplant?
Jaouad had a bone marrow transplant. A bone marrow transplant is a treatment used for some cancers, like leukemia. It replaces bone marrow with healthy cells; it is also called a "stem cell transplant."
In a previous interview, Dr. Caitlin Costello, a hematologist-oncologist at UC San Diego Health, says, "The things we consider for patients who may need an autologous stem cell transplant is number one their disease."
Dr. Costello explained that a stem cell transplant is more effective for certain diseases. "There are some diseases for whom this works better than others," she said. "It's most commonly used in relapsed diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, but there are other lymphomas, mantle cell lymphoma for whom which patients oftentimes get and I'll autologous stem cell transplant as soon as they achieve remission. Or something close to it."
Is a Stem Cell Transplant Right for You?
Understanding Leukemia
Leukemia is a type of blood cancer that develops when the body produces a large amount of abnormal white blood cells, which prevent the bone marrow from producing any other type of cell, like red blood cells and platelets. Dr. Nina Shah, a hematologist at the University of California San Francisco, explains in an earlier interview how to best understand this disease.
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"One cell got really selfish and decided that it needed to take up all the resources of everybody else, and in doing so, took up space and energy from the rest of the body," Dr. Shah says.
"In general having a blood cancer means that your bone marrow is not functioning correctly," she explains. "And when your bone marrow doesn't function correctly it means that you can have something happen to you like anemia. Or you can have low platelets, which makes it possible for you to bleed easily. Or your immune system is not functioning correctly."
What is a Blood Cancer How is it Different?
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