Everyone reacts to illness in their own way. For Carolina Ivascu, who has breast cancer, it is above all her gratitude towards the medical and administrative bodies that she wants to share, as well as a message of hope for those who are going through the same ordeal.
Every year, 3,000 cancers are discovered in Luxembourg and 18,000 people live with this disease according to the Cancer Foundation. Who doesn't know someone close to them, a parent, a friend or an acquaintance affected directly or indirectly by this disease? Carolina Ivascu, an occupational physician who has been converted to radiology and senology – the speciality that deals with breast diseases – started out as one of those medical staff who detected tumours before becoming a patient herself.
"It was actually through my infection with Covid that I discovered this cancer", says the elegant 50-year-old. "Last February, I was in isolation at my daughter's house in Belgium because I had Covid. It was a mild form which involved the upper respiratory tract but not the lungs. My breast became inflamed, red – which wouldn't necessarily have been the case if I didn't have Covid, it could have lingered without me realising it. My daughter took me to the emergency room. The same day, the diagnosis was made, and I saw an oncologist." That's why Carolina has been treated in this hospital in Ottignies, near Louvain-la-Neuve, and not far from her home in the canton of Redange. "When you are confronted with a serious diagnosis of a potentially fatal pathology and you are immediately taken care of by an oncologist, you tend to trust him completely. I didn't feel comfortable changing hospitals and transferring tests."
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