Christen Nino De Guzman knew she was sick.
The 21-year-old student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln slept day in and out and missed classes because she felt so tired. She assumed she had the flu.
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Christen Nino De Guzman |
A difficult diagnosis
She soon ended up in an emergency room and was given antibiotics for bronchitis but she just got sicker.
After she returned home the summer, she went to the hospital again. This time tumors were discovered in her abdomen but after two weeks of tests, a definitive diagnosis hadn’t been reached.
“Meanwhile, my stomach was blowing up like I was seven months pregnant,” she said.
The right docs for the job
Nino De Guzman was transferred to UNMC’s hospital partner, The Nebraska Medical Center, where a team of doctors quickly took to her case.
“Within a day or two, they told me I had a type of non-Hodgkins lymphoma called Burkitt’s lymphoma,” she said. “I remember one of the ER doctors telling me they thought it was stage four, but he said ‘I think we can cure this.’
“I clung to those words for the next four months.”
In the right hands
The kind of lymphoma Christen had requires aggressive chemotherapy, can be extremely difficult to diagnose and can be confused with other kinds of lymphoma, said Philip Bierman, M.D., professor of hematology/oncology at UNMC.
“Patients like Christen should be treated at a place that has the experience with the chemotherapy that’s required for this lymphoma,” he said. “In this part of the country, we probably have the most experience with it.”
A lot to be grateful for
After several rounds of intense and complex chemotherapy, Nino De Guzman was recently declared cancer-free. She just returned from a trip to New York City and plans to compete for Miss Nebraska USA next year.
“I feel so thankful to live so close to the number one hospital in the world for treating my kind of lymphoma,” she said. “This will definitely be a special Thanksgiving for my family and me.”