She was 23 years old, four months pregnant, and diagnosed with cancer.

The following year, they decided to live together and the desire to have a family became stronger. The pregnancy, Agustina says, was the most wonderful news for both of them.

During a few weeks of her pregnancy, Agustina presented flu-like symptoms. Mainly a persistent cough, intense back pain and exhaustion. Since at that time the first cases of Influenza A emerged in the countrywas hospitalized believing that this was her condition.

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“They took me to the clinic to check me out, they did tests on me and it was clear that I had fluid in my pericardium. It was complicated and they decided to leave me in Intensive Care for a few days. While I was hospitalized, they did a biopsy on one of the lymph nodes in my neck and they told me that I could have a lymphoproliferative disease, but that I had to wait for the results of the biopsy,” Agustina explained.

After 15 days, Agustina received the diagnosis: Stage IIB Hodgkin Lymphoma. “Hearing that she had lymphatic cancer was devastating. I had recently lost my dad to lung cancer and I was four months pregnant. My world turned upside down. It was very hard to assimilate it and prepare myself physically and mentally to go through it.”, he confesses.

Due to her condition, the doctors decided that she should undergo chemotherapy treatment, but at lower doses to affect the pregnancy as little as possible and reach term. Additionally, she was administered corticosteroids to strengthen Alma’s lungs, and she continued until she could give birth.

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“They told us there could be consequences. It was a pregnancy full of emotions and many times fear. Because Every application of chemo she gave me, she stopped kicking.. Sometimes a few hours, sometimes it was days. “It was distressing.”

At week 32, her baby’s growth stopped and a cesarean section was necessary. “Luckily, she was born stronger than all of us combined. She was tiny, 1,250 kilograms and 35 centimeters, small, but with the strength of a hurricane. She was born healthy, with her eyes wide open, she breathed on her own. A genius.”

During the first chemotherapy sessions, Agustina clung to her unborn daughter. She couldn’t give up and she dreamed of the opportunity to meet her, to look into her eyes, to hear her cry.

But when Alma was born and had to continue with the treatment, already with high doses, It was more difficult for him to face that part of the process that he still had to go through in order to be cured.

“I think I held on to life as best I could. “I didn’t want her to grow up without her mother and I didn’t want to miss out on watching her grow,” she stated.

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Agustina performed four chemotherapy protocols and several radiotherapy sessions. At that time they told him that the disease had disappeared and that an autologous bone marrow transplant was necessary to complete the treatment. In April 2012 he was permanently discharged.

“I try to be my best version every day. I think that a few years ago, when some wounds began to heal, I was able to start enjoying myself more. At first, it was difficult for me because the first two years of her life I was practically a stranger, I lived in hospitals and there was very little quality time that we spent together,” said Agustina, admitting that the baby had a hard time bonding with her. when everything had already happened.

Today, Agustina and her daughter are very close, They have the same character so they also have their differencesbut they talk about everything and support each other.

“We both play volleyball and we are fans of each other. She unites us with the same passion for music, she plays the piano, I play the guitar and we both sing. We are building a beautiful bond,” she explained.

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Some time ago, Agustina began to capture ’23 Aprils’ on her computer, a book in which she recounts in first person everything she experienced during those years. that were a burden on his back.

I had to channel all the accumulated anger and fear, as well as the wonderful experience of being Alma’s mother. According to the woman, it took her several years to finish it; she felt the need to write, even though the memory of her hurt her.

“Writing involved starting to unravel, let go and cry everything that I hadn’t cried for more than 10 years. I allowed myself to be a person and feel what I needed to feel. Writing was the beginning of my true recovery”, he confessed.

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Agustina remembers with amazement what she experienced 14 years ago. “Sometimes I don’t fall for everything that I’ve had to live through. Some things really seem like something out of a movie. But I think that what still continues to amaze me today is the ability we have to draw strength from where there is none, how strong we can be.” become and how much we have to learn,” he reflects.

The news of Hodgkin’s lymphoma came at a critical time in his life. Agustina, pregnant with his first daughter, had to face cancer treatment while protecting the life of her baby.

“This story brought me a lot of pain and was the hardest thing I had to live through, but it forced me to transform. It taught me about self-love, it made me ask myself questions that, perhaps, I would never have asked myself. It forced me to work to exhaustion with my emotions, learning to recognize them, to manage them. It taught me to see life in a different way, to value it and enjoy it above all things,” Agustina shares, showing how her struggle led her to an understanding. deeper of herself and of life.

To all people who are going through an oncological disease, Agustina sends a message of hope and encouragement.

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“May they never give up, even when everything seems to go out. That, even in the most intense darkness, there is always a ray of light. That they are not alone, that they allow themselves to be in every sense. To be strong is also to be Humans. That giving way to the emotions that go through us is a way to free ourselves and be lighter to face what we have to face. And that one does not know what it is to be strong until being strong is the only possible option. have to believe that there is always a new dawn.”