Leukemia Leegebruch Berlin book oncology
lee fracture. The worst time of her life is 3.50 meters long. It hangs above the mirror in her room – as a necklace full of “beads of courage”. Each of the colorful pieces of wood represents a step in the intensive therapy. Every ECG, every anesthesia, every blood unit, every chemotherapy is lined up on the string like in a diary. Melina Coccejus hasn’t quite finished the chain yet, some pearls still have to be threaded. But much more important for her and her parents is that no more pearls are added. The road was long enough: In February 2021, the then 13-year-old was diagnosed: Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).
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It all starts with the left upper arm. Sometimes the pain is so bad that Melina cries at night. At some point, you start to feel weak and listless, and the mercury in the clinical thermometer climbs to 39.3 degrees Celsius. Emergency room, pediatrician, orthopedist – after all, Melina is examined in the children’s oncology department at the Berlin-Buch Clinic. A bone marrow puncture – Dad Stefan Coccejus is there – brings certainty.
The doctors and nurses give the Coccejus family hope
It is February 25, 2021, around 3 p.m. when the call comes to mother Saskia Coccejus. She works as a police officer in Berlin, section 12. “I left the service immediately and went to the hospital,” she recalls. And further: “I thought that was Melina’s death sentence. My cousin contracted leukemia at the same age and died from it,” says Saskia Coccejus. And Melina: “I was afraid that my hair would fall out,” says the teenager.
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Melina is treated in the children’s cancer ward for ten months.
© Source: private
But the doctors and nurses take good care of the family and give hope. Almost 90 percent of those affected, i.e. the relevant message, survive the disease. Melina starts intensive therapy, she becomes part of a study. Mother Saskia Coccejus takes sick leave, her husband Stefan, also a police officer, continues to work and takes care of the second daughter Chaya (10).
The blood values decide, Melina’s therapy continues
So Saskia Coccejus has the full focus on Melina, spends many nights with her in the cancer ward for around 20 children in Berlin-Buch. She gets cortisone, countless medications. And within the first 33 days, twelve chemotherapy treatments are also pumped into Melina’s body. For this, she gets a so-called Hickman permanent catheter in an operation, which is inserted in the breastbone. “Sometimes it’s half an hour, sometimes two. The chemo was often spread over several days,” remembers Melina. At first she hardly dares to leave the room and sleeps a lot.
But then she accepts the situation and comes out of herself more and more. Melina is often out and about in the ward with the IV stand. There are televisions, consoles, playrooms, a physical therapy room – and many children who are just as plagued by cancer as Melina. After the first 16 days, the girl can go home to recover – for two weeks. “Sometimes we only had to come in for an injection or a blood sample afterwards,” says her mother. Depending on how the blood values develop, treatments and stays in the hospital are adjusted.
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Melina is still waiting for her braid in her room today
After a good month, one thing is certain: the chemotherapy is working well, and the leukemia cells in the blood are disappearing. And so it becomes clear relatively quickly that Melina does not need a bone marrow donor. But the side effects are severe, her hair is falling out. She doesn’t wait until the end, but shaves her head. The girl still awaits her braid in her room today. The bald head isn’t the worst though. “Sometimes Melina threw up so badly that she was severely malnourished and had to be fed artificially,” recalls Saskia Coccejus, who, as always, volunteered to organize the Luchwiesenfest in Leegebruch that year with her husband Stefan – despite everything.
The final farewell drop is peppered with balloons and gifts.
© Source: private
After about three months at the ward, Melina met Frida from Fürstenwalde, who has bone cancer. “We became friends, most of us were in the same room. She was so positive, she didn’t care. She was my role model,” Melina recalls. There are special moments when the TV star Jorge González works in children’s oncology for four weeks for the Sat.1 report “The lifeblood task – celebrities in care”. Melina is doing really badly again at this time because of the chemos. “When Jorge came into the room, she beamed immediately,” recalls mother Saskia.
Today Melina is more often with her horse again
In November 2021, Melina is allowed to end the intensive therapy after ten months, since then she has been back at home in Leegebruch. Since the beginning of the new year, the teenager has been attending the Goethe High School in Kremmen again. Melina does not have to repeat the class, she was able to learn a bit during the therapy. After graduating in the tenth grade, the 15-year-old will do her vocational diploma. You could imagine earning your money in youth work one day.
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Melina (15) and Mama Saskia Coccejus look at the therapy book.
© Source: Enrico Kugler
Melina is now on maintenance therapy – to stop the cancer from coming back. Your muscles have broken down after the long therapy, the way to the old form is still long. Every evening Melina takes several tablets for the chemotherapy in small doses, then she goes straight to bed. “I always sleep over it, so I don’t notice anything,” says the girl. You still have to take the chemo pills until the end of February 2023, after which the two years of therapy will be over. The family has to wait a total of five years before Melina is considered healthy. Visits to the hospital are becoming less frequent. Melina is now more and more often outside with her horse, riding is her great passion. The whole family expects that the cancer will never come back.