At 21, she beat cancer and tells about it on TikTok: “We don’t come out unscathed”
By Manon Loubet
Published on
“I was 18, I was enjoying life, I was far from imagining what was happening in my body at that time,” says Élise, a student from Rouen (Seine-Maritime)in a video that exceeded million views on TikTok.
It all started with a ganglion near the right ear in June 2019. “I realized it while heckling on the bed with my boyfriend. I fell and when I got up, I felt this ball. At first, my doctor had attributed this to the stress of the baccalaureate because I am of a stressed nature, but the more time passed, the more I was in pain. »
“I felt like I was in a bad movie”
After multiple examinations, the bad news fell on a fine day in August 2019. Élise hodgkin’s lymphoma, stage 2 cancer of the lymphatic system which had spread everywhere, in the neck, but also in the heart, in the liver and in the mediastinum, region of the thorax located between the two lungs.
She remembers it like it was yesterday:
I was with my mother in the doctor’s office when the latter told me that I was going to have to do some products. I felt like I was in a bad movie. It’s as if someone had just told me that I was going to die. For me, cancer = death, especially since I had already lost loved ones to this disease. I slammed the door to his office, I left, I burst into tears.
On October 16, 2019, his sister’s birthday, Élise starts her first fruiting treatment. “I was enrolled in DUT marketing techniques at Pasteur in Rouen. I tried to do my first year in distance at the same time as my treatments but it was not possible, ”says the one who fought her disease like a real boxer.
A difficult treatment to bear
The producers follow one another and the products are very sick. “I was vomiting a lot, it was horrible. My body must have taken the treatment badly. In fact, chemo kills the bad cells but also the good cells, it’s super toxic… It’s as if you gave yourself a first hammer blow, then a second, then a third…” Élise loses her hair, has bruises everywhere… She can’t stand her image anymore, it’s hard.
Fortunately, she lives with her boyfriend in an apartment in Rouen and with his dog, Sky, a cross-staff boxer. “She is my saviour. It is thanks to her that I continued to go out a little during the treatments and that I walked several kilometers per weekend when my muscles were no longer there. »
Her lover stops his studies and his father his work for a year to accompany him during his certifications.
“In the beginning, I wanted to manage everything on my own, go to my chemos on my own, I’m quite a stubborn person and I didn’t want to bother my family with my problems. But when I went to my first chemo on my own, the caregivers at Becquerel almost argued with me! And they were right it’s too hard to live this alone… »
A night out like no other
In March 2020, just before confinement, comes the last advance. “At the end, I couldn’t take it anymore. And while it was totally forbidden, two days after my last chemo, I went to night clubs with my girlfriends until six in the morning. I drank and smoked and danced while I still had my pipe* in my arm in case I had a relapse. »
When the nurse arrived at her house the next morning to precisely check this pipeline, she had moved a little.
I went directly to Becquerel and there they removed my pipe much faster than expected. This club outing, even if I braved the bans and I could have caught the Covid, it’s the best idea I’ve had!
A few days later, France is confined. Élise, her lover and her dog will confine themselves to the Eure in Bernay, with her parents. “And there, I did my radiotherapy treatment. It was complicated because I had to go every day, for two weeks, to the Becquerel center for 15 minutes of rays. I was going back and forth in the day in an ambulance and I was sick as a dog. Like the chemo, I was throwing up my guts and I was in a state of fatigue…”
After-effects of treatment
The end of treatments comes in May 2020, just before Élise’s birthday, May 5. ” I have been in remission for over two years., I will be checked every six months in Becquerel. I’m fine, but I still have the scars of it all. I have a problem with my leg which makes it difficult for me to climb stairs, I have endometriosis, I lack concentration, I am very tired… We do not come out unscathed from all this.”
The year 2021 was dark for the young woman. The recovery of his DUT was complex. “I couldn’t concentrate anymore, when I took notes during class, I had the impression that the teacher was Eminem when he spoke. I felt useless but useless. I felt like I had gone stupid. While I have always been a good student, I have always had everything hands down: the patent, the baccalaureate, the permit…”
Élise also has the feeling of being a kind of freak with her classmates, “I was the one who had cancer, it was really not a pleasant feeling”. The young girl then sinks into depression, tries to do her year in distance but it’s complicated. “I didn’t have too many friends anymore, casually, the disease, it scared more than one. »
Videos to share your experience
Then, the Rouennaise makes a drastic choice. “I stopped my studies. At the same time, she embarks on face cam videos on TikTok in September 2022. And it’s a hit. She has 8,900 subscribers and her latest video exceeds one million views. “I started by talking about my illness from my couch. I wanted to show that even if it’s hard, I didn’t die of cancer. I wanted my experience to be useful. It would have helped me a lot to see videos like this during my treatment. I was only with older people, between 30 and 80 years old, in Becquerel, it would have done me good to see that I am not the only young person to be sick… ”
Élise has a lot of feedback, questions, benevolent messages, following her very touching videos. ” I made this disease a strength and I try to show it in my videos. I answer a lot of questions, I feel useful. Of course, not on the medical side, that’s not my role. Élise posts a video a day on TikTok and she is developing her Instagram account.
Today, with her pretty blond curls, her outspokenness and her smile clinging to her lips, Élise looks at ease in her baskets. With her boyfriend – who supported her in all these stages – and her dog, she went green in a house in Pavilly. And she resumed communication studies at the Normandie web school at Rouen. “It’s great, people are so caring there. On the other hand, I am always looking for a work-study company, because I will not be able to continue without. » To be fair.
* Route of administration for recovery treatment
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