Shushan Hovsepyan: Finally got my hands on the wonderful book Nella Terra di Mezzo

Shushan Hovsepyan posted the following on LinkedIn:

“Yesterday I finally got my hands on the wonderful book Nella Terra di Mezzo by Andrea Ferrari and Fedro A. Peccatori!

These words hit hard:

‘La vita di chi, nel mezzo del percorso della scuola superiore, si è ritrovato all’improvviso a dover sostituire i compagni di classe con quelli di corsia, l’ansia per il primo bacio con l’ansia per l’esito di una TAC (la tomografia assiale computerizzata) o di una risonanza magnetica. O la vita di chi, appena assunto, vede dissolversi il lavoro dei suoi sogni – quello per cui ha sgobbato tanto all’università – per colpa del lungo e difficile percorso di chemioterapia a cui deve sottoporsi. O, ancora, la vita della giovane mamma, alle prese con la necessità di rivelare ai suoi bambini che sarà costretta ad assentarsi per un po’, perché il trapianto di midollo osseo le imporrà un prolungato, delicatissimo ricovero.’

The life of someone who, in the middle of their high school journey, suddenly finds themselves replacing classmates with fellow patients in the hospital, and the anxiety over a first kiss with the anxiety over the results of a CT scan or MRI. Or the life of someone who, just after starting their dream job — the one they worked so hard for in university — sees it slip away because of the long, difficult path of chemotherapy. Or the life of the young mother who must tell her children that she’ll be away for a while because a bone marrow transplant requires a long, hospital stay.

These stories show the tough emotional and physical challenges patients face, far beyond just the medical side. They remind us how important it is to offer care and support for the whole person, not just the disease.”

Shushan Hovsepyan is a pediatric oncologist and adjunct assistant professor at the Yerevan State Medical University. Currently, she is the Editor-in-Chief of OncoDaily Medical Journal.

She completed her clinical fellowship at the National Institute of Cancer in Milan, Italy and at the St. Anna Children’s Research Hospital in Austria Furthermore, she held a research fellowship position at the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer in Brussels, Belgium. She is a former co-chair of the SIOP Global Health Network Education and Training Working Group.