Writer Suleika Jaouad Says ‘It’s Possible’ to Reframe A Cancer-Related Hospital Stay & See it as ‘A Sanctum of Reflection and Solitude’

Jaouad, who is also the partner of musician Jon Batiste, had a bone marrow transplant and is also undergoing chemotherapy to treat her leukemia. Leukemia is a type of blood cancer that develops when the body produces a large amount of abnormal white blood cells, which prevent the bone marrow from producing any other type of cell, like red blood cells and platelets.

In a beautiful, moving post shared to Instagram, Jaouad writes about her hospital stay, and how she’s been able to mentally reframe the stay in her small room.

She writes, “Not long ago, a beloved friend texted me some wisdom from the spiritual teacher Ram Dass.’What's the difference between a prison and a monastery?’ Dass would ask. The answer: ‘Almost nothing. Both are filled with people who are alone in their cells all day, far from the world. The difference is that for the monks it is heaven, for the prisoners it is hell.’ This resonated with me here in my hospital room, which I find to be a strange blend of the two….”

 

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A post shared by Suleika Jaouad – سليكة جواد (@suleikajaouad)

She continues, “I've learned Dass's implied lesson through experiencelearned that it's possible to transform this cell to a sanctum of reflection and solitude. How? By looking around not with the eyes of someone who is facing death, but someone who is newly born. I have to be astonished by this tiny, often grim world. To see even the smallest details as inherently interestingas beautiful, or absurd, or even uproariously funny.

This is not some simplistic "change your mind, change your life" solution. I can't opt out of my corporeal reality. So I have to learn to be in great pain and, at the same time, to find some small respite. I can't wait for dreamy, poetic moments of inspiration (as when the above imageof a roseate spoonbill holding me in an inflatable lifeboatoccurred to me), but work very hard to seek them anywhere and everywhere I can…”

Jaouad is a role model for people struggling through a cancer battle, showing others how it’s possible to see struggle from a different perspective as she does amid her leukemia battle.

Dr. Nina Shah, a SurvivorNet adviser and hematologist at the University of California San Francisco, explains in an earlier interview how to best understand leukemia. "One cell got really selfish and decided that it needed to take up all the resources of everybody else, and in doing so, took up space and energy from the rest of the body," Dr. Shah says.

"In general having a blood cancer means that your bone marrow is not functioning correctly," she explains. "And when your bone marrow doesn't function correctly it means that you can have something happen to you like anemia. Or you can have low platelets, which makes it possible for you to bleed easily. Or your immune system is not functioning correctly."

What is a Bone Marrow Transplant?

Jaouad also had a bone marrow transplant for treatment. A bone marrow transplant is a treatment used for some cancers, like leukemia. It replaces bone marrow with healthy cells; it is also called a "stem cell transplant."

In a previous interview, Dr. Caitlin Costello, a hematologist-oncologist at UC San Diego Health, says, "The things we consider for patients who may need an autologous stem cell transplant is number one their disease."

Dr. Costello explained that a stem cell transplant is more effective for certain diseases. "There are some diseases for whom this works better than others," she said. "It's most commonly used in relapsed diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, but there are other lymphomas, mantle cell lymphoma for whom which patients oftentimes get and I'll autologous stem cell transplant as soon as they achieve remission. Or something close to it."

Is a Stem Cell Transplant Right for You?

Art As Comfort through Cancer

Jaouad turns to art and writing through her leukemia battle. Speaking in an earlier interview with NPR, she spoke about how writing helped her with her cancer when she was young. “Journaling became the place that I was able to find a sense of narrative control at a time when I had to cede so much control to others,” she says. “It became the place where I began to interrogate my predicament and to try to excavate some meaning from it.”

Related: How I Made It Through Cancer: Painting & Dreaming

Some people also use art to handle feelings of grief after suffering a cancer-related loss. Whenever and however you turn to art, its healing benefits in terms of mental health are well-documented and substantiated.

In fact, Very Well Mind reports that a 2016 study published in the Journal of the American Art Therapy Association says that less than an hour of creative activity can reduce stress and have a positive effect on your mental health. And that's true regardless of artistic experience or talent, the author notes.

Music and Art Reflecting Your Cancer Journey

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