17-year-old boy was diagnosed with a rare cancer: this was the symptom that alarmed him

Santiago Andrada , 17 years old in May 2023, woke up in the middle of the night with severe pain in his stomach.

Although he had a football training session scheduled for that day, upon arrival he notified his technical director that he would not be able to carry out his usual activities.

As the days went by, the discomfort persisted, so she went to the emergency room at the Police Hospital, where she was prescribed drops to relieve the symptoms. However, the pain did not go away. When she noticed that the problem continued, she returned to the hospital for a new check-up.

During this period, the abdominal pains increased in intensity, so the doctors ordered two tests: a blood test and a CT scan . When her mother received the results of the blood test, she noticed that the values ​​did not correspond to those of a person in normal conditions. “The blood test was at six in the morning, and the CT scan was to be at six in the evening.”

The CT scan results brought unexpected news: there was a tumor in his intestine, so he had to be admitted immediately to the Intensive Care Center. The information was difficult for him to assimilate. “I thought I would have to stay one night, and that I would return home the next day,” said the young man. However, the final diagnosis confirmed that he suffered from Burkitt lymphoma, a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma that grows rapidly.

Facing a serious illness is a strong shock, something that in his case was accentuated because his mother avoided sharing with him all the details of the diagnosis so as not to cause him more anguish. What he thought would be a single night in the hospital turned into nine days, some of which he spent without being able to sleep due to the pain. While waiting for the results of a biopsy, which could take up to a month, his mother looked for alternatives to speed up the process. In a twist of fate, his sister mentioned the situation at work, and someone told her about a foundation.

After contacting the organization, he was accepted into their treatment program. “I turned 18 in November, but at that time – June 2023 – I was still a minor, and they admitted me,” he said.

The treatment began with a new admission to the Intensive Care Centre, where he received intravenous chemotherapy. “I was still very nervous, and the chemotherapy treatment began.” As the procedure progressed, he noticed significant physical changes. “I lost hair, eyebrows, weight… I lost up to 20 kilos. I was so weak that I would wake up and fall asleep again 15 minutes later.”

The side effects were not just physical. “I was very down.” The loss of muscle mass and energy affected his mood , which altered the way he related to those around him.

After three weeks, he was transferred to another section of the hospital for recovery. Although there seemed to be some improvement, his immune system was weakened, leading him to contract chickenpox and pneumonia , forcing him to return to intensive care. “It was a very tough week.”

During his time at the foundation, he observed the reality of other children and adolescents facing complex illnesses. “But I made a lot of friends. Some my age, some older, some younger, and we still see each other.” Now, with his recovery underway, he says that his perspective on life has changed. “Now I feel very well, and I have opened my eyes. I worry less about some things, and I don’t have as much anxiety as before. I express myself more, because before I was shy and isolated myself. Now, it’s the opposite. I realized that if you don’t have health, everything else doesn’t matter.”

*This content was rewritten with the assistance of artificial intelligence, based on information from El País, and was reviewed by a journalist and an editor.