CARBOPLATIN

Carboplatin: Can I say that if you’ve never heard of this word, you’re lucky?

We’d never heard of it until one day we came face-to-face with a huge mountain blocking our path: one morning, out of the blue, my husband woke up gasping for breath.

That was one of those moments after which your life is never the same again.

No coffee that morning, and above all, no “keep calm.”

Doctors, medications, hospitals,  appointments, tests, and one of the most daunting words of all: frightening, difficult, obscure.

Anger, fear, denial, exhaustion, pain.

And yet Massimo is facing it all head-on and has no trouble saying, “I have cancer.” 

Carboplatin is one of the weapons to fight it.

A medication, a liquid, a chemotherapy agent.

In the oncology ward, we’re meeting so many people, each with a different story, each sharing a different experience.

Intertwined destinies. 

Mixed reactions: some welcome and empathize, some withdraw into themselves, some say hello, some don’t even give a glance, some are completely bewildered, some act like they know it all, and there are even those who, despite everything, manage to smile. 

So, keep calm and one day at a time.