Preface
What is the meaning of life? This is an age-old but eternal question. When you and I were still worried about trivial matters, she had to face this most essential question mark in life. She is a 28-year-old girl, lively and cheerful, who grew up in an ordinary family and has ordinary dreams. Until one day, the diagnosis of lymphoma completely broke the original smooth trajectory of her life.
A piece of paper test results, heavy blows followed
One day in October 2018, 28-year-old Zhou Yunjiao was attending a regular meeting in the executive office of a company in Shanghai. Dressed in a professional suit, she chatted with the white-collar workers around her, and there was no sign that she was any different from ordinary office workers.
After the regular meeting, a phone call completely changed the originally stable trajectory of her life. Follicular lymphoma grade 2 stage 4 – this is the cold verdict of the doctor on the other end of the phone. In an instant, Zhou Yunjiao's 5-year survival rate of 50% was completely shattered. The life plan she once believed in, the ideal destination, came to naught at the moment of this vicious transmission.
She hurried back to the company with her emotions in her arms, and barely smiled under the concerned gazes of her colleagues. After the meeting, she ran to a familiar hot pot restaurant alone and ordered a table full of her favorite dishes. However, the food tasted like chewing wax in her mouth, and she chewed hard until she swallowed it with tears mixed with saliva, and she realized that she had no appetite.
Her husband never gave up and became her strong backing
What courage does it take for a person to face the fragility of life and death alone. Zhou Yunjiao immediately thought of divorcing her husband, not wanting to drag him down for the rest of his life. Unexpectedly, her husband Lao Tang contacted her as soon as possible, and firmly rejected her proposal. No matter birth, old age, sickness or death, he will accompany him, and this sentence has become her strong backing.
In fact, Old Tang is not a passerby. He and Zhou Yunjiao are high school alumni and college classmates, and the two have known each other for more than 10 years. As a lover, Lao Tang knows the cowardice and strength of his wife. In the face of outsiders, she always looks cold and calm; And to him, she will be coquettish and tricky without reservation. Old Tang remembered that once the two quarreled, Zhou Yunjiao ran to him with red eyes, didn't say a word, just stood dumbfounded. Old Tang's heart was like a knife, and he stepped forward in three or two steps and hugged her and comforted her softly. Maybe that hug many years ago has left a mark on Old Tang as "never give up in this life".
Therefore, when Lao Tang said that he wanted to go hand in hand with her, Zhou Yunjiao finally couldn't help crying. Perhaps what she was really afraid of was never the cancer itself, but the boundless loneliness in the face of a terminal illness. When you understand that this battle is destined to be fought alone, it is difficult for any external encouragement to make people truly brave. Therefore, the appearance of Lao Tang is her self-identified courage and her most solid spiritual fortress in the face of the unknown long battlefield.
If Lao Tang represents Zhou Yunjiao's inner courage in the face of illness, then her rationality and organization have become real external weapons. She used the logical thinking ability cultivated by her finance major to immediately draw up a detailed anti-cancer mind map, which was later posted on her official account.
This map plans the whole process of treatment and recovery in detail, from the raising of treatment costs, to the selection of treatment methods, to the consideration of quality of life, etc. Outsiders may take it for granted, but in fact, this clarity is based on her years of experience in fighting cancer.
Her mother developed breast cancer when she was in junior high school. The family was initially in a hurry, and the cost of treatment became the biggest headache. Fortunately, with the efforts of all parties, her mother eventually recovered, but that period of struggle has left an unforgettable mark on her heart. When she went to college, her father was diagnosed with rectal cancer. The second time, she was much calmer, working part-time after schoolwork, and using the money she earned to supplement her father's treatment expenses.
So, when the demon of the third cancer reached out to her, she had already retired, becoming the most rational and calm commander in this battle. The costs, risks, and alternatives of each stage of treatment are well understood. This mind map became her treatment plan, and it was even reprinted and liked by countless netizens on the Internet, which pointed out the right direction for those recruits who had just entered the battle.
Infect others with optimism, Brother Zhuzi's anti-cancer log
If rationality is Zhou Yunjiao's external weapon, then her optimistic and positive energy is the endless internal motivation at the bottom of the box. The official account "Brother Zhuzi" and the real identity behind it, Zhou Yunjiao, gradually became famous during her two-year anti-cancer career.
The ID "Brother Zhuzi" was chosen by her, which contains the meaning that she wants to become a "spiritual pillar" for many patients. At first, she only occasionally wrote some treatment experiences or life insights, but she didn't expect it to become popular on the Internet. Because in those words, what people see is not pessimistic and misanthropic, but a positive, optimistic, upward and benevolent spiritual outlook.
This is the deepest essence portrayal of Zhou Yunjiao, a girl. She has a cheerful personality and is enthusiastic and unrestrained, and never easily reveals her vulnerability and pain. Even during the most difficult chemotherapy response, she would force herself to get up and wash, apply nail polish to herself, wear a hat to cover her bald head, and then show a sunny smile to the camera.
At first, it was just to record his treatment process and share it with friends who had similar experiences. Who knows that netizens see something beyond the lines in her words and photos - the soul that does not give up her love and longing for life even in the face of terminal illness. Her positive and optimistic spirit has infected countless people, and her life diary, which was originally just a few words, has also accumulated hundreds of thousands of readings under the spread and attention of netizens.
Maybe many people will not really meet a "hero" or "saint" in their lives, but an ordinary and strong figure like Zhou Yunjiao (Brother Zhuzi) really appeared in the sight of desperate patients. She used her story to tell everyone that the power of life is more tenacious than any disease, and hope is everywhere, but sometimes you have to learn to find it with different eyes.
The tortuous treatment process, she got up again and again However, in this battle with the disease, Zhou Yunjiao did not go as smoothly as she imagined. The recurrence of lymphoma determines that her treatment path is more tortuous and long than that of any cancer patient. She uses her own language as a metaphor of "climbing up one bamboo knot at a time", but the ups and downs are far from being imagined.
She has undergone countless chemotherapy, targeting, and stem cell transplantation, and there is no lack of turbulence when it seems to be smooth sailing. The repeated side effects almost destroyed her still developing young body, but she still stood up again and again, as tall as the "pillar" in her official account ID. Even when her hair loss was at its worst, she insisted on hair growth treatments, just to be able to regrow her hair as soon as possible. When outsiders look at her photos, they can't imagine what kind of cruel life and death attack and defense are being staged in this body.
But she knows that playing a life-and-death game with life is never an easy and enjoyable journey. So she endured the burning pain of bottles of drugs entering the blood vessels again and again, the side effects of dizziness and nausea, and the disease back and forth. She also wondered if she really couldn't hold on in the middle of the night when the high fever didn't go away; She even witnessed the grief of her friend's death due to ineffective rescue in the ward. But she still survived, and told the world again and again with practical actions - how strong is the inner strength of an ordinary person.
Public welfare lecturers, supporting the day for patients
If her journey against cancer was just to add battlefield experience to herself, then her later volunteer work in palliative care was undoubtedly trying to support more patients. After her condition was temporarily controlled, she did not retire. Instead, she began to take the initiative to learn about aged care and palliative care, and joined a non-profit organization to help patients who were also experiencing life and death.
She will tell the audience in front of the camera about the various treatment techniques of lymphoma. She will give you the operation mechanism of science long-term care insurance in the article, and tell you how to make better use of this system. In particular, she will write a guide detailing the operation process of Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan Hospital, where she treats. All the experience and experience are in the hope of helping more "recruits" like her to avoid detours and overcome the disease as soon as possible.
epilogue
One of the groups she focuses on the most is the elderly who are unable to complete treatment on their own due to age or illness. She couldn't forget the old couple in the ward, who couldn't order takeout and didn't know the procedures of the ward, so they struggled to survive under the double pressure of illness and disability. Therefore, she will take the initiative to go to the ward to help them order food, and she will listen to their life stories in the quiet afternoon, even if it is only for a few hours, and try to bring them a little warmth and comfort as much as possible.