The happiest person

In a coma, Alexei Mikhailov "explained how and what to live." So he now lives. But the tests on the way were serious

Barley

Four years ago, Alexei Mikhailov, a 34-year-old engineer-projector atomic stations, jumped on the right eye. It was in April. Alexey just returned with his wife from vacation in Tunisia and did not pay much attention to barley: think, acclimatization. Then the eyelids were inflated, I had to go to the clinic. The therapist appointed anti -inflammatory. The pills did not help - then the dermatologist removed barley. Hystology showed an “inflammatory pseudo -pupport”, and the doctor dismissed: “This is not serious.” During the month, the pseudo -poucoule grown onto an eyebrow and forehead. Alexei shows a selfie on the smartphone - on the screen a bearded man, his cheeks are noticeably larger than that of the current Alexei, a swollen eye and forehead.

Alexey photo: Evgenia Zhulanova for TD

In this form, Alexei arrived at the first St. Petersburg State Medical University named after I.P. Pavlov, and from there he was sent to the clinic of the research of children's oncology, hematology and transplantology named after R. M. Gorbacheva. They saved him there. It turned out that the tumor was not a “pseudo” at all, but the real non-Knekhkino T-cell lymphoma of the third stage. It seems that Alexei acted quickly, but cancer - even faster, it has already spread throughout the body.

“I was lucky that the tumor had an external manifestation in the form of barley,” Alexey says calmly. -Thanks to this, the diagnosis was made more or less on time. Although they warned that the form is aggressive and everything could end within a year. ”

Alexey photo: Evgenia Zhulanova for TD

Alexei was not afraid to die. Not because the most courageous, but because there was no time: “You just don’t have time to be afraid: many medical procedures. You begin to be afraid after recovery. The fear comes that the disease may return. ”

"Pretty difficult period"

There were really many procedures: in six months five courses of chemotherapy. Alexey describes chemistry briefly and accurately: "Hard." Due to hormonal therapy, which is carried out in parallel, Alex gained thirty kilograms. In confirmation of their words, another selfie shows. It has another another Alexei - a bald "pitching" weighing 110 kilograms.

After chemistry, they made autological bone marrow transplantation. This required a medicine worth more than 200 thousand rubles. The Advita charity fund helped to collect money, about which Alexei was told in the Gorbacheva Research Institute. The case turned out to be very atypical: that the lymphoma manifested itself on the face, both in aggressive form, and in the speed of development. Therefore, the transplanting of their own stem cells was not enough. They began to look for a bone marrow donor.

Alexey photo: Evgenia Zhulanova for TD

The Russian bank did not have a suitable candidate. But in the international register, a 18-year-old guy from Germany was quickly found genetically compatible with Alexei. Then everything rested on money: it was necessary to collect almost 1.5 million rubles. Own accumulations came in handy, financial assistance from the employer helped very much-Alexei works in an organization called NPIIT (East European Head Research and Design Institute of Energy Technologies). But there was still not enough money. The rest of the amount - and this is half a million - again helped to collect the Advita fund. “Everything turned out thanks to the fund,” Alexey does not tire of repeating.

Before the transplantation, a course of high -dose chemotherapy was still to undergo a transplant. During this procedure, the patient’s own bone marrow completely dies. “A rather difficult period,” Alexei commented again restrainedly.

Alexey photo: Evgenia Zhulanova for TD

The operation was done on July 4, 2018. There is a theory that the DNA of the bone marrow donor affects the patient's body up to the appearance of external resemblance. According to the rules, the meeting between the donor and the recipient is possible two years after the transplant (if both want this meeting). Alexey wants and waits. He has a remission just two years, and there is already changes.

“My blood type has already changed. Gradually become another person. ”

"I would not be here"

Speaking, Alexei is often interrupted in a cough. And also confused in the dates. There is an explanation for both.

“After transplantation, I began to recover, gain weight. And everything would be fine if I had not gone to the country to a friend to celebrate his birthday. He played the guitar all night and sang songs. It was November. I caught a cold and grabbed the acute spenoiditis (inflammation of the mucous membrane of the wedge -shaped sinus of the nose. - P Rom. TD ), the temperature rose above forty. I was hospitalized, prescribed a powerful course of antibiotics. ”

In order for the body to concentrate on recovery, the doctors went to extreme measures: for a day they sent the guitarist to an artificial one. Inflammation was cured, the temperature was shot down. But coma had a side effect.

Alexey photo: Evgenia Zhulanova for TD

“When I was taken out of a coma, I did not remember anything. He did not recognize his parents, his wife, nobody at all. I forgot that I had oncology. Olga Vasilievna, a psychologist from the clinic and a wonderful woman, told me the whole story in a new way. ”

The memory was restored by small pieces during the year. “Very cool sensations when you find out about yourself some things. For example, that you can play the guitar. Without remembering the chords, you take the guitar - and the hands themselves begin to play, - remembering the guitar, Alex smiles. - I also studied again. But not because I forgot how, but because I was very weakened and lost to 57 kilograms. Based on his father’s shoulder, he slowly went again. If not for mom and dad, I would not be here. ”

Losses

A few months later, Alexei tried to return to work. But almost immediately he was again on a hospital bed. At the corporate party I ate something wrong and left with poisoning in the clinical infectious diseases hospital to them. S.P. Botkin. And there he picked up pneumonia and moved to the Alexander hospital. Due to the complication to the lungs, the reaction “transplant against the owner” (RTPH is one of the most serious complications of allogene bone marrow transplantation, in which donor T-lymphocytes attack foreign cells and tissues of the new host.-Approx. TD )-due to adhesions, the volume of the lungs decreased by 25 percent, the cough appeared. Here it was already necessary to actually learn to breathe again. Alexei could not bend to tie the laces - there was not enough air. Climbing the stairs to the third floor of Khrushchev, he stopped on each floor. It was difficult to even just walk. “From a lack of oxygen, you get tired not only physically. When you start to choke - this is stress, I had panic attacks, ”says Alexei. In order to breathe normally again, he accepts the expectorant pills and makes inhalation twice a day. For the full restoration of the lungs, it will take two years, no less.

Alexey photo: Evgenia Zhulanova for TD

This whole hospital history destroyed the main thing at that time was the family of Alexei, in which the adored son grew. Aleksei and now communicate with five -year -old Leo often. A divorce was issued with his wife in the summer, and Alexei moved to his parents in February last year. “ When he returned home after the hospital, he was waiting for me there - but it’s more correct to say, he waited - an absolutely alien person who didn’t even look at me,” he recalls.

Other ties, which seemed indestructible, also collapsed gradually. "There were many friends before the illness, but gradually I was left alone." Alexey shows another photo. From her, he looks with his eyes red from the vessels bursting with the “high-boom”.

“It’s scary to be next to a sick person, people begin to fear for themselves. This is not indifference, but animal fear. In addition, some think that cancer is contagious. ”

“A cousin said that she could not see me like that. Then she arrived, burst into tears and asked for forgiveness, ”says Alexey and adds:“ I also understood and forgiven all my friends. ”

Alexey photo: Evgenia Zhulanova for TD

Now Alexei has Elena. They studied together at the Polytechnic University, and their new, common story began recently. And in the future they plan to increase the composition of the family. “Fortunately, I took care of it. On the advice of the doctors before the start of chemotherapy, he handed over the material to the Bank of Sperm. Reinsured. If necessary, we will make artificial insemination, but naturally it is much better. ”

Light

“May the doctors forgive me, but if a person does not want to live and get better, then not a single chemistry or a single doctor will help him. I did not want to live such moments that I did not want to live. Everything that is given to us is given in the power and at the right point in time. ”

I listen to Alexei, sitting in the room next to him. Elena is sitting with us, Alexey plays the guitar, and Elena moves his lips silently, repeating the words of his song: “... you don’t remember how we met, how I gave you these flowers, you don’t remember how we kissed you, because it wasn’t you.” Despite the problems with the lungs, his voice is beautiful, deep. A few weeks ago, literally before quarantine, Alexei sang in front of an open microphone in the famous Petersburg clubs "Griboedov" and Fish Fabrique.

Alexei tells the whole history of his multi -layer suffering (he prefers to call them trials) quietly and concentrated. He tells what he saw in a coma - light, kindness, warmth, endless happiness: "They explained to me how and what to live."

Alexey photo: Evgenia Zhulanova for TD

- Now money, success has faded into the background. Only the purity of the soul is important. This feeling is very difficult to maintain in ordinary life. At first, it was even difficult for me to go to the store. Number of abundance of unnecessary products ...

- It may seem that I say as a madman, but I perceive the whole situation with gratitude. Masochism smells a little, right?

Alexey smiles and hugs Lena.

- When there is at least porridge without salt and a bed, you are a happy person. And if someone else loves you, you are the happiest person in the world.

At this difficult time for all the time of coronavirus pandemia, people with many other diseases still need your support. We ask you to help the Advit charity fund and continue to save the lives of children and adults with cancer diagnoses. So that they, like Alexei, become happier.