With systemic lupus erythematosus leading to aseptic necrosis of the femoral head, Nguyen Thi Bich Diep, runner-up of the University of Natural Sciences (Vietnam National University, Hanoi), now continues her fight against illness with the help of a crutch.
In Block A of the Allergy and Clinical Immunology Centre of Bach Mai Hospital, Nguyen Thi Bich Diep (Trieu Son, Thanh Hoa) walks haltingly on crutches. Around the 19-year-old girl, many patients with severe lupus have swollen faces and peeling skin.
Having had systemic lupus erythematosus since grade 12, Bich Diep still passed the university entrance exam with 28 points, as runner-up of the University of Natural Sciences (Vietnam National University, Hanoi). Becoming a student in the Talented Bachelor of Biology class, with a packed timetable, she is quite tired but still happy to be at the lecture hall.
Diep lives in the dormitory, with classmates helping her, so her mother does not have to pack up and come to Hanoi to look after her daughter. Lupus forces her to be careful about what she eats, so she is losing more and more weight, though her smile never fades. The hardest thing is the classroom on the fifth floor, with no lift, so on many cold days, when her arms and legs ache, she has to hold onto the stair rail or cling to a friend’s shoulder for them to help her up.
Before Tet, Diep felt pain in both thighs but still thought it was joint pain, so she tried to keep her body warm. The cold winter winds of Hanoi made her cough and run a fever constantly. After Tet, Diep tried to attend the first class of the new year. That day, her legs were utterly exhausted and her body ached, but she still forced herself to walk from the bus stop back to the dormitory. When she got to her room, she could not lift herself up; even the slightest movement hurt, so she had to be admitted to hospital first thing the next morning.
When the doctor concluded that Diep had aseptic necrosis of the femoral head, she calmly asked for more information about the illness. Knowing there was no way to cure it, only to slow the process, Diep told herself she must pull herself together and keep fighting.
Her smile has never faded since the day she learned she had lupus.
“Now my femoral head has only just begun to necrose. When I move on crutches, the weight of my upper body is partly shifted onto the crutches, easing the load on my legs. When the femoral head has fully necrosed, the doctor will operate to replace it with an artificial femoral head, but its lifespan is not long, lasting from 20 to 30 years,” Diep explained.
Dr Pham Huy Thong, Deputy Director of the Allergy and Clinical Immunology Centre, Bach Mai Hospital, who treats her directly, often encourages Diep to try to use crutches. “Whether or not to operate still depends on the patient’s health and the process of necrosis. The encouraging thing is that Bich Diep smiles a lot and always keeps an optimistic spirit throughout her treatment,” Dr Thong said.
The fight against lupus and to slow the necrosis of the femoral head of the runner-up now has the addition of the crutch her mother has just bought her. Every day, Diep still walks out of her ward by herself and goes up and down the stairs, painful as it is. Diep also plans that when she leaves hospital she will buy a bicycle and invite her roommate to ride together. The two of them carrying each other to class will be less tiring.
In the cramped hospital, where sometimes four people share a bed, the female student has to sleep under the bed to make room for a pregnant patient. As a result, the next day Bich Diep coughed until she lost her voice. “At least I still often get to lie on a bed; I only feel sorry for my mother when she comes here to care for me, because every night she has to spread out a blanket and sleep on the cold ward floor, as the hospital has no space,” Diep said sadly.
Doctors and patients in this ward all know the short-haired girl with the dimpled smile who talks and laughs all day. Diep said that everyone lying here is seriously ill. Many people are mentally broken because their husbands and families treat them coldly. There is a child who has been in hospital for a long time and has never been seen to smile. Diep feels her own situation is better than others’, perhaps because she is more optimistic.
Bich Diep in her early days as a new student. She shared: “There is still much ahead in life to discover; I have never stopped hoping for the future”.
Diep said that her father texts her encouragement every day, and his daughter describes him as very “sentimental”. Her father does not dare to call, for fear that loving his daughter will make him cry again. Her homeroom teacher often takes her pupils for check-ups. Her kind class monitor sometimes drives her back to the dormitory after class. Classmates come to visit her in hospital, and have even planned to form a “special task force”, assigning three male classmates to carry her up the stairs to the fifth floor if Diep happens to be unable to walk.
She has never cried over the pain of her illness, but the other day, when she called home, Diep burst into tears on learning that her younger brother was not concentrating on his studies. Diep confided that the person who has inspired her most during this time is the young science talent Do Duy Hieu. “Mr Hieu is a fellow native of Thanh Hoa who lost both legs in an accident, yet still graduated with excellent grades and became the top graduate of the University of Natural Sciences. He went to the lecture hall on crutches for four years; I think I can do the same. No success is ever laid out on a bed of roses,” Diep shared.
Mentioning her academic results, Diep is a little sad that after the first semester of her first year she was only ranked as good. Diep has set herself the goal of making a comeback in the second semester. “With crutches, I will manage on my own. I’m a university student now, so how can I depend on my parents for ever? When my arms and legs recover, I’ll be unbeatable. Anyone who wants an arm-wrestling match with me, come on in,” Diep joked.
Hearing her daughter speak, Ms Ngo Thi Huong said: “This girl is very stubborn; since learning she was ill, she has never cried. Many times she even encourages her mother back, saying that when she leaves hospital her mother must go home at once, as she has her crutches to look after her,” Ms Huong said, her eyes filling with tears.
According to vnexpress.net