In 2011 I was 21 and in my third year of college. One night, I woke up to a pain in my arms that I figured was a strain and simply used creams and painkillers. But the pain kept getting worse and I couldn’t tell where the source of the pain exactly was.

So one day I was showering and as my hand came under my left armpit I felt a big, painful lump. Time stopped. My heart and brain froze. What was this? Yes, this is where the pain is coming from. I ran out of the shower calling my mother and screaming at the thought that this might be a breast tumor.

I went to a doctor who said that this might have been caused by a deodorant or perfume. I stopped using any chemicals and switched to organic soaps. The lump got bigger and more painful that the pain reached the smallest finger in my hand. My mother took me to Cairo to see a surgeon who couldn’t tell what this exactly was and said the case needed further investigation.

After a month of dreadful tests and visits to gynecologists and malignancy professors, I finally discovered that this is a case of the uncommon gland tuberculosis.

Immediate surgery was needed and I was terrified because I never had any surgeries nor even taken partial anesthesia.

The operation took four hours and the surgeon said because several nerves were wrapped around the gland and any mistake can result in three months of paralysis to my left arm, the surgery was a rather complicated one.

Luckily, the surgery went well but I needed nine months of treatment. I went into depression and lost many friends as I started creating a bubble to live in. I started gaining weight and couldn’t do anything about it, I had no energy to go for a run, I tried to play tennis but I failed to commit.

College wasn’t going to wait for me and I had finals coming up. I had not attended any lectures and basically knew nothing about what we’re supposed to study. Well, I did my best and passed very fairly. Good enough.

Months passed and one day I woke up and decided to stop the medication, that same day I was standing with my new group of friends and suddenly found myself wondering, “Who are these people? What the hell am I doing here?”

I called my best friend, Eiman, whom I hadn’t spoken with since I got sick. I told her I wanted to see her, Ayat, Nouran, and Mostafa; all my old friends.

And so I did. Then I moved to Cairo to work, I got back with the group of friends I belonged to and made new friends at the office.

Life was suddenly peaceful and pleasant. I was happy, I knew this is what I wanted. I turned 22 in February 2013. Work was fine and I had gotten a raise earlier: Nothing to complain about, finally.

Later that year, in April, I was involved in a car accident on my way to work, broke my left wrist and was in a cast for six weeks.

At the end of April, I felt so tired all the time, I couldn’t walk or talk much. I was always exhausted.

Before I went to sleep one night, I was washing my face and, as I looked in the mirror, I found a small lump in my neck under my ears.

Oh no, not again. Panic hit the ceiling. I didn’t tell my mother, I went straight to the same surgeon and his assistant—god bless them.

The assistant asked for a full body CT Scan, he thought that this might be an inflamed gland and there might be others in other parts of the body.

What came up in the scan was unimaginable, uglier than expected. A three-kilos-heavy ovarian tumor called Teratoma Dermoid Cyst. It had covered the entire left ovary and dissolved it. It is a rare case that I was probably born with.

Once again, immediate surgery was needed. Depression hit me instantly even before the surgery. I asked why should I have this operation since I wasn’t in any pain. What I didn’t know was that if it were left any longer, the whole uterus would have to be removed.

Surgery, post surgery pain, trouble sleeping, trouble going to the bathroom, intensive bleeding, trouble walking: It was hell. I had an eight-centimeter cut in my stomach which basically turned my life into nothing but laying down in bed. But I was thankful we got that “thing” out of me.

A month later I got better and went back to work. Depressed and tired, I found that they had hired someone as my manager and did not involve me in a project that I was working on long before I got ill. I was heartbroken as I loved my workplace and everybody in it. I love my job and the office is my comfort zone.

At first, I couldn’t get along with the new manager, 19TwentyThree’s co-founder Hadeel El Deeb, and I was so stubborn to try to accept it. As the days passed I felt that I can actually learn a lot from Hadeel. So yes, I gave myself a chance and it wasn’t long before we knew how to get along. Hadeel has been my manager for eight months and I came to consider her not only a mentor or a manager, but also a sister. And as for that project, I handled it from A to Z and it was a success.

Life became better again and I had nothing worrying me.

The turnaround in my life started when I went for an unexpected holiday to Hurghada. For me, this was the best time I had as far as best could go.

January 2014 came along and I stared throwing up three or four times every single day. I was tired, exhausted, sick and very, very angry and aggressive. I didn’t know what was happening again. I went to get a sonar and an endoscopy and it turns out I have Diaphragmatic Hernia which is a defect or hole in the diaphragm. My stomach would get twisted into the esophagus. Mild pain, but more of discomfort, vomiting and medication all the time before and after eating. I didn’t want to go out. I would go to bed early and sleep for 10 or 11 hours on work nights. I was drained.

I’m getting better now.; turning 23 this February.

I realized I am very lucky and blessed to have a family who stood by me every second of the way and through all this Daddy, Mummy, Jasmeen, Rehan, Ezz, and now baby Rasheed were there to cheer me up.

I also came to realize how blessed I am to have great friends: Evine Wahby, Ramy Mahfouz, Eiman El Arab, Ayat Aboul Ela, Nouran Nour El Din, Amr El Rafei, Ramy Hefny, Shereen Abou Youssef, Ahmed El Assal, Hany Berty, Hadeel El Deeb, Mary Shawkat, Mostafa Abouhussein, Ahmed Zakaria, Walid Dawa and Sherif Ezzat.

I learned so much from all I’ve been through, I learned that we waste our time feeling sad, and angry and crying at things that don’t really matter. I learned that time is very precious and family is even more precious.

I learned to get past my frustrations and give people a chance and allow them to be there for me when I need them the most. I learned that no matter how tough my experience was, the gentle hands of a friend or a family member makes all the difference in the world.