To our great regret, we discovered today on Vlad's mother's page «Today at 3:19 Vlad passed away». Thank you to everyone who helped Vlad!

"On Easter morning, May 1st, 2016 I woke up to a nagging pain in my leg... Nothing had ever foreshadowed trouble. For the past three years, I had been studying and working hard. I felt like I should accomplish everything in life: get an education, have a decent job, and a happy family. And that's why I always blamed any ailment on anything: lack of proper sleep, a weakened immune system... Just so it wouldn't occupy my thoughts and not distract me from the path to what I dream about. 

My leg hurt for a few days, but not severely — so much that I even got used to the pain. The only thing that was starting to bother me — was a small lump that had appeared in an inguinal lymph node. It was still growing slowly at the time, and my family assumed it was an inflamed lymph node or a lipoma. The matter didn't seem urgent to me, and the pain had subsided. However, I still made a decision: as soon as I got my paycheck, I'd go to the hospital and get checked out. But I didn't make it in time before my paycheck. I didn't make it in time.     —       13 June I woke up in horror: my leg had swollen overnight and turned into a giant. I couldn't feel my toes. And the lump, which had previously seemed like an inflamed lymph node, had turned into a large, hard lump. I urgently needed a doctor...

The surgeon examined my leg and referred me to a vascular surgeon, suspecting a thrombosis. The vascular surgeon in first referred me for a duplex examination, or, simply put, an ultrasound. It showed that the veins weren't great (due to the constant presence of the on my legs), but this wasn't the cause of the leg swelling. And they found an unknown substance in the left inguinal node. At the next day, I had a CT scan, which confirmed that it was not a regular inflamed lymph node, but a cluster of lymph nodes. And in the recommendations were: "Visit an oncologist and hematologist «.

Already at the next morning I was at the threshold of the Odessa Oncology Center. The surgical oncologist drained the fluid from the inflamed lump, and by lunchtime, I received the verdict: a cluster of blastoid cells in necrotic tissue. CANCER... The feelings that a person experiences at the moment when such a verdict is announced are very difficult to describe in words.

Despair and hope, great hope that this was a misdiagnosis... On the next day, they surgically removed a sample from my tumor and sent it for analysis. Immunohistochemistry was supposed to determine the type and  stage. And then — 14 days of waiting for results... Doctors warned that in any test there's always a small chance of error.

«30% people die not from cancer itself, but from an incorrectly diagnosed type of cancer, and, naturally, improperly administered chemotherapy in its treatment, so be sure to get tested elsewhere», — the doctor said.

Luckily, my mother has been living in St. Petersburg for several years. In while waiting for 14 days for the immunohistochemistry results from Kyiv, we decided to get tested there again. Dozens of doctors in St. Petersburg confirmed the diagnosis, which I received two weeks later and from Kyiv: Burkitt's lymphoma — a severe malignancy. CANCER.

At the moment I received the diagnosis, I no longer had the strength to fear. The tumor grew 100% every day. By the skin on my leg was breaking, the wounds were painful. No painkillers were helping. I was determined to fight! To fight for life!

Today I have already completed one chemotherapy treatment. And we have achieved the first good results. There's still a long way to go. But I am ready to go through it patiently and with full responsibility... I really want to live".

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