For Sanam Zomorodi, fire in the belly is a hard-won virtue \u2026 an innate spark stoked by winds of resiliency and brought to fiery fruition as life delivered the storms.<\/p>\n
Born in Iran, Sanam and her two older sisters might have been relegated to a life of insufferable oppression, but their mother stood firm on her refusal to raise daughters in a land that promised to diminish them; hence, in 1998, the Zomorodi family uprooted and moved to Alberta. If leaving behind a country of family and friends and arriving in Red Deer at the tender age of nine was difficult for Sanam, the now thirty-some year-old woman gives this era of her life a dismissive wave. Subsequent storms would top this one.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you know about Iran, you know why we are here and not there. I guess it wasn\u2019t easy but we managed. And hey! I got to be the first immigrant to deliver the valedictorian speech at my high school graduation,\u201d she said with a point of pride.<\/p>\n
Beyond high school, Sanam claimed overachievement as her saving grace \u2013 her way of standing her ground in the world and feeding the burgeoning fire in her belly. \u201cI was so focussed on my education I would often skip family gatherings and time with my fiends to study. I always had to do my best,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
And best she did. Sanam studied chemical engineering at U of C and went to work in the energy sector. When that didn\u2019t quite hit her \u2018best\u2019 mark, she applied and got accepted to do a master\u2019s degree in resource and environmental management at Dalhousie University. This was not her career endgame though \u2026 a lover of animals and nature, Sanam dreamed of becoming an environmental lawyer; an added means of standing her ground with literal invocation.<\/p>\n
But all of this forward motion came to a thundering halt when, at age 27, while finishing her master\u2019s degree and making plans to study law at U of C, Sanam became desperately unwell; most notably – unable to breathe.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt terrible. My breathing was so bad I could barely stand and walk. Even talking to my mom on the phone I had a hard time breathing. I thought I had just pushed too hard and this was a bad cold or maybe an infection. I needed to get some antibiotics to clear it up,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
At a medical clinic a doctor suggested a myriad of possibilities \u2026 stress, hard work, depression, sadness at being far away from home. In the end Sanam was sent away with Benadryl \u2013 an over the counter allergy medication, and a warning to go to hospital if her breathing got worse.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat night, I took the Benadryl and tried to sleep but I couldn\u2019t breathe. I felt delusional, like an out of body experience. In the middle of the night, I texted my sister and said \u2018I\u2019m going to the hospital\u2019,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
At the hospital Sanam once again found herself being shuffled into the realm of sickness oblivion. She heard things like \u201cyou\u2019re young \u2026 give it a week.\u201d While she had every intention of making it to her 8 AM class, Sanam found herself roused to a stricken state self protection and with all the breath she could summon, she told doctors she was not leaving without a chest X-ray.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s when they found the air sucking culprit.<\/p>\n
Sanam was alone when the doctors delivered the mind-blowing news that she had non-Hodgkin\u2019s lymphoma. A tumour pressing on her main artery was the reason she couldn\u2019t breathe. If she had left the hospital without the X-ray and made it to her morning class, chances are she would have suffered a massive heart attack \u2026 it was that close.<\/p>\n
Sanam was immediately thrust into treatment at Nova Scotia Cancer Centre and admitted to a heavily guarded ward with immune compromised blood cancer patients whose survival from stem cell transplants depended on a sterile atmosphere. Here she was completely isolated, alone and afraid.<\/p>\n
In the four weeks that followed, aside from an astute team of oncologists, radiologists, chemotherapy nurses, and so on \u2026 it was the hospital\u2019s \u2018Sunshine Room\u2019 that saved Sanam\u2019s life. Or at the very least, sheltered her from this storm.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Sunshine Room is like a micro Wellspring embedded in the hospital,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is this place cancer patients can go and get a massage or reiki after chemo treatment. You can do art, or take a yoga class \u2013 they even have a hair salon and wigs for after you\u2019ve lost your hair or had your head shaved,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
For Sanam, the Sunshine Room meant the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis should have been a horrendous experience \u2013 stuck in a hospital with cancer, far away from home, my whole life derailed. But for some reason it wasn\u2019t that bad. The Sunshine Room made such a huge difference. It gave me something to look forward to. A reiki treatment felt like fun. Going to the hairdresser felt like a treat. Even my mom could join for a massage.\u201d she said, adding. \u201cHonestly, if I didn\u2019t have that room right there in the hospital, I think I would have gone totally out of my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
Back in Calgary, Sanam continued with chemo and radiation, but she did not seek out supports outside of her family and friend circle. No longer held captive by hospital walls, Sanam felt a strong urge to return to \u2018real life\u2019 and that meant liberating herself from cancer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is how I am \u2013 it\u2019s the mindset I was raised with. A lot of middle eastern people don\u2019t talk about their feelings, so when I had cancer, even my mom didn\u2019t want to make a big deal out of it – like it was a cold that I could get over,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is why it was so important that I had the Sunshine Room when I was in the hospital. It was exactly the right thing at the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n
When treatment finished and cancer was pronounced at bay, Sanam returned to Nova Scotia and finished her master\u2019s degree, but her lofty ambitions for law school were dampened by the aftershock of cancer shaking her world. Instead, she returned to her engineering job in Calgary \u2026 the same job, but not the same Sanam.<\/p>\n
In the months that followed treatment, as Sanam coasted into her 30s and made it to her five-year cancer milestone, some things returned to \u2018normal,\u2019 but nothing will ever be the same.<\/p>\n
\u201cGetting cancer at such a young age really puts things in perspective. Before you get sick you think you can do anything you want. You think you have an infinite amount of time to be with the people you love. But you actually can\u2019t and don\u2019t. It can disappear overnight\u201d she said. \u201cI see everything differently now. I am a very different person. I know what matters and I don\u2019t have much patience or tolerance for things that don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
If the road forward is less than direct for Sanam, it doesn\u2019t seem to matter. She has found her solid ground and the courage to stand and be fiery on it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all get cards, and cancer was a card I was dealt. It changed me. Now I know the value of life.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Wellspring Alberta put out the call for volunteers to join its Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Roundtable, some of the pre-requisites were:<\/p>\n
Sanam Zomorodi answered the call and now proudly serves on this Committee. Here is her reflection of why and what it means to her:<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I thought of joining this committee, I knew there were a few ways I could contribute to the conversation, but for me, the most important was not as an immigrant, but as a person diagnosed with cancer and forced to stay in hospital. Being in hospital posed a significant barrier to accessing community-based supportive care. This would have been devastating for me if it were not for Wellspring-type services offered right in the hospital. I know there are many others who have experienced this total isolation in hospital and I want to provide a voice for them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sanam Zomorodi answered the call when Wellspring Alberta sought volunteers for its Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Roundtable. With firsthand experience as a cancer survivor, she recognizes the significance of accessing community-based supportive care while confined to a hospital.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7982,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8],"tags":[],"location":[],"class_list":["post-7790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-member-story","category-our-inside-stories"],"yoast_head":"\n