Uryd Salas Rojas was at work in 2021 when she felt sharp pains in her stomach. It got so bad that she took herself to the hospital. “I couldn’t tolerate the pain anymore,” she says. “I thought it was a stomach hernia.” She was sent for an abdominal x-ray.
Born and raised in Columbia, without a support system nearby, Uryd was alone when she learned she had ovarian cancer that had spread to the surrounding area, including her stomach.
“In that moment, I felt like I wasn’t going to survive this,” Uryd says. “It hurt to think about all the hair I was going to lose.” But her BMC team, including oncologist Dr. Lauren Oshry and gynecologist Dr. Stephen Fiascone, felt optimistic that she would have success with surgery and targeted chemotherapy.
Uryd agreed to undergo surgery to remove her ovaries and uterus, as well as the tumors in her stomach. “When I woke up, I remember the nurse telling me I no longer had cancer,” she says. “I was so happy they got it all out!”
The next step was chemo — six five-hour treatments over the course of four months. After the first treatment, Uryd’s legs and joints hurt so intensely that she couldn’t sleep. Then, her hair started to fall out.
Discouraged, she told her care team that she was done with treatment. “Lo siento, lo siento,” she apologized in Spanish. She started to cry. In a moment Uryd will never forget, Dr. Fiascone hugged her tightly for a long time. “He told me, ‘We just started this battle together, and it’s going well. I know you are depressed, but you are going to those chemo appointments and you are going to get better.”
With the support of her doctors and a therapist, Uryd got ready to fight. It wasn’t easy, but she went to every chemo appointment after that, and took two years of chemo pills. “I kept saying, ‘I can do it. I have to do it,” Uryd says. She made herself soothing juices and broths and sang, danced, and did her makeup every day to raise her spirits. Her joints hurt often, but she kept going.
Now cancer-free, with a new job and a full head of hair, Uryd reflects on her journey: “My doctors were willing to fight for me, so I had to learn to fight for myself. They tell me I’m a brave warrior.”