Working by the quiet, locked-down streets of SydneyFelix Laubi started to expertise shortness of breath.
The university scholar had been operating for the reason that starting of COVID restrictions, however by September 2021, the energetic 18-year-old needed to cease.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Falix Laubi speaks about Canteen on The Morning Present
For extra Well being & Wellbeing associated information and movies try Health & Wellbeing >>
And simply two months later, even small duties have been leaving him breathless and fatigued.
“I had a few shifts at work the place I felt too drained or too exhausted,” Laubi tells 7Life.
“I needed to go away early and go dwelling a few occasions in December.”
Laubi had no concept what was behind his signs and thought he had simply been working too laborious.
“Throughout that point I used to be working in pool servicing and I used to be energetic, I used to be up and about,” he explains.
“I by no means assumed it was illness. I assumed I used to be overworking myself.”
With 2022 quick approaching, and the world opening again up, {the electrical} engineering scholar was changing into increasingly enthusiastic about an upcoming journey to Switzerland.
However on Christmas Eve, Laubi’s signs started to deteriorate.
“I used to be particularly feeling worn down and exhausted,” he says.
“One among my household buddies actually inspired me, earlier than I get on an extended haul flight, to test that my lungs have been all good, and to go to the hospital and get an x-ray.”
Hospital
So late on December 24, Laubi went to the hospital, the place he had an x-ray, CT scan and ultrasound.
Early on Christmas morning, docs delivered the worst ‘current’ he might have obtained.
A mass “the scale of a big orange” had been present in his chest, spanning his coronary heart, chest and left lung.
It was almost certainly most cancers.
“It was a reasonably large shock,” Laubi says.
“There was positively a good bit of concern across the phrase most cancers.
“I considered myself as fairly wholesome and that (most cancers) did not align with how I had lived most of my life.
“I had no actual publicity to it earlier than. I did not know what it entailed.”
Laubi, alone in hospital due to the COVID restrictions, known as his household immediately.
“It was a tricky factor to relay, particularly being Christmas morning and the severity of the information,” he says.
He spent the following few days in hospital present process biopsies, and his journey to Switzerland was promptly cancelled.
Medical doctors found the mass had induced fluid to generate across the coronary heart, which was not working because it ought to.
“My resting coronary heart charge went from 51 whereas I used to be wholesome and operating, to 100 a minute whereas I used to be in hospital,” Laubi says.
Prognosis
At first, docs believed he had lymphoma and began him on high-dose chemotherapy in mid-January 2022.
“Each three weeks, I might go to the most cancers middle and would get pumped with poisonous medicine for a few hours,” he remembers.
“I used to be going to have six cycles of that which might have been for 18 weeks.”
However a PET scan in March decided that the most cancers was unresponsive to the therapy, and he was taken off chemotherapy after solely three cycles.
Shortly after, Laubi grew to become concerned in a analysis examine to find out the kind of most cancers he had.
And in Might, having simply turned 19, he was making ready for surgical procedure.
“The following logical step was to attempt a surgical procedure to take (the tumor) out,” he says.
However there was uncertainty surrounding the end result.
“The scans didn’t present clear boundaries of the place the tumor ended and the place my coronary heart began,” Laubi says.
“It was very a lot 50/50.”
Sadly for Laubi, surgeons have been unable to take away the tumor due to its place close to his coronary heart.
However quickly after the operation, he at the very least had a prognosis – the researchers had decided that his most cancers was a localized, stage three uncommon sarcoma known as inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor.
Remedy
In June 2022, Laubi, who had not had any therapy since March, discovered his tumor had grown – it was now roughly the scale of a European handball.
By now, he was feeling the worst he had felt, “not together with how I felt from chemotherapy or bodily from surgical procedure”.
“I could not stroll up the steps with out feeling fully breathless,” he says.
“And I wanted to take a seat down, and even lie down, as a result of I felt nauseous like I used to be going to move out.
“Or I might cough so laborious I might vomit.”
In July, Laubi was given low-dose chemotherapy in addition to a focused remedy by oral drugs.
“That was working for fairly some time and managed to get me to significantly better well being after my surgical procedure,” he says.
However over time, the therapy grew to become much less efficient.
“We explored (the concept of) one other surgical procedure however that did not come to be,” he says.
Late in 2022, it was determined that Laubi would bear 30 days of radiation from January 2023.
“Each weekday I might go in and get radiation to my tumor,” he says, including {that a} second Swiss journey needed to be cancelled.
Psychological well being
Originally of Laubi’s journey with most cancers, a nurse had requested whether or not he needed her to move his particulars to a youth most cancers help group Canteen.
Canteen would offer a counselor for the teenager to speak by his feelings and experiences of the sudden and shock most cancers prognosis.
“I had by no means completed any type of counseling,” Laubi says.
“(However) I actually wanted to speak to somebody about all of this s*** that I had been going by – this traumatic stuff.”
Laubi had his first session with a counselor in February and “completely liked it”.
“At one level we had (the periods) each one-and-a-half weeks and it was actually wanted,” he explains.
“I discovered it actually essential to talk to somebody.
“I am so grateful for having these counseling companies accessible.”
Triathlon aim
All through his therapy, Laubi tried to proceed exercising, together with swimming.
“It has been one thing for me to deal with, as a substitute of fascinated with therapy on a regular basis,” he says.
In October, he and eight mates took half within the Huskisson Triathlonaiming to boost $35,000 for Canteen.
On February 26, his crew tackled the triathlon – every participant finishing a 1km swim, 60km bike journey and a 10km run.
Felix Laubi completes triathlon regardless of most cancers prognosis.
And so they raised greater than $57,000 for the youth most cancers group.
“I managed to get by it,” he says.
“I had fairly a good swim time of 19 minutes for a kilometer.
“On the finish, it did not really feel like this big factor.
“However I bear in mind by the race pondering, ‘That is one thing fairly cool, what I am doing’.”
Laubi is constant the low-dose and focused chemotherapy therapies as he nonetheless plans his much-awaited journey to Switzerland.
“It is some time till we all know whether or not radiation works – so we’re sitting in a little bit of a limbo,” he says.
“I am hoping to (journey) now if my coronary heart and physique permits it.”
You possibly can nonetheless donate to Felix’s triathlon fundraiser at canteen.org.au/felix. All funds will go in the direction of supporting younger folks affected by most cancers.
For extra partaking well being & wellbeing content material, go to 7Life on Facebook.
