Army spouse dances her way through chemotherapy – We Are The Mighty

It is not uncommon to stumble upon live videos while scrolling through Facebook. And for the hundreds of people who follow Army wife Sofia de Falco who is an adjunct professor of Italian language and literature it is not uncommon to come across her videos where she is smiling and dancing, uplifting them with a joyful and serene expression on her face. As the hundreds of comments on her posts highlight, Sofia is a source of inspiration and a true beacon of light to many.

But in those videos, Sofia is in a hospital room, wearing a shirt that lightly uncovers the right side of her chest, revealing the central venous catheter that feeds her chemotherapy medicine directly into her bloodstream.

In February 2019, Sofia was diagnosed with lymphoma. "I found a lump in my groin," Sofia said. "But I didn't give it much thought because it wasn't the first time. I always had them removed and nothing suspicious ever came of it."

During her Christmas vacation in Naples, Italy where she is originally from Sofia developed a dry and irritating cough. "I decided to go to a local doctor and see if there was anything he could do." After the doctor dismissed her because he couldn't find anything wrong, Sofia made a follow-up appointment with her PCM in Virginia, where she and her family are stationed.

"As I was leaving my PCM's office," Sofia said, "I turned around and told him about the lump in my groin, which had grown in size by then." The doctor had Sofia lie down, checked the lump and told her to see a hematologist and a surgeon. Although he didn't explicitly verbalize it at the time, the doctor suspected Sofia had lymphoma.

He was right. "Since February 2019, I have been going through countless tests and surgical procedures," Sofia revealed. After being told the first round of chemotherapy which she faced in "warrior mode," she said had worked and she was clear, in November 2019 Sofia's positive attitude and bright outlook on life was put to the test again. "The cancer came back," she said. "And this time, I have to fight even harder." Sofia will have to undergo a stem cell transplant and several rounds of high-dose chemotherapy.

Yet, she dances. As if those tubes were not attached to her body. As if the machine next to her was not feeding her chemo medicine. As if she didn't suffer from nausea and migraines. She dances as if she were by the beach in downtown Naples, with a bright sun glittering over the Mediterranean Sea in the background, its warm rays caressing her exposed skin.

"I dance on it," she said. "Dancing makes me happy, so I know it's what I'm supposed to do. My body feels so much better after I get up and start dancing, just like one, two, three, four," she said snapping her fingers as if following the rhythm of an imaginary song.

"Dancing is a way for me to keep away the pain, the sorrow and the negative thoughts," she admitted. "I believe that it is possible to defeat this beast because I believe in the power of hope."

And as her hundreds of followers are inspired by her inner strength that shines through her smile, and as the stunned nurses watch her from outside her hospital room while she dances through chemo, she laughs out loud confessing, "You know, I'm actually really bad at dancing!"

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Army spouse dances her way through chemotherapy - We Are The Mighty