THE Late Show star Jon Batiste has taken time off to care for his wife Suleika Jaouad amid her brave cancer battle. To highlight this porousness, she reveals how cancer changed her family dynamics. Grammy Award-winning musician Jon Batiste married author Suleika Jaouad in February 2022 after Jaouad was diagnosed with leukemia a second time. Suleika Jaouad and Jon Batiste attend New York Premiere of "A Quiet Place" on April 2, 2018 in New York City. It was really important to me to write my own story and to work. 10.3k Likes, 334 Comments - Suleika Jaouad - (@suleikajaouad) on Instagram: "When you're having an allergic reaction to your donor lymphocyte infusion and high on IV benny but" I just started my third transplant chemo drug today, and its no joke and Ive been in bed all day. In 2010, Suleika Jaouad was 22. In short, cancer therapy dogs primarily provide comfort and support through cancer. He's never been Jon Batiste, and I think that's the gift of knowing each other for as long as we havesummer band camp when I was 13 years old and he must have been 14 or 15. I was wondering about living your experience with cancer in public, and how high-profile people like Virgil Abloh or Chadwick Bozeman chose not to. Instead, she says, "I think what I've learned is that I can't put my life on pause, because getting better can take any amount of time.". When I was finally discharged, they all gathered and gave me the most amazing send-off. Suleika was first diagnosed with with acute myeloid leukaemia in 2011. Get the latest news, events and more from the Los Angeles Times Book Club, and help us get L.A. reading and talking. She had fallen in love and moved to Paris to pursue her dream of becoming a war correspondent. I haven't painted since I was probably six or seven years old, but it felt freeing and experimental and playful. With omicron surging in February, Suleika Jaouad's husband Jon Batiste couldn't be with her in the hospital. And of course, that didn't happen," Jaouad explained. Jon Batiste quietly married Suleika Jaouad, his longtime girlfriend, in February.. Jaouad, who is the author of the cancer memoir "Between Two Kingdoms," said the event happened right before . This came to light when Jaouad was 22 and finally received her diagnosis: acute myeloid leukemia, an aggressive form of leukemia that attacks the blood and bone marrow. We have to integrate and learn to coexist with whatever pain or heartbreak or sorrow [came from them].". That I have access to top-notch treatments, that I was able to have a transplant at all, that I get to be surrounded by the most caring, supportive doctors, nurses and hospital workers is an extraordinary gift. There's a photo of me from that first transplant where I have a vomit bucket under one arm and my laptop under the other, and I'm crying, not because, oh my God, I'm so physically miserable, but because I'm upset with how my draft is turning out and I'm scared I won't meet my deadline, which is totally ridiculous, but I think also felt good to me to have a focus other than just merely being a sick person. It doesn't take away the fear, but it helps. This time around, I'm 33. Anecdotal evidence from SurvivorNets experts says that having a positive mood through cancer can benefit treatment. "We talk about post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); we talk about reentry in the context of veterans returning from war or prisoners being released after a long period of incarceration, but the same is true of people surviving a traumatic illness or a traumatic experience," Jaouad said. Suleika was first diagnosed with with acute myeloid leukaemia in 2011. She has a story she wants to tell but fears her loved ones will perceive it as a betrayal. Cancer therapy dogs or cancer service dogs, like Jaouads dog River, are trained to help people with cancer feel better emotionally and physically. Will I Need a Stem Cell Transplant and How Do I Find a Match? But no one knew that at the time; none of the doctors she went to could figure out what was causing the itchiness. Our newsletter vital information, hope, and healing, delivered weekly. To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. Instead, just be a good listener. The first time I was sick, I was in treatment for nearly four years. One cell got really selfish and decided that it needed to take up all the resources of everybody else, and in doing so, took up space and energy from the rest of the body, Dr. Shah says. Here is the key to Between Two Kingdoms Jaouads disarming honesty. We even did the wave. Born in New York City to a Tunisian father and a Swiss mother, Suleika Jaouad's career aspirations as a foreign correspondent were cut short when, at age . When her friends would visit her in the hospital, she told them that she wanted to hear all their silly, petty gossip. This included round after round of chemotherapy, a clinical trial, and a bone marrow transplant. What is burnout syndrom (BOS)?. She has been diagnosed with cancer since 2011, and recently had a surgery. She writes most movingly about her fellow travelers, the friends she made (and lost) in treatment: the poet Max Ritvo, dead at 25 from Ewings sarcoma; her artist friend Melissa, who raged as death grew more imminent. Therapy dogs may help with pain management, too, as time with dogs can trigger a release of endorphins which mitigate pain and discomfort. Suleika Jaouad at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City on March 5, 22 days after her second bone marrow transplant. It seems so easy at first, too easy, and its starting to dawn on me that moving on is a myth a lie you sell yourself on when life has become unendurable. By way of illustration, she bifurcates her narrative, framing the memoir in two parts the first involving the experience of her illness, and the second detailing its often unsteady aftermath. And learning to make a home in the wilderness of that in-between place was what actually allowed me to begin that process of healing and moving forward.". The journalist, whose partner is Jon Batiste, recently got a surprise visit from fellow writer Elizabeth Gilbert during her hospital stay, which left her feeling overwhelmed by love., A bone marrow transplant is a treatment used for some cancers that replaces bone marrow with healthy cells; it is also called a stem cell transplant.. Slower-growing leukemia seldom shows symptoms, however, quick-growing leukemia can be accompanied by many vague symptomslike fatigue, frequent infections, bruising and easy bleeding, and weight loss. And so not striving for some perfect state of wellness is liberating. I was starved for stories that I could find companionship with and I bought every possible book that I could about illness and, specifically, cancer. Never want to see this again? By Suleika JaouadRandom House: 368 pages, $28If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores. Dear friend, There is something I wish to tell you today, something I have long feared but hoped would never come to pass. What Is Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL)? For three-and-a-half years, Jaouad underwent treatment for leukemia. In February 2022, Suleika had her second bone marrow transplant when her cancer returned. Am I remembering this right, that you were in the hospital and you were on deadline for The New York Times? It's never felt worth it to me to inhabit the first person if I don't really push myself to be as vulnerable as I can be. Slower-growing leukemia seldom shows symptoms, however, quick-growing leukemia can be accompanied by many vague symptomslike fatigue, frequent infections, bruising and easy bleeding, and weight . "I went into my diagnosis believing that I could remain the same that I had been, believing that I was going to be strong, that I was going to push through it, and that I would move on with my life. S.J. What feels good, for me, is to know that the years of really pushing myself to excavate the truth behind the truth and resisting any sort of neat, more commercially viable story arcs that end with like a perfect, happy survivor endingwriting about that in betweenI feel good about having taken that creative risk. Even my lips looked drained of life force., When Jaouad is diagnosed, her first response is relief. I don't post as much, other than my weekly newsletters. I am waiting to have my first post-transplant biopsy. And it was a journey that Jaouad wrote about in her memoir, Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted. Register, Im Overwhelmed! Jon Batistes Cancer-Fighting Girlfriend Suleika Jaouad Gets Love Bomb From Eat Pray Love Author Elizabeth Gilbert, Jaoad writes, Speaking of feeling overwhelmed by love. Not one of the medical professionals she'd been seeing had mentioned this risk to her. The Different Phases Of Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML) & Possible Treatments. Here are some stories you dont want to miss: Christina Caron has tips for spring cleaning your brain. Then, instead of pointing up, she gestured to the street. To sit with them. My feelings toward how she treated Will have affected my judgement of her as a person, which made me feeling biased for the rest of the book. What an immense amount of pressure on a relationship and a person. Health's content is for informational and educational purposes only. Photo: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty. Jaouad makes that explicit by shifting to present tense in the second half of the book the part about recovery as she travels the United States, visiting the people, many of them readers of her blog, who offered her solace during the years she was sick. ( Source . So Jaouad tried to not make a big deal out of it, hoping whatever it was would clear up on its own. There is no self-pity in this telling and few of the expected pieties. In addition, she is also an advocate and . And I remember saying any decisions or conversations implicating my body or my future are ones that I need to be a part of.". Use this bar to access information about the steps in your cancer journey. Not every conversation has to be about silver linings. As my friend, Nadia Bolz-Weber, says, "The best antidote to shame is sunlight.". 10. Dogs see all the fear and anxiety that we humans carry around about the subject of death andloving us as they dothey take pity on us. Grammy winner Jon Batiste and longtime partner Suleika Jaouad have revealed they secretly got married . Now she's a writer, teacher and activist who learned the hard way how to survive and thrive in this touching archive. Now that my treatment is done, I'm struggling to figure out who I am. S.J. Dear Susu, There is a story I have started many times, in many forms. But theres also great richness to be excavated; in fact, those transitional moments have ultimately been the most powerful and pivotal of my life. Concerning her partner's net worth, Jon has an approximate net worth of about $4 million as a result of his primary occupation as an artist. she shared in her newsletter, The Isolation Journals. Moving On Is a MythBut You Can Move Forward, What is Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia? Theres enough for all of us., In an earlier post, the journalist shares her adventures in the bone marrow transplant unit. Browse 128 suleika jaouad stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. I named it The Isolation Journals because thats what we were living through this great interruption of our communities, our connections, our ability to live and work and be together. With the memoir, she wanted to reveal what happens after a person survives what was thought to be unsurvivable. One of the hardest things about having a life-threatening illness or some other kind of big, blinding loss is that your carefully-laid plans go up in smoke. "I remember working as a paralegal at a law firm, being so exhausted that, midday, I would go to the utility closet to take a nap," Jaouad said. One of my friends, the incredible author Elizabeth Gilbert, took over his care when I became sick and wrote a really beautiful tribute to him in my Isolation Journals newsletter.Oscar died while I was in the bone marrow transplant unit. It was a time of hope and excitement until the itch got worse and turned into six-hour naps . The itch started on the tops of her feet, eventually moving up her calves and thighs. Alex Trebek was ready to pack it in during cancer battle. 9. (They know better. Suleika Jaouad is a respected writer who has written for many reputed publications like Vogue and Glamour. I'd entered the hospital with 30 percent leukemic blasts and by the end . I've been yearning for the quieter moments. In 2012, I asked a young writer named Suleika . Suleika Jaouad: What Jon didn't know was that the day before, I learned that the chemotherapy I'd been doing wasn't working. After an over four-year battle including a harrowing bone marrow transplant, Jaouad wondered if she would ever rejoin the kingdom of the well. Wanting to help, they volunteer to die early, as a way of saying: "Look! Suleika Jaouad is an Emmy-winning columnist known for the Life, Interrupted column in The New York Times. Love does, in fact, have boundaries. A conversation with Emmy-award-winning writer and cancer survivor Suleika Jaouad, led by La Steinacker, chief strategy officer at ada. It got me into remission in one month, as opposed to last time, when it took almost a year. Jon, known for being the nightly bandleader and musical director on The Late Show