By Hala Nasar
This nutritionist plays many roles: a clinical dietician, a teacher, a mother, a wife, and most importantly, a woman.
It started in July 2019 when Tina Chagoury was getting dressed to go on vacation with her family and felt a lump on her breast that she had not felt before.
Chagoury was 39 at the time, working as a nutritionist and a preacher of eating clean. She decided to get the lump checked, telling her husband and two kids that the process should not take more than 10 minutes before they could be on their way again.
Seeing the non-reassuring faces of the people in white coats in the cold, fluorescent white room, Chagoury walked out of the exam room with a definite lump in her throat this time, and says to her family, “I’m sorry, but this is going to take more than 10 minutes.”
After being prodded, poked, and yanked by gloved hands and emotionless machines, Chagoury had a strange feeling, she thought she was the last person to be put in this situation.
Upon receiving her results on the hospital’s mobile app, Chagoury stared in disbelief. She was sure there had been a mistake. Surely, they had mixed her results with someone else’s and were going to call her and apologize.
Unfortunately, they never called, and the words were glaring back at her. She had stage two breast cancer.
Chagoury recalled the most challenging aspects she had were the changes she experienced, saying “the physical changes a woman goes through. Hair, eyebrows, eyelashes falling. Nails get detached.”
When talking about her journey, Chagoury says that “chemotherapy is the most difficult thing you can think of.”
As a Breast Cancer survivor, Chagoury stresses the importance of self-checking.
“The more we know our body and the more familiar we are with self-checking, the better our chance [is] at early detection.”
During the worst peaks of her treatment, she spent her time bed-ridden watching a Spanish mob drama on TV and reading philosophical and women-empowering books to lift her spirits.
When everything felt impossible to deal with, Chagoury resorted to prayer to rejuvenate her strength and push her to hold on for longer.
Chagoury soothes herself when she’s anxious or upset by practicing yoga. “I do a lot of yoga. It helps me so much.”
Once declared cancer-free, she had to undergo a Lumpectomy, i.e., remove the cancerous lump and do 30 sessions of radiotherapy.
Even though she is now much tougher, the experience still deeply affects her.
To heal herself and maintain her happiness, Chagoury hired a life coach to help her understand her goals and a therapist to help her navigate through the tornado of negative feelings she experienced during her journey.
“It was very overwhelming to get back to work after treatment to find myself lagging behind. So, I had to put things into perspective, and I hired a life coach who helped me a lot career-wise. She helped me put things back on track and set targets, work on those targets and move on. I also had psychotherapy because [the] cancer journey is traumatizing.”
Chagoury is proud to say that she has a refined outlook on life. She now appreciates life more and finds herself grateful for the small things because “time is not guaranteed. Your life can change forever in five seconds.”
“You think you know everything, but when you’re in therapy, you realize there are so many things you need to work on to be able to do better for you[rself] and for your family.”
Something that not many people know about Chagoury is her fondness for organization and home décor.
She spends what free time she has organizing her house, whether it is the living room, kids’ rooms, or kitchen. She finds that it soothes her and brings her peace between attending to her busy schedule and spending time with her family.
Chagoury also advises her friends that they should do things they love instead of doing things to please others.
“I learned to prioritize my family, friends, my happiness, children, home, and myself.”
