From Communist Romania to Autoimmune Reset | Dr. Raluca Tiganila

And Raluca, y- you, you mentioned that your parents had some real health challenges, which you realized-

Yeah

...

when you were very young, what was happening to your family, your grandparents, your parents, everyone around you.

So, uh, I was, I would say, around three years old then.

This is when everything started happening, and it, it's kind of interesting.

I do have memories from like really, really-

Wow

... uh, young childhood.

So, um, my grandma was, um, uh, misdiagnosed with, uh, pancreatic cancer at the time, so she developed this gigantic tumor that was too...

Uh, was not, uh, operable anymore because it was misdiagnosed.

While this was happening, my mom, I guess, she went...

She was going through a depression and all this anxiety, panic attacks.

Um, lost a lot of weights.

Um, and my dad, on top of that, uh, w- it, it was, um...

He was diagnosed with these polyps in his urinary bladder that were, um...

He was suspected that they may be, um, malignant.

So, uh, w- while this, all this was happening, [laughs] I was the only one healthy [laughs] and able to kind of like, uh, attend to everyone.

Uh, so my dad had to, um, live for a while to go to Bucharest, to the, to the capital, to be operated on.

Uh, and believe it or not, in those times, they wouldn't even give you a, a general anesthesia for this type of procedure.

What?

Uh, so [laughs] yeah, that's a whole different story right there.

Oh my God.

Uh, meanwhile, my mom was, you know, like w- couldn't function.

Uh, my grandma was dying, so I, I had to be, uh, uh, like a little man [laughs] taking care of, of everyone.