Drive defeats diagnosis
Janna Janthapaiboonkajon persevered through a stage 4 cancer diagnosis to graduate with a BSN this May.
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When Janna Janthapaiboonkajon addressed her classmates at the Class of 2025 pinning ceremony in Chicago as president of the College of Nursing Student Council, she told them she hadn’t originally been part of their class.
“I didn’t initially start nursing school with all of you,” she said at the April 29 ceremony, which symbolically marks the completion of the nursing program and entry into the profession. “I started the year before with a completely different cohort.”
Janthapaiboonkajon went on to share that, shortly after the start of her second semester in her junior year, she learned she had a 7-inch tumor encasing her heart. It was stage 4 non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
With an intense regimen of chemotherapy in front of her, she took a year off of school, but was determined to return. It was her dream to get her BSN.
“When I returned in January 2024 to finish school, you were all strangers to me, and I was terrified,” she said with a wry laugh. “I still had brain fog from chemo, and I had imposter syndrome that I could even catch up to all of you.”
Sobering diagnosis
In January 2023, Janthapaiboonkajon had been experiencing chest pain for months, but had chalked it up to asthma, a condition she’s had since childhood. When the pain overtook her ability to sleep, she finally went to urgent care and was admitted to Cook County Hospital.
There, imaging revealed the tumor. It had grown so large that it was putting tremendous pressure on the 20-year-old’s chest and was leaking fluid into her lungs and kidneys.
Her diagnosis and prognosis were sobering. The cancer had metastasized to her lungs, lymph nodes and kidneys. Physicians told her she might have only 10 years to live.
Suddenly, instead of worrying about her next exam or preparing for her next clinical rotation, she was writing a will and outlining a power of attorney document.
“I had originally planned to finish the BSN program, then work, and go back to the DNP program at UIC,” she says. “I just didn’t know how to adjust my timeline. It wasn’t like, ‘You only have 10 years to do all this stuff.’ It was like, ‘You only have 10 years and that’s it.’ I didn’t really know how to process that.”
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Determined to continue
Janthapaiboonkajon talked to UIC Nursing’s then-BSN program director Maripat King, DNP ’16, about a plan to continue going to school during treatment.
“She was very sweet because she saw how stubborn I was about continuing school,” Janthapaiboonkajon says.
For two weeks, she tried it. Friends brought her from her dorm room to class in a wheelchair because the weight of the tumor was so heavy that she couldn’t stand up without losing consciousness.
When she went in to get a port placed for chemotherapy later that January, the tumor compressed her lungs so much that she couldn’t breathe on her own. She was intubated and put on a ventilator.
“That was when I wrote on a notepad, ‘I’m dropping out of nursing school,’” she recalls. “That was the hardest part for me. Being wheelchaired to school and having the chest pain, that was fine. But being intubated and on a ventilator at 20 years old was so difficult.”
Grueling treatment
The treatment plan called for six cycles of intensive chemotherapy, with each cycle involving five days of inpatient treatment. Even with outpatient infusions to boost her immune system, Janthapaiboonkajon fought infection after infection, and was a frequent visitor to the hospital with high fevers.
She moved back in with her mom, who had recently retired from a 30-year career as a nurse at Cook County Hospital and was a constant companion at her appointments.
“It was really grueling, especially the halfway point through the cycles of treatment,” she says. “The mental toll and the fatigue. The thing that threw me off the most was the brain fog. You get really confused. You forget things. You’re really slow. You don’t feel like yourself.”
Janthapaiboonkajon turned 21 years old while in the hospital for treatment in March. She recalls the nurses organizing a surprise celebration in her hospital room, toasting her with ginger ale cocktails to ward off nausea.
She also struggled with peripheral neuropathy, tingling in her hands and feet, which prevented her from doing daily tasks.
“I feel like I’m barely just existing at that point,” she says. “I can’t draw. I can’t really think. I’m just on bed rest the whole time. That was the part where it was really taking a mental toll on me.”
By the final cycle of chemo in May 2023, the tumor had shrunk down significantly, and her treatment was considered a success. Her tumor would always be there, providers said, but was stable and no longer growing. By August, biopsies and tests confirmed she didn’t need radiation.
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Returning to school
Janthapaiboonkajon was ready to return to nursing school, but because many required courses are only offered once a year, she needed to wait until January 2024 to pick up where she left off. By that time, her classmates had moved on and were now in their final semester as seniors.
Janthapaiboonkajon would be returning as a second-semester junior, joining a completely new cohort of students.
“Re-entering nursing school was so scary for me,” she says. “No one knows why I’m here. They’re just going to think I didn’t pass a class. I was really scared of the brain fog. What if I can’t catch up to everyone?”
But Janthapaiboonkajon, an extrovert, jumped right back in. After months of being immunocompromised, she reveled in being around people – asking questions of her teachers and talking to her research advisor. She offered to share her study guides with classmates and was elected president of the College of Nursing Student Council.
Ivory Lau, Janthapaiboonkajon’s best friend and vice president of the Student Council, says she was surprised that Janthapaiboonkajon was so nervous to return.
“Now, looking back, I’m like, ‘girl, you’re being so silly,’” Lau says. “Everyone knows Janna. Everyone loves Janna. She’s known for her study guides; for her generosity; for sharing flowers and candy during Valentine’s Day; for her uplifiting, warm energy. I just think she’s an integral part of our cohort. I just hope she knows she’s so important to us.”
In her final semester, Janthapaiboonkajon spearheaded a Student Council fundraiser for the University of Illinois Cancer Center on “Pi Day,” March 14, 2025. She called it Pi-ing it Forward.
Seeing things more clearly
Janthapaiboonkajon’s experience helped her put things in perspective to better manage school stress.
“When I came back to nursing school, students would say, ‘this assignment is the worst thing ever.’ In my mind, nothing is as bad as going through cancer,” she says. “I take a deep breath. I just need to do this assignment. If I need help, I’ll ask for help.”
Her experience also made her want to be an oncology nurse, so she applied to work as a nurse tech on the oncology floor at UI Health. She got the job.
She recalls telling her manager, “You’re not going to find anyone who’s more enthusiastic to clean up after oncology patients. I’ve been there. I know how anxious, terrible and embarrassing it feels to have to use a bed pan.”
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Graduation
Janthapaiboonkajon not only spoke at the Class of 2025’s pinning ceremony, but was selected by faculty to receive this year’s Graduating Student Recognition Award, which honors academic excellence and initiative in actively supporting the College of Nursing.
“Janna is the embodiment of what we want our students to be,” says Julie Schwind, DNP ’17, MS ’06, BSN ’00, her professor for pathophysiology and pharmacology. “It’s not just being smart. It’s being kind. It’s being a leader. It’s being tenacious. It is making sure you are checking on your peers as well. I know that we are going to be so excited to see her walk across that stage and get her diploma.”
Lau says that it’s not just Janthapaiboonkajon’s story that is inspiring to other students, but her energy and ideas. She says she’s always planning her next move in life.
“Knowing Janna’s story, knowing what she’s been through, I think she’s so resilient,” Lau says. “I’m so proud of her for making it this far. And I know she’ll continue to do great things. She always has the most amazing ideas. I really hope she achieves all of them.”
Although Janthapaiboonkajon still carries some side effects from treatment – she was in the hospital for chest pain in early May – she says graduation is particularly meaningful because it coincides with the two-year anniversary of completing treatment. She says she is looking forward to her next chapter as an oncology nurse.
“The past two years, I’ve been trying to navigate my life and my identity and how to go back to normal,” she says. “And now, all those experiences have built that resilience – along with the education – to be able to take care of someone and to be able to advocate for someone.”