In 2019, while working as a factory worker at an industrial park in Dong Nai, Nguyen Thanh Nhan, born in 1993 and from Son Ham Commune, Ha Tinh Province, often felt exhausted and experienced heel pain and nausea. Her job required her to stand for about 12 hours a day, so she assumed the symptoms were caused by overwork.

At the time, Nhan and her former husband had been trying unsuccessfully to have a child for five years. When she went to Tu Du Hospital in HCMC for an examination, doctors ordered a series of tests before surgery to treat blocked fallopian tubes. The tests revealed that she had stage 3B chronic kidney disease. Until then, she had never thought she had a kidney condition.

Nhan received conservative treatment for about three years. The shock of her illness, combined with family problems, left her emotionally devastated. Her weight fell from nearly 50 kilograms to just 35 kilograms, leaving her thin and gaunt and making it difficult for her to walk.

Her first marriage did not provide her with much-needed support. Her former husband’s business was unstable and left the family with debts. Household belongings were gradually sold off to repay them. Eventually, Nhan decided to divorce.

“I was down to 35kg and could barely walk,” the young woman recalled of that difficult period.

In 2022, her condition progressed to the point where she needed hemodialysis. Her life became tied to dialysis sessions and days of exhaustion at Huong Son General Hospital in Ha Tinh.

Finding happiness with a man who shares her struggle

While undergoing dialysis, Nhan joined a social media group for people receiving similar treatment. There, she met Nguyen Binh Dat, 37, who was from the same hometown and also undergoing dialysis.

Dat had previously been married and had two children, but the marriage did not work out. The bond between the two began with conversations about their illnesses, dialysis and the hardships that only people in the same situation could truly understand.

They knew each other for about two years before deciding to live together. Initially, Nhan’s family objected the relationship. Her relatives worried that with both of them suffering from chronic illness, they would become a burden on each other.

But Dat did not give up. Whenever Nhan went for dialysis, he cared for and encouraged her. Gradually, her family saw how devoted the two were to each other and changed their minds.

The couple began their life together in a small house. Early each morning, they get up to make xoi (steamed sticky rice) and prepare food to sell outside a school. Later, they moved to Son Tay Commune, a more densely populated area, to sell their goods.

Life was not financially comfortable, but for Nhan, it was a period when she gradually found peace again.

Undergoing dialysis and making a living together

The couple currently receive dialysis during the same session. Whenever it is time for treatment, they go to the hospital together. Nhan says there are days when both are exhausted and neither has enough energy to care for the other. The costs of treatment and medication are also a burden on the family.

However, instead of giving up, they have found jobs suited to their health, such as making banh muot (steamed thin rice pancake), selling sticky rice in the morning and later selling vegetables. In the cool afternoon, they sell cakes, nem (Fried spring roll), gio cha (Vietnamese pork sausage) and snacks. On hot days, they carry two ice-cream boxes and sell ice cream.

Two months ago, Nhan and Dat officially held their wedding after two years of caring for each other.

Nhan says the biggest changes she has experienced are not simply a marriage certificate or a wedding, but improvements in her physical and emotional well-being.

She used to weigh just 35 kilograms but now weighs 50-51 kilograms. She says she feels more at ease, is treated well by her husband’s family and, most importantly, no longer feels alone in facing her illness.

Both live with the same illness, but they have become each other’s source of support. As they continue to live with a chronic disease, they keep working, caring for each other and finding happiness in life’s small moments.

Phuong Thuy