In the bubble

Sophomore struggles with isolating autoimmune disease

Carla Papazian (10) has been forced into isolation because of a life-threatening illness.

By Julia Abair, Fox Therond, Salma Schalhamer, and Lily Brodsky

March 30, 2026

Carla Papazian (10) has always been an outgoing, social person. Constantly enthralled by the world around her, she finds joy with the people who understand her best.

Three years ago, however, that key part of her personality came to a sudden halt.

“I started feeling sick around January of 2023, and I went to a doctor when I first started showing symptoms,” Papazian said. “That doctor said it’s probably just stress, and I need to drink more electrolytes and water.”

With hopes of relieving that stress, Papazian and her parents took a trip to Mexico for her 13th birthday a few months later.

They quickly realized that much more was going on than stress.

“I went to Mexico, and I could barely walk more than 10 feet away without feeling like I needed to pass out or needing to sit down,” Papazian said.

While in Mexico, she became increasingly desperate for answers, initially thinking that she had some sort of anemia after doing some Google searches. Hoping to solve the issue, she had her dad go buy iron pills, to no avail. Papazian had no choice but to see a doctor while on vacation.

She finally got her first answer.

“You definitely have some sort of anemia. But it’s not normal anemia. So when you get back home, you have to go to the doctor immediately,” he told her.

When Papazian got home, she urgently went to the doctor where she got a full work up to figure out what was going on. Her hemoglobin was a stark 2.6 g/dL in contrast to a normal level for a Colorado resident at 14 g/dL. She then rushed to the ICU of Children’s Hospital Colorado in Aurora where she stayed for the next few days.

“I had just turned 13, so in my brain I hadn’t fully comprehended, like, ‘Oh yeah, this is going to completely change my life,’” Papazian said.

A bone marrow biopsy showed that Papazian had aplastic anemia, a condition in which bone marrow stops producing new blood cells. This leaves patients with extreme fatigue and makes them extremely prone to infections. In some cases, it can be fatal.

The doctor delivered news that devastated her.

“You need to get out of school,” he said to her. “You can’t go to school anymore because you’re going to get sick.”

Her life as she knew it completely changed. Papazian had to withdraw from most social aspects of her life as she knew it. She felt like she was placed in a bubble. Being an outgoing person, this took a toll on her.

Papazian had to choose between going through immunosuppressive therapy, or starting the long process of a bone marrow transplant. With no matches in her immediate family, Papazian opted for immunosuppressive therapy.

Amazingly, it worked.

“I completely got better in like eighth grade, and I was off all medications. I was enjoying life,” Papazian said.
Finally, Papazian was able to start living like a normal teenager. She was finally able to go to school, attend parties with her friends, and it just felt like everything was normal. Papazian was able to enjoy her whole freshman year. Only, she didn’t think this sense of normalcy would be so short-lived.

“In August 2025, all of my counts started going down. I really started feeling it.” Papazian said.
Papazian started going through treatment again with a bone marrow transplant being her only option. A donor hasn’t emerged yet, and even when one does, it won’t be close to over.

“There’s a 90% chance of me surviving, and there’s a 10% chance of me dying,” Papazian said. “And that 10% is from either complications or a graft versus host disease, because it attacks the body and your immune system goes all crazy,” Papazian said.

Because of Papazian’s treatment, she’s had to withdraw from all of her social outlets.

“I used to always hang out with friends and always be that type of person,” she said. “When you get a bone marrow transplant, you have to be in practically perfect health. So it has basically put me in a bubble.”

While this is extremely hard for her, she’s been able to start to share her journey through her TikTok page.

“I got tired of explaining what it was to all my friends, and how it got undermined,” Papazian said. “Whenever I told somebody they never knew what it was and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is infuriating.’”

Papazian has struggled to get people to understand just how severe her disease is. She’s not treated as though she has a life-threatening blood disorder —the same way that someone with leukemia would be treated. She’s treated as though she has a simple deficiency, easily treated with a supplement.

“When I’m like ‘I have aplastic anemia,’ Nobody knows what that is. They think ‘Oh, she’s like, going through something simpler, oh, it’s not important’’’

“I really show people like, oh, it actually is living with something like this, and having to go to the hospital so often, and being stripped away from school, and having your only social life be hospital nurses. It’s hard.”

Currently, Papazian is spending most of her time at the hospital, logging into online school every day, and interacting with her friends through the screen on her phone. Patiently, she waits to start the process of her bone marrow transplant. If the treatment is successful, she’ll be able to return to school and leave her bubble.

“I can go back to school, and I can start doing things,” she said. “It’s like the start of a new life.”

About the Contributors

Julia Abair, Editor In Chief

Julia Abair (12) has always had a passion for writing and telling stories in her words. “ I have always been like a ela kid, I guess. So I really just love it”, She said. This year Julia is super excited to be an editor in chief alongside Ben and Abby. “ And I like, love this so much. I love being able to tell people stories, and like being able to like bring light to like I don’t know, to people’s lives, and I don’t know just to like show people different perspectives. I think it’s really important. So I really like it.” She said. Julia is also passionate about women’s rights “ I’m really passionate about women’s rights. I’m really passionate about, like, a woman’s right to choose. That’s something that’s really, really important to me. My mom’s like, my mom’s OB GYN. So it’s like something that is always in our house, that was always like a thing.” she said. When she’s not working on stories for the newspaper Abair enjoys running and swimming and finds herself doing them in her free time “I am really big into running right now. I’m, like, not very good, but I’ve had, like, a few injuries, but I really love it. And, like, I love the reward I get out of, like, the accomplishment that I get from it.” She said. Julia has had setbacks in running due to injuries but knows that she must continue doing things that she loves even when they are tough.

Fox Therond, Layout Editor

Art. Imagination. Virtuosity. For Fox Therond (11), art is more than just a paintbrush and a palette; it’s an escape. A light at the end of the tunnel. Fox decided to change their discouragement and melancholia into courage. Fox said, “I need to do something with my life so I don’t feel like this anymore,” they said. “So I was like, I’m gonna start a small business where I have, like, a sense of purpose in my life.” That spark led to something tangible. Imagination turned into empowerment. Their hard work eventually paid off, Fox said, “Like, I’ve made, like, around a little more than 1000 because I recently did a market. It was like a three hour market, and I made like, $300 so that’s cool”. Art was the solution to dark times. Their one leap of faith, changed everything.

Salma Schalhamer, Social Coordinator

Salma Schalhamer (11), the social coordinator for journalism, is passionate about her role and position in the program. “My favorite memory was deadline nights,” she said. “They’re pretty fun. I would say you get a lot closer with everybody on deadline nights because you’re just working on different stuff.” While growing a close bond with her journalism community, Schalhamer has had the opportunity to meet new people outside the class. “My favorite event was one of the stories I did, which was Blanca. I had to take pictures of her for all the dress-like looks, and she dressed up as The Lorax.” Schalhamer said. Since she knew Blanca’s host sister, they were able to become close friends and have more in-depth conversations. “I knew her host sister, so we kind of talked about that, and what life was like in Spain, so it was really cool to see how different it is. And she had to study a lot because it’s different,” Schalhamer said. Journalism has become one of Salma’s favorite things about school. “It’s really fun,” she said.

Lily Brodsky, Staff Writer

As a junior this year, this will be Lily Brodsky’s second year on the newspaper staff. Brodsky initially joined the class for the credit, but she enjoys journalism because she likes writing, podcasting, etc. Her favorite subject in school is definitely LA. “I like writing, and I love reading, and so it’s fun to just be in class where, like, that’s all you do,” Brodsky said. Outside of school, she enjoys spending time with friends and cooking, but she has a huge passion for movies. “I watch a bunch of movies and I like to review them, like writing them, and stuff like that,” Brodsky said. “My favorite genres are horror or dystopian,” Brodsky said, “but I think that any genre can really take you through a bunch of different emotions and into another world.”

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