For Dominique Jahnavi Delgado, 2025 brought a hard-earned diagnosis of thyroid cancer, following many months of advocating for testing and treatment. As challenging as the diagnosis was, it validated what she’d long suspected and ultimately led to a critical post-op referral to UCLA Health.
Delgado was grateful for the referral, but she never could have predicted the support she subsequently received from her clinical social worker at the Simms/Mann UCLA Center for Integrative Oncology, would culminate in being nominated for – and receiving – a “victory trip” to mark the end of her cancer journey.
An initial assumption of allergies
Not long after moving to California in 2020, Delgado, a Mississippi native, started having what she believed were allergy-related symptoms. She chalked up her runny nose and congestion to her new environs. “A lot of people talk about the allergies around here,” Delgado pointed out.
With COVID-related medical issues taking precedence at most providers, Delgado couldn’t secure an appointment to establish care as a new patient at a local practice until 2022. At that point, with her symptoms intensifying, she requested various tests, including a thyroid ultrasound. When the results came back, she was informed that nothing was amiss.
But by the middle of 2024, her congestion had worsened substantially. Breathing while lying flat in bed at night was difficult. Her symptoms were obvious to others as well. “I sounded terrible,” she said. “Everybody at work thought I was sick.”
Moreover, Delgado, who had long relied on over-the-counter sleep aids to help her get through the night, suddenly had the opposite problem: she was now so tired she struggled to stay awake. “The fatigue was so bad I couldn’t function,” she said. “I was taking naps multiple times a day.”
Then, in December of 2024, Delgado stopped getting her period – a worrisome sign for a 39-year-old. She also broke out with severe rashes all over her body.
Doggedly seeking answers
To Delgado, the constellation of symptoms pointed to an autoimmune flare-up. After researching the likely causes for the systemic inflammation she was experiencing, she strongly suspected she had Hashimoto’s disease, an autoimmune disorder of the thyroid that causes a drop in hormone levels and is characterized by symptoms including fatigue and menstrual irregularity. Hashimoto’s, which can also cause congestion and other allergy-like symptoms, is often linked to thyroid cancer.
“It just seemed like there were so many things coming online all at once,” she said. Subsequent bloodwork showed abnormal liver enzymes – in keeping with Hashimoto’s. But no one had officially made the connection between her symptoms.
Delgado visited her gynecologist’s office and was referred to a dermatologist for her rash, a gastroenterologist for abdominal issues and an allergist for her ongoing allergy-like symptoms.
She also requested thyroid and perimenopausal bloodwork, given her suspicion that she had Hashimoto’s. When Delgado’s thyroid results came back abnormal, she asked for a thyroid ultrasound.
Then, after reviewing the ultrasound report, Delgado requested a follow-up biopsy of her thyroid, which took place in 2025.
The biopsy results at last provided an answer: she had papillary thyroid carcinoma, the most common type of thyroid cancer, and would need to have her entire thyroid removed.
Delgado’s thyroidectomy was performed in August of 2025, at the local hospital where she works as a cardiac sonographer. When the pathology report came back, it confirmed she did, indeed, have Hashimoto’s disease.
Follow-up referral to UCLA Health
Delgado’s surgeon referred her to the UCLA Health Cancer Care Center in San Luis Obispo, part of the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, for follow-up. There, she was seen by Brian DiCarlo, MD, a hematologist and oncologist who also pointed Delgado to on-site resources offered by the Simms/Mann Center.
Delgado had gotten this far by being her own advocate. But she was also overwhelmed. When Simms/Mann clinical social worker Linda Braddy-Argano reached out to let her know about the various complimentary services offered by the center, Delgado welcomed the support.
Braddy-Argano provided psychosocial support, meeting with Delgado every couple of weeks, and arranged for Delgado to meet with a Simms/Mann nutritionist for dietary guidance. Braddy-Argano provided resources and information on additional integrative modalities in the community, including acupuncture.
“I take care of my parents financially,” Delgado said, “and I haven’t been able to enjoy the luxury of spending money on my own health a lot. To have this offered for free was a super-huge blessing.”
The Simms/Mann Center provides free psychosocial support for people undergoing cancer treatment at UCLA Health, from diagnosis through survivorship. Programs are funded through donations.
A dream trip
Despite what an incredible resource Braddy-Argano had been thus far, Delgado was still stunned when the clinical social worker called her about the possibility of an all-expense paid trip to mark the end of her cancer journey.
The trip, for her and a guest, would be provided by 17 Strong, a foundation on California’s Central Coast established in memory of Ryan Teixeira, who died of cancer in 2017. The organization was founded to fulfill Teixeira’s vision of offering “victory trips” to young adults who have battled cancer and other life-threatening illnesses.
To be eligible, applicants must be nominated, with a recommendation letter submitted on their behalf. Braddy-Argano wanted to know: Would Delgado be interested in being nominated? If so, Braddy-Argano would do so and would submit a letter right away recommending her.
“I immediately began to cry,” Delgado said.
Braddy-Argano had worked with the foundation in the past and knew its guidelines were fairly strict: recipients needed to be between the ages of 18 and 40, and also needed to have finished their treatment or have no remaining evidence of disease.
She also knew that Delgado fit the guidelines. So, when she received a phone call from Holly Teixeira, Ryan’s mom and co-founder of the foundation, asking if she had anyone from the Central Coast to nominate, “the first person that came to my mind was Dominique,” Braddy-Argano said.
“This would be a time for her to get out of the cancer realm,” Braddy-Argano said, “to re-regulate her autonomic nervous system and continue on her healing journey.”
Braddy-Argano submitted the nomination in December of 2025, enabling Delgado, then 40, to meet the organization’s age cutoff.
In January of 2026, Delgado found out she’d been accepted.
After consulting with her family, Delgado chose to go to Egypt with her younger brother. “I love to go to music festivals, and my brother said, ‘Wouldn’t it be really cool if we go to a festival in front of the pyramids?’”
As they were on the phone talking about the possibility, her brother looked it up and said, “Oh my God, you’re not going to believe this, but they’re doing one on the weekend of your birthday. Wouldn’t that be a nice way to close this whole chapter?”
Delgado, who had spent her 40th birthday alone and sick, quickly agreed.
In April, 17 Strong flew Delgado and her brother, Nimai, to Egypt for a week. The day of her 41st birthday, April 26, they attended the festival at the foot of the Pyramids of Giza. Through the foundation’s support, the siblings also visited the Valley of the Kings, where they went for a sunrise hot-air balloon ride, and traveled to one of the Nubian villages on the banks of the Nile.
“We had an absolutely incredible time,” Delgado said.
‘Top-tier’ support at UCLA Health
Delgado is grateful that after advocating for her health on her own for so long, she found much-needed expertise and resources at UCLA Health, and specifically, that she connected with Braddy-Argano.
“I will praise UCLA until the day I die,” Delgado said. “Everything they offered me was top tier – everything.”
She’s already asked Braddy-Argano to accompany her to the 17 Strong annual gala in November. It’s attended by each year’s trip recipients and raises money for future trips, all in memory of Ryan Teixeira.
“Linda has been so instrumental in my healing journey,” Delgado said simply.
The importance of advocacy
In addition to conveying her gratitude to Braddy-Argano and to 17 Strong, Delgado also hopes to inspire others to be advocates for their healthcare.
Given her many disparate symptoms and the numerous tests she’d had – along with the multiple providers she’d seen in her quest for treatment – Delgado documented everything in a detailed timeline she shared with each new provider’s office.
“I asked the staff to scan it into my chart and have the physician look at it before coming in the exam room. Both Dr. DiCarlo and my surgeon told me they’d never seen anything like it from a patient before, and that it helped a lot,” she said.
“When you know something’s wrong and things just aren’t adding up, I think a lot of people give up,” Delgado said. “And that can be the difference between receiving life-saving treatment and not.”
