Preamble
A true story. Sonali aged - 22 yrs old. Married with Rahul - a small scale serviceman. Sonali even has 3 years old cute daughter. The family is from a sacred small town within hundred kms. vicinity of Pune. Sonali's elder brother works and resides along with his family in Pune.
The diagnosis
I was reviewing some reports. Those were given to me by my consultant oncologist (specialist in cancer treatment) for the second review. I was awestruck after the review! I have never seen so messed up of reports in my life. There was a confirmation biospy (tissue examination) report of breast carcinoma. CT scan showed multiple lumps in the breasts. the biggest one was near left armpit. Very close to the node. The disease was spread to the lungs. There was no scope of surgery. Her chances of survival were bleak. Still she was looking pretty fit. She had total of 30 centimeters of different lumps in her body. it was evident from a bright, big, brown eyes when she was sitting in the waiting area that she was not aware of it. Sonali was accompanied by other elderly women from her family all those people were still sitting out. I cursed her & the system - ''how can people wait for so long when they have so many lumps in their bodies . . . anyhow, its good atleast she came at this point for treatment. I wonder how many women in India are dying daily after such conditions." The oncologist chatted with Sonali's elder brother and her husband. When hearing that her loveliest part of the family has a very little chance of survival, they both were shocked but in a little time adjusted themselves and determinately discussed about treatment options for her without wasting much time.
Later, the oncologist conveyed everything to Sonali. I saw her sinking. She was so innocent that I was able to read her mind from her face. She did not utter a single word . . . but her face changed from relaxed to breaking down state. It was tough for everyone including us in the consultaion room.
After half an hour and at the end of the day. I left the consultation room. I saw her sobbing uncontrollably with all her dear once around her. No one wants to die...she was not an exception.
The Treament
Sonali's treatment was of weekly exhaustive chemotherapy and it had to start as soon as possible. She needed to be present on tuesday of the each week. Mind you, it is excruciating pain when chemicals are injected into the body. The chemo drugs literally react to everything they face inside your body. It just burns your tissues. Not just that even though it requires just 8-9 hours of hospital admission, the chemotherapy side effects may last for next 4-5 days. Heavy acidity, excessive nausea, anemia are just few of those nuisances. In addition to this, there were few painful disease evaluation scans in between after certain interval. Fortunately, unlike others she never gave up. It was just one or two occasions when her red blood cells count dipped to lowest. The chemo had to be skipped for few times to give her time for recovery. Most others would have sighed as a relief because of freedom from side effects for some days, but it was concern for both Sonali and Rakesh that the drug was missed because of lack of fitness. It kept us instigated to train them on nutrition, diet, hygine etc. Fortunately, it was motivating for her as within first disease evaluation her cancer lumps were amzingly reduced to nearly more than 50 percent. On the next evaluation some of the lumps were miraculously disappeared. It was after 8 - 9 months of weekly treatment, the cancer inside her body was vanishing so much that she soon offered a surgical option. Her surgery was eventually performed successfully. Two and half years after the end of surgery; she still sometime visits the clinic for routine examination.
Sonali . . . conditions and her support system! - My analysis
They used to keep their three years old daughter alone at home when they visited the clinic. Ofcourse their neighbours were there but many a times their daughter stayed so maturely at home alone. At her age she was aware of her mothers disease. Every time Sonali used to get admitted in daycare she always asked to hurry up and start the treatment quickly as her small child was staying in their home. On top of that her town was not near. It always needed 2-3 hours to reach home. It was very strenuous pledge she committed.
Credit must be given to her husband Rahul who was battling at all the fronts for his wife. Hospitals, his own job, his own family everywhere he was active, hw never let his mood down. I never missed a point to cheer him up. Many times I saw Sonali exhausted, tired, shattered; especially the entire month after the point when she suffered heavy dehydration, her complete hair loss and she even had a fever at the same. She talked to me reluctantly then, but she was always upbeat for the next visit and faced next chemo very determinately. Rahul was no doubt helping her to be proactive and talk to the oncologist and me for any minor issue incase. They both, particularly Rahul was very inquisitive about the test results, ways to tackle side effects, diets etc. Most importantly he provided unconditional support for Sonali at all the times. For chemos, surgeries, scans, consultation he was actively present. He always showed silently, how much he loves and cares for Sonali.
Some credit should also be given to Sonali's mom. She too took a lot of care of her. Who does not like mom is taking care of you. Moreover, I realised this now that she played more psychological help than the superficial stuff.
Foremost credit should be given to the consultant oncologist who presented her wonderful gift of a life. Of course, the things went Sonali's way, but the killer disease offered her so less chances of survival, the oncologist managed to utlise it completely. Indeed her young body was on her side at this battle, but let me tell you not many people survive at that stage and at her age.
It has been two and half years now. Last time when I saw her she had brought her baby girl doll along with her. Lost contact since I left the institute though. Hoping for the best for her and hoping for her cancer free longer life ahead.
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