My Tryst with Colon Cancer
What should I write about it? This is one of the biggest and toughest phase in my life. It certainly did help me to find my own and find them who don't belong to me. Someone has truly said that, "When someone has cancer, the whole family and everyone who loves them does too." When my mom was diagnosed with cancer back in November 2013, I was like what exactly happened, why it happened and for god's sake who did that.
November 2013: I was busy working in my school lab at WSU Vancouver where I was completing MS in Computer Science, I was running some experiments and discussing a problem with my adviser. I had almost solved a problem, and was about to run few more experiments at home on November 16, 2013. I remember it was a Saturday morning, and as usual, I woke up late and started watching TV. I already knew that my mother was having some pain in her abdominal. I thought it would just a problem of constipation and nothing much as normal human would think it. I thought it would just be ok, but then suddenly I came to know that mom has got fever. When I hear about fever in India, I usually get scared as I had lost one old school-mate because of fever. So, I immediately called mom and asked to go for blood test. She went to a pathology laboratory (all by herself), and gave her blood sample. She received blood report in noon, and we came to know that her white blood cells have been risen to 28000 which is way more than a normal human would have. I did not know what was white blood cell because I never needed to know this medical terminology. Fortunately my brother knew about it. The report went to a family physician and said that there must be some infection in the body. What infection, nobody knew about it. The physician suggested to go for some more medical reports such as sonography and x-ray. The x-ray looked normal, but sonography suggested that there is some infection in the abdominal part of body. We were like, what the heck. The question was, "What is that infection". When we went more deeper into the reports, we found that, there is a tumor, or I should say there are tumors ( I did not know that time). This situation was unbearable, but still I kept positive attitude thinking that it would be a benign tumor. But I was taken back, when I searched in Google - "abdominal pain + tumor + weight loss". It clearly said that it's a colon cancer, but I kept hopes alive with benign cancer. So here is where we (I and my elder brother live in same apartment) started having serious talk about this. Meanwhile, mom went to have C.T. Scan (that too without relative) to find out what the disease was. Now my brother was looking for his bride since few years, he was anyways going to India in December 2013, but the dates were not decided. We talked about things happening in India, and decided that he should go back to India immediately ( It was not only mutual decision, the decision was also taken because one of my brother's friends (who was also taking care of mom's things in India) told him that situations does not look good here and he should be in India soon. I too wanted to go, but we had decided if there are any more problems ( we didn't know if cancer was benign or malignant), I would also come back. Meanwhile, CT scan reports had come, and a sample was sent for biopsy. My brother went back to India and reached just a day before biopsy reports were supposed to come. He received biopsy reports and other reports next day. The reports said that mom was having Colon cancer stage-4. I had no idea what all these terms mean. I immediately searched on Google about it. It said that she was having cancer near intestine and stage-4 means, she also has metastatic cancer. I was taken aback. Is this how life is supposed to be ? One day there is nothing and other day you have something unusual happening and that too with one of your lovable persons in life. I never expected such thing.
Now the question was, what should I do. My brother was handling things alone in India, I talked with him and he including my dad just asked me to come immediately. Nobody said what exactly was happening there. Already one week had passed since we knew of some infection or fever to mom and 3 days since my brother left for India. It was a Friday night and I started thinking about my departure from US to India. I immediately opened my mail client, and sent mails to my thesis adviser, academic coordinator & international student adviser saying (not asking) that, I need to go back to India soon. Now question was how would I leave, am I suppose to take any documents with me. With all these questions, I started calling few friends in US who had already completed their masters degree. They told me that I am supposed to talk to international adviser and take some documents with me. I received reply from my thesis adviser approving my request to go India. I really appreciated his support during this time. Now on Saturday, nobody from school will work, so I did not receive any reply from academic coordinator or international student adviser. Now I did not have any other option than staying here for 2 days (Saturday and Sunday). Meanwhile, I talked with one colleague whose wife was a doctor, I asked him if he can ask his wife to tell me more details about this disease. My colleague (more like a friend) immediately asked his wife, I received call from his wife giving me each and every details about cancer. I appreciated their support in a country where I did not know anyone but few colleagues.
It was a Monday morning, I drove to my school and went directly to my desk in the lab. I remember, I had reached at 8.47 am, I was checking emails on my cellphone and I received email from international student adviser asking me to meet her as soon as possible. I put my cellphone in my pocket and set all the devices I was working with, and placed them in the lab (as I did not know when I will return or whether I will return). Then I went to meet international adviser and explained her my situation, she gave me few forms and gave me details. I was just wanting to listen when can I leave this country. She told you can leave immediately, given that forms are signed and a email to be sent from advisers having no issues. I immediately went to my lab, and sent emails to advisers. I also started to search for air tickets to return to India. I was searching tickets, and my adviser came to meet me in the lab. The semester was about to get over and his kids had come to visit him at school. My adviser asked me to meet him in office immediately. I went to there, he asked me about things at home. I said I have no idea except for fact that my mom have Stage 4 colon cancer. I was about to cry, and he told me that he will support whatever I want at that time. I was looking at his kids playing in his office, and also listening to my adviser about his support. He gave me a holy book, a letter (which was addressed to my mother) and a check of 200$. I said I cannot take his money, and asked him if he wants to give me something, just give me some pray. He took permission from me asking if he could pray in front of me. I immediately said yes, and he prayed to God to save my mother. I was quite emotional during this time, but I hold my tears. I really thank my adviser for whatever help he did to me during this day.
After that, I went to my lab where I was searching tickets. I was not able to find cheap tickets, so I decided to buy tickets separately, rather than 1 ticket from same website. After some efforts and help from a friend, I found a ticket from Portland to Newark (8 hours + 10 hours hold), Newark to New Delhi via London (more than 20 hours). I had not bought ticket from New Delhi, India to Ahmedabad, India as I did not know if I will reach New Delhi on time. After I reached to Newark airport, I met a friend after almost 6 years, I stayed at his home to complete my halt of 10 hours to take my next flight at 8 am in morning. I liked meeting him after so many years, but my mind was just thinking about my mother whom I had not told that I am coming. After certain hours of flight, I reached to New Delhi, India and it felt good to be back in
November 2013: I was busy working in my school lab at WSU Vancouver where I was completing MS in Computer Science, I was running some experiments and discussing a problem with my adviser. I had almost solved a problem, and was about to run few more experiments at home on November 16, 2013. I remember it was a Saturday morning, and as usual, I woke up late and started watching TV. I already knew that my mother was having some pain in her abdominal. I thought it would just a problem of constipation and nothing much as normal human would think it. I thought it would just be ok, but then suddenly I came to know that mom has got fever. When I hear about fever in India, I usually get scared as I had lost one old school-mate because of fever. So, I immediately called mom and asked to go for blood test. She went to a pathology laboratory (all by herself), and gave her blood sample. She received blood report in noon, and we came to know that her white blood cells have been risen to 28000 which is way more than a normal human would have. I did not know what was white blood cell because I never needed to know this medical terminology. Fortunately my brother knew about it. The report went to a family physician and said that there must be some infection in the body. What infection, nobody knew about it. The physician suggested to go for some more medical reports such as sonography and x-ray. The x-ray looked normal, but sonography suggested that there is some infection in the abdominal part of body. We were like, what the heck. The question was, "What is that infection". When we went more deeper into the reports, we found that, there is a tumor, or I should say there are tumors ( I did not know that time). This situation was unbearable, but still I kept positive attitude thinking that it would be a benign tumor. But I was taken back, when I searched in Google - "abdominal pain + tumor + weight loss". It clearly said that it's a colon cancer, but I kept hopes alive with benign cancer. So here is where we (I and my elder brother live in same apartment) started having serious talk about this. Meanwhile, mom went to have C.T. Scan (that too without relative) to find out what the disease was. Now my brother was looking for his bride since few years, he was anyways going to India in December 2013, but the dates were not decided. We talked about things happening in India, and decided that he should go back to India immediately ( It was not only mutual decision, the decision was also taken because one of my brother's friends (who was also taking care of mom's things in India) told him that situations does not look good here and he should be in India soon. I too wanted to go, but we had decided if there are any more problems ( we didn't know if cancer was benign or malignant), I would also come back. Meanwhile, CT scan reports had come, and a sample was sent for biopsy. My brother went back to India and reached just a day before biopsy reports were supposed to come. He received biopsy reports and other reports next day. The reports said that mom was having Colon cancer stage-4. I had no idea what all these terms mean. I immediately searched on Google about it. It said that she was having cancer near intestine and stage-4 means, she also has metastatic cancer. I was taken aback. Is this how life is supposed to be ? One day there is nothing and other day you have something unusual happening and that too with one of your lovable persons in life. I never expected such thing.
Now the question was, what should I do. My brother was handling things alone in India, I talked with him and he including my dad just asked me to come immediately. Nobody said what exactly was happening there. Already one week had passed since we knew of some infection or fever to mom and 3 days since my brother left for India. It was a Friday night and I started thinking about my departure from US to India. I immediately opened my mail client, and sent mails to my thesis adviser, academic coordinator & international student adviser saying (not asking) that, I need to go back to India soon. Now question was how would I leave, am I suppose to take any documents with me. With all these questions, I started calling few friends in US who had already completed their masters degree. They told me that I am supposed to talk to international adviser and take some documents with me. I received reply from my thesis adviser approving my request to go India. I really appreciated his support during this time. Now on Saturday, nobody from school will work, so I did not receive any reply from academic coordinator or international student adviser. Now I did not have any other option than staying here for 2 days (Saturday and Sunday). Meanwhile, I talked with one colleague whose wife was a doctor, I asked him if he can ask his wife to tell me more details about this disease. My colleague (more like a friend) immediately asked his wife, I received call from his wife giving me each and every details about cancer. I appreciated their support in a country where I did not know anyone but few colleagues.
It was a Monday morning, I drove to my school and went directly to my desk in the lab. I remember, I had reached at 8.47 am, I was checking emails on my cellphone and I received email from international student adviser asking me to meet her as soon as possible. I put my cellphone in my pocket and set all the devices I was working with, and placed them in the lab (as I did not know when I will return or whether I will return). Then I went to meet international adviser and explained her my situation, she gave me few forms and gave me details. I was just wanting to listen when can I leave this country. She told you can leave immediately, given that forms are signed and a email to be sent from advisers having no issues. I immediately went to my lab, and sent emails to advisers. I also started to search for air tickets to return to India. I was searching tickets, and my adviser came to meet me in the lab. The semester was about to get over and his kids had come to visit him at school. My adviser asked me to meet him in office immediately. I went to there, he asked me about things at home. I said I have no idea except for fact that my mom have Stage 4 colon cancer. I was about to cry, and he told me that he will support whatever I want at that time. I was looking at his kids playing in his office, and also listening to my adviser about his support. He gave me a holy book, a letter (which was addressed to my mother) and a check of 200$. I said I cannot take his money, and asked him if he wants to give me something, just give me some pray. He took permission from me asking if he could pray in front of me. I immediately said yes, and he prayed to God to save my mother. I was quite emotional during this time, but I hold my tears. I really thank my adviser for whatever help he did to me during this day.
After that, I went to my lab where I was searching tickets. I was not able to find cheap tickets, so I decided to buy tickets separately, rather than 1 ticket from same website. After some efforts and help from a friend, I found a ticket from Portland to Newark (8 hours + 10 hours hold), Newark to New Delhi via London (more than 20 hours). I had not bought ticket from New Delhi, India to Ahmedabad, India as I did not know if I will reach New Delhi on time. After I reached to Newark airport, I met a friend after almost 6 years, I stayed at his home to complete my halt of 10 hours to take my next flight at 8 am in morning. I liked meeting him after so many years, but my mind was just thinking about my mother whom I had not told that I am coming. After certain hours of flight, I reached to New Delhi, India and it felt good to be back in
posted by Jenis @ 7:13 AM
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