Update and status

Greetings family & friends,

I've decided to publish this blog as a means of updating you all of my health and status. Some of you are already aware of my diagnosis which is 'pre-B cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL)'. Now that is quite a mouthful? 😋😀

I started chemotherapy on April 8 and have been receiving treatments twice per week via Lumbar Punctures and Hickman catheter (an intra-venous gaping hole on my chest, leading straight into the largest vein and then my heart).

So far side effects have been minimal (FINGERS CROSSED!) and I've been managing to run the Johns Hopkins kitchen out of food and accumulate many miles in my walks around the unit.
Have had a minor hiccup - was walking 2 miles everyday in flat heels on a hard floor and got my knees inflamed. Lesson learned - ALWAYS wear walking shoes, the heel elevated by at least half an inch. So now down to just one mile daily, a leisurely walk as knees and ankles heal. Hoping to keep this pace up!

Discharge date at this stage is uncertain as treatment/procedures continue to roll out based on the previous CSF and Blood tests. Looks like I will be celebrating 'Cinqo de Mayo' at Johns Hopkins before they let me go.

The next step would be Cycle 2 of the induction phase of chemo lasting 6 weeks. It is expected to start on May 9th and I would be required to come to their IPOP clinics at Johns Hopkins - sometimes four days in a row also. The kicker is that I cannot drive more than 35 minutes at a stretch and then they will not let me drive back on my own after pumping me up with all the Chemo. Challenging logistics, indeed? 😲

Thanks for all the messages via texts, Whatsapp, Facebook, FB messenger, Viber etc. etc. I am sorry for not having been able to respond individually and though Sonali has tried her level best between her job, driving and looking after me -  she may have missed on a few.  Thanks to all those friends who stayed overnight and had to endure my snores and the ones who spent entire days here and kept me entertained with their lively and engaging conversation.


Sonali and Srishti have somehow found the strength to go through 36 hour days, driving all over the place, cooking Desi khana for me and in general coordinating the entire effort in addition to looking after their own jobs. And Vivek, our son-in-law who is the sheet anchor of the family holding fort at home so Srishti is relieved of domestic duties. He has single-handedly been looking after two growing sons - cooking, bathing, feeding, putting to bed, getting them ready in the morning, dropping to school/daycare, karate classes, dinner and back to bed. And somewhere in the mix he does take care of Kaasi, their crazy dog.

What a fortunate MAN am I - with all this love flowing all around me.

Please do leave a comment below so that I can improve on making the Blog more informative. 😃