Someone’s Looking Out For Me
We landed in Newark tonight, and I picked up my father at the airport…yes, I literally hugged the 6′3″ bear and picked him up off the ground to make sure he knew I was not that sick!My brother-in-law, Deepesh, picked us all up from the airport, and Reena and I got on the phone and made a flurry of calls to all the doctors we knew. Drs. Sheth and Shah got calls, as did Dr. Jay Shastri, a close friend of Reena’s. All of them said the same thing: get to a hospital ASAP!
We knew that if the diagnosis was confirmed, the first round of treatment would last a month. My father was thinking of getting us all back to Seattle to get treated at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, one of the best in the world. But it was Saturday night and we would have to wait till Monday for an appointment. That’s when Dr. Shastri came to the rescue.
Jay is an amazingly caring gem of a guy - let’s just say that once but keep it in mind as you read ahead. He is a doctor at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, which is 5 minutes from my in-laws’ house, and also happens to be a National Cancer Institute. Jay verified that they have a strong leukemia team and arranged for us to fly through the ER that very same night.
It’s 2am and I’ve been admitted to Robert Wood Johnson. My leukemia diagnosis was confirmed - I have Acute Myelogenous Leukemia. It seems like it was caught early on, so we should consider ourselves fortunate.
I’ve never been in a hospital bed…I’ve always been a health freak and a gym rat. I’ve always known I’ll live past 100. I’ve bugged my entire family since I was in high school about exercising and eating right. I’ve always been the rough and tumble guy that could take anything. Being told that I am very ill feels very weird…
But we have a lot to be thankful to God for:
- I got diagnosed fairly early on; wait too long and the leukemic cells take over your marrow and immune system to an extent that is difficult to treat.
- I was self-aware enough to push for my own diagnosis in Mumbai and was fortunate to land in the hands of Dr. Joshi, a skilled hematologist at Lilavati.
- We have very smart doctor friends in the US who guided me brilliantly, reducing the time that it took to get me into treatment by as much as a few weeks.
- I managed to (for the first time in a long time) avoid catching any infections or colds in India. One infection and I could have been stuck in India for 2 years according to the hematologist there.
- I also made the entire journey from Mumbai to Milan to Newark without catching a cold on the plane. Again, this was miraculous considering how easy it is to get sick on a plane. One infection on the plane would have messed up my treatment since I don’t have a functional immune system.
- Finally, I’ve been admitted to a great cancer center within 40 hours of being diagnosed halfway around the world!
Above all else, I am so thankful to have my father, who has been a pillar of strength for me forever, and Reena, the most caring wife one could ever dream of, by my side. With their tremendous love and support, I don’t have a choice but to get well fast!
