Life - a surprise and a gift

She was all of 35 yrs when she succumbed to the King of Maladies – Cancer. Diagnosed in the final stages – brain tumour is not something that is easily identifiable especially in today’s day and age of a high stress, fast paced lifestyle all of us lead! Headaches, slurring, difficulty in finding words – these are common enough problems that many of us face during different periods of stress.

I was with her during the final stages and while she slipped into a coma, the plight of her parents’ caused me grief to no end.

As a fund raiser for Indian Cancer Society (ICS) during the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon, I have been exposed to the plight of cancer patients at ICS and Tata Memorial Hospital. It is heart wrenching to see people without resources - financially & emotionally struggling to fight the dreaded disease.

As if to give me a perspective (a glimpse into that world), I was suddenly diagnosed with thyroid cancer – out of the blue.

I had an early diagnosis and an extremely good prognosis. It is joked around in medical circles that if you have to get Cancer, then this is the best form to have! Am I lucky or what?

Jokes apart, this entire diagnosis happened within a span of 4 days and how?

I happened to notice a very discreet swelling (hardly noticeable even on close observation) at the base of my neck. 2 Days later when I told my husband, he suggested I show it to our family physician the day I came back to Mumbai. I was out on official work.

For some reason, instead of the usual procrastination, I went immediately and my doctor asked me to get a sonography of the neck done suggesting this could be something to do with the Thyroid gland.

I knew enough to understand the radiologist’s commentary on the suspicions they had about the thyroid nodule that they had observed.

I shared my observations with my husband and together we went to consult our doctor with the report. The report confirmed the presence of nodules and I was recommended to get a FNAC (Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology) – the equivalent of a biopsy to confirm malignancy.

The FNAC obviously was accurate enough to classify it as suspicious for thyroid papillary carcinoma and the standard operating procedure was a total thyroidectomy followed by radioactive iodine treatment a little later.

My thoughts once I was diagnosed with the carcinoma were simple –

1) It’s a disease, it needs to be treated

2) There was clarity in what needed to be done – no two ways about it

3) My husband and I almost unanimously decided to go ahead with the surgery at the earliest – we did not even have to discuss

4) We had Health Insurance and so could deal with the expenses

5) The risk of my voice changing / me losing my voice was something that I had to take – the nerve for the vocal chord runs right behind the thyroid and there is a risk of that getting damaged during surgery.

What I was trying to figure out was – the reason for this development?

Reading up on the subject / talking to the doctor did not give any clarity since there was no known family history, no thyroid related problems and overall no health problems, no exposure to radiation growing up etc
I was not questioning Why me? Rather How? The futility of this question becomes obvious when you do not get any answers.
All I got to know was that thyroid nodules are very common, malignancy which was a rarity earlier seems to be now becoming an epidemic warranting the removal of the thyroid.
It is important to note that the parathyroid glands (2 on each side) are located right behind the thyroid – almost embedded and during thyroidectomy, the chances of these getting damaged is high. The parathyroid glands regulate Calcium in the body. Calcium is essential and is very significant to the functioning of the neuro-muscular network i.e. it is mandatory for the nervous system and for the muscles in your body to function normally.

In my case, during surgery the left parathyroid glands (2 out of 4) had to be removed as there was a very large adenoma (the glands were swollen). We were informed before the surgery that there could be other facts that would get uncovered during surgery and the surgeon would have to decide the best course of action at that point of time. This was acceptable and agreed by us.
This is a very rare scenario where both Thyroid and Parathyroid are simultaneously removed.

Fortunately, I have had a successful surgery and have recovered quite quickly and am back to work and working out J

Of course I am on Thyroid and Calcium supplements for the rest of my life and I have to monitor my calcium and thyroid levels on a regular basis as also keep a check on Thyroglobulin levels (the cancer marker) but these are small inconveniences in the larger scheme of things!

I wanted to document this to highlight a couple of points which I believe are essential –

* Health Insurance is a mandate – no matter how secure your job is, however healthy you are, however rich you are or whatever your age! Having health insurance at work is not enough!

* Knowing your body well, understanding the signs it throws out and being aware of the changes in your body, goes a long way in prevention / enabling a better prognosis.

One of the reasons for me to recover quickly and get back to a normal life is my following a healthy diet and fitness regime. Being a vegan and trying to avoid refined and processed foods to a large extent ensures that my exposure to chemicals and other deliberate contaminants is reduced.

I can’t dispute the fact that I have been lucky to have a brilliant diagnosis, a fabulous surgeon and a lovely endocrinologist! Not to forget my wonderful husband – who I believe was Superman

Breaking Stereotypes

Women can't drive! A statement which is made by almost every man and maybe many women themselves.
I have personally been guilty of having such a prejudice - which I now choose to change.
It was on 1st May'2017 that more than 1000 women from various walks of life above the age of 18 gathered at The Holiday Inn, Goa.
The reason - to celebrate the success of the largest car rally for women in the world - a Guinness record unbroken from 2014. The rally is organized to create awareness on breast cancer.
The rally is held by Times of India in association with the Women's association of Indian Cancer Society in the TSD format (Time, Speed, Distance) and is held over a period of 2 days from Mumbai, Pune and Bengaluru to finally reach Goa. A distance of more than 600kms is covered with an average speed not more than 50kmph; at times it's as low as 24kmph by 400+ cars.
The directions are not in the form of a regular route map but in the form of a Tulip Chart (a specially designed navigational format for this type of rally).
The rally essentially requires a driver and navigator (to calculate the speed required to cover a certain distance and the time that will be taken). The navigator also tells the route based on the tulip chart.
Another stereotype broken - Women are not good at calculations and they do not understand directions!
The calculations seem pretty simple but the co-ordination between driver and navigator has to be precise for the winning is not based on who comes first but rather on who has the least score.
To briefly give an understanding, there are time controls (TC's) at certain intervals (unknown to the participants) and based on your calculations, your arrival at these TC's are recorded. If you reach a minute early, 2 points are added and if you reach a minute late, 1 point is added. It is therefore imperative that you try to get as little points added to your tally. The team with the least points wins the rally.
Also on display was creativity at its best - the best decorated car, the best dressed team, the best social message - each team trying to outwit the others and in the process spreading the message of the social cause they believed in.
The finale at Goa had more than 1000 women under the great night sky, letting their hair down, dancing away like there's no care in the world, breaking boundaries (unknown to us), breaking the most important stereotype - too many women under one roof - would be a disaster; but it was a superb experience - complete strangers dancing to the tunes of the DJ, laughing together, sharing stories, making friends.
So the next time any of us thinking - a woman can't drive, just a little thought to this Guinness Record breaking feat should put your minds at ease!