Words by Ojaswee Karki<\/p>\n
The first ever question Oncologists receive with a new cancer diagnosis has always
\nbeen<\/p>\n
How long will I survive?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I was overwhelmed, shocked, and devastated. Nobody in my family ever
\nhad cancer, which made my diagnosis more difficult to handle.
\nAfter a final PET scan, I was told I had become cancer-free. I felt like a winner that
\nday. My entire family, and relatives, we all had won. This felt like a rebirth, a new
\nlife.
\nCancer is a challenging journey. It is life-changing, I believe it is an experience
\nthat never truly leaves you. Getting a renewed life made me realize life is sweet.<\/p>\nThe first ever question Oncologists receive with a new cancer diagnosis
\nhas always been \u201cHow long will I survive?\u201d The answer is neither easy
\nfor the patient party to listen to nor for the doctor to reply. The response
\ndepends upon the patient's underlying health, the aggressiveness of the
\ncancer, the stage of the disease at the time of diagnosis, and the available
\ntreatment choices.
\nNow I believe it\u2019s not just these but the willpower to wage a war against
\nthe disease and the motivation to survive. I survived cancer not once but
\ntwice. I\u2019m a fighter and this is my story. The journey wasn\u2019t like
\ntreading on a path with roses laid on rather the ones with thorns. My
\nfamily has been the biggest support system and my motivation to
\nsurvive. Now we have found a purpose in sharing our experience and
\ngiving back to others, if not direct support, some motivation, and more
\nhope.
\nI was in my thirties, doing apparently well until I noticed a lump on my
\ntorso. The very next day I was at my general physician\u2019s clinic. He sent<\/p>\nme for several blood tests, a PET scan, and a biopsy of the lump was
\ndone. The next few days were a hell of a ride, I didn\u2019t speak to anybody,
\nmy appetite remained no more and my self-diagnosis had begun, which I
\nnow consider a very dangerous thing to do. But the lump had taken away
\nmy sleep, my happiness, literally everything.
\nIf the days before the diagnosis were this tough, you can already imagine
\nhow my days after the diagnosis were to pass. You guessed it right,
\nthose days were even worse. I\u2019d consider them to be the worst in my life
\nto date. A week later my doctor called us and let us know I had been
\ndiagnosed with Leiomyosarcoma. The doctor also mentioned it was a
\nrare type of cancer of smooth muscle tissue. I was overwhelmed,
\nshocked, and totally devasted. Nobody in my family ever had cancer,
\nwhich made my diagnosis more difficult to handle, my physical pain
\nwas much less compared to the emotional turmoil I and my family were
\nundergoing. All I could think of were my kids and my husband. I
\ncouldn\u2019t imagine them living their lives without me. This became my
\nmotivation, I promised myself to stay strong and fight cancer not just for
\nme but for my family.
\nWith the diagnosis came other important messages from the doctors,
\nuncountable referrals, tests and a lot of information. It was difficult to
\nfocus when I was so worried about dying already, I would only hear half
\nthe things, I couldn\u2019t process anything I was being told. I had become
\nreally weak that is when my husband became my strength and decided to
\ntake me to BP Cancer Hospital, Chitwan for treatment and I am thankful
\nto my kids who at such a young age let me go, took care of themselves
\nand never let me worry about our home.
\nAfter few appointments, my treatment began. First I underwent radiation
\nsessions, then surgery and finally chemotherapy. After around 2 weeks
\nof chemotherapy, my hair began to fall. Soon I became bald, had no
\neyebrows, I had never imagined myself in this state, looking in the
\nmirror had become a horror for me, I felt like looking at a stranger. I<\/p>\nnever liked people pitying me, so we got a wig, to hide my bald head.
\nEvery person is different and has different ways to embrace their life and
\nI was fortunate enough to find my comfort my way. My hair loss
\njourney was tough but my family didn\u2019t let me shed tears, my relatives
\nwere by my side and my colleagues were understanding too. It was
\nsimply incredible to come across so much humanity during my darkest
\ntime.
\nAfter a final PET scan, I was told I had become cancer-free. I felt like a
\nwinner that day. My entire family, and relatives, we all had won. This
\nfelt like a rebirth, a new life. The constant threat of death, the shearing
\npain in my heart, the haze in my mind all had cleared, I was more alive
\nthan I\u2019d ever been. There is life before, during, and after cancer. And I
\nlearned to handle things in my life that I had no control over and started
\ndealing and dwelling differently.<\/p>\nFor 3 years I got my PET scan done every 6 months. Everything went
\nwell until one scan showed nodules in both my lungs. They were too
\nsmall to be operated on and even biopsy had become a challenge. Finally
\nafter 3 months the nodules showed an increase in size and a biopsy was
\nattempted which diagnosed me with Lung Cancer, this time it was Stage
\n4. It wasn\u2019t of pulmonary origin but rather a metastasis of my previous
\ncase. The previous cancer of mine had spread in the lung and remained
\nundetected for this long. We were grief-stricken again. I felt like my
\nbody had betrayed me. I was confused, bewildered, like it was all a bad
\ndream, unreal, a mistake in the diagnosis. It seemed unfair.
\nI had lost hope this time. But thanks to my pillars of strength my family.
\nI was surrounded by an army of people with positive attitude, my mum,
\nsisters, and relatives. I found comfort in them. A positive attitude is like
\nsprings in a bike. Though springs don\u2019t change the bumps in the road but
\nthey make the road journey smooth. Similarly, their optimism filled me
\nwith life. I gathered my strength because I still had a long battle to fight.<\/p>\nAnd I knew I wasn\u2019t alone in what I was going through. The things that
\nwere happening to me were common to other cancer fighters too\u2013
\nlethargy, myalgia, anorexia, black nails, palatal changes, insomnia,
\nbloating, everything was different yet similar too. We were learning how
\nto live with the uncertainty and we were in this together.
\nA wonderful team of doctors treated me and decided I had to undergo
\nVATS (video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery). Thanks to the almighty,
\nthe surgery was successful. After 6 cycles of chemotherapy and a final
\nPET scan, doctors declared I was cancer-free again and this time forever.
\nCancer is a challenging journey. It is life-changing, but it\u2019s definitely not
\none\u2019s entire life, I believe it is an experience that never truly leaves you.
\nGetting a renewed life made me realize life is sweet. Had I never had the
\ntaste of this bitterness I wouldn\u2019t have learned to live life to the fullest. It
\nmade me ponder upon the remorselessness of time. Now I think the
\npoint of surviving is to enjoy your life and help others in need. I want to
\ncreate a world where cancer patients don\u2019t have to choose between
\nsurvival and quality of life. I survived you can too.
\nI want others to know that there is always hope until the last breath and
\nthey are not alone, we are in this together, and there is another patient
\njust like you. There are treatments, surgical procedures, and research is
\nongoing. It\u2019s happening. Furthermore, the fact that there are people
\nwho\u2019ve devoted their lives to the pursuit of cancer cure, should tell us
\nthat hope should never die. Sometimes holding on to hope is a test of our
\nfaith in God. And we know miracles happen by God\u2019s grace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Words by Ojaswee Karki The first ever question Oncologists receive with a new cancer diagnosis has always been How long will I survive? I was overwhelmed, shocked, and devastated. Nobody in my family ever had cancer, which made my diagnosis more difficult to handle. After a final PET scan, I was told I had become …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":4740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[39,107],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-feature","category-flash-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/medicosnext.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/09-11-2017_DYK_Cancer_Survivor_Purple_Ribbon_475929340.jpg?fit=600%2C287&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicosnext.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicosnext.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicosnext.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicosnext.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicosnext.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4738"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/medicosnext.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4739,"href":"https:\/\/medicosnext.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4738\/revisions\/4739"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicosnext.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicosnext.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicosnext.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicosnext.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}