Thanks to your prayers & love it’s been eight months since the date of transplant. Exactly 8 months ago i was going thru my last radiation cycle and the transplant started at 6:30PM! And what a coincidence, today we are back again in CMC. Vellore has nice cool weather now. All new faces (of patients) here. This place is bustling with energy, with pain & hope.

Cancer is a great leveller; it can challenge the young & the old, the rich & the poor, the educated & the ignorant, male or female, irrespective of religion, socio-economic status, cast or color of skin. However, one thing that strikes you is the poverty & disease is the worst combination to have. Also that kids fighting this battle are blissfully unaware of the gravity of it and maybe that’s the reason that they do well.

With so much insecurity to life, I sometimes wonder why some people take their own precious lives.. maybe they have had enough and can’t take it anymore. If only there were a way to tell people to cherish life and its beauty in various forms of nature, in its people and in their work and that ‘this shall pass too’… why should you die only because you lost your love, failed in an exam, got scolded by teacher, had a tiff with your spouse, or whatever ‘reason’. Yet, since we can’t stop all of them, imagine if they could ‘donate’ their lives to people who are fighting for a chance to live.

My blood work is not too abnormal for a transplant patient. It turned out that I was unnecessarily blaming sun for my tanned looks; these might be symptom of a possible GVHD. I’m also advised to stick to my drug schedule for next 6 weeks and see the doc post that.