OUR BLOGGER DEPARTS

I pen down this last blog with heavy heart as Kartik leaves for heavenly abode. This gives us the evidence that even the kingdom of God has dearth of noble and kind-hearted people so He takes them away from us. Though Kartik is not with us physically, his soul is very much with all of us. I am sure a star is born somewhere amongst us at 6.55 A.M. today.

He led an exemplary life and I am at loss of words to describe that. After fighting a long battle for 18 months, Kartik finally succumbed to his illness. I am happy that he put a brave front till last and exuded energy and courage throughout. May his soul rest in peace.

We have organized a prayer meeting on Saturday between 5-6 P.M. The venue is still not decided, however, we will do that in a day or two.

We thank you all for your continued encouragement, support and prayers, however, HE wanted Kartik to be with Him sooner and so be it.

Kartik in ICU

It is indeed sad to share with you all that Kartik is not doing too well and is currently admitted in Intensive Care Unit. The fever spike last night accompanied by low blood pressure, high pulse rate and breathing problem led doctors to take this decision. He was being observed till morning, however, his oxygen saturation level was not upto mark so doctors had to succumb to putting Kartik on ventilator. Kartik is sedated presently and his vital signs are being monitored. His chest x-ray doesn’t look too good. The doctors are doing their bit. However, "The Super Doctor” has some plans that we are unaware of. Let’s pray and hope for the best.

Drug Induced Depression?

Yes, the cheerful and positive Kartik is not doing so well since last couple of days. He hit a low, however, he is trying hard to bounce back. The doctors did not deny that this could be a possible side effect of prolonged use of one of the antibiotics. Currently the doctors are holding that drug.

The doctors are great and they are doing their best. They still seem to be clueless regarding the cause of fever. Loads of antibiotics are being given, however, Kartik's body is resisting all of them. Yesterday they did chest x-ray and found some lesions around the lung. This could be due to:

1. Possible Fungal Infection 2. Any other infection 3. Leukemic Deposits

The doctors are trying to figure out this too. Let's hope and pray for the best.

As a student of statistics, I have learnt that the normal distribution is represented as a "bell-shaped" curve. There are escalations and de-escalations in values that makes the graph. However, philosophically speaking doesn't that represent our life? And the wise men named that "normal" distribution! We too have highs and lows. So, let's accept what comes our way and hope for the best.

Fever 101.4

The cells in the Kartik’s body were enjoying a “five star hospitality” until yesterday when the doctors downgraded the heavier antibiotics to lighter ones. However the cells didn’t like the “three star treatment” so they decided to rebel. Kartik was running a slight high temperature today early morning. Fever has been playing hide and seek since last night. The heavier antibiotics have started so things should be in control by tomorrow.

WBCs are also upset this time due to onslaught of stronger chemo drugs and therefore not ready to budge from 100. Hopefully they should also start rising from next week.

Now some good news for you – Kartik has found potential 10/10 matches from NMDP registry. We are going for another round of tests to find the best match amongst them. The process is lengthy so it will take some time to find the right donor. Over and above many people would be vacationing at this time of the year. Hoping that everything falls in its place at the right time.

We can't thank you all enough for your continuous prayers and support.

Finding Lost Avid Letterman

This morning I had the strong urge to write a letter, not an email, using the good old pen. These days pens have been relegated for menial task of signing on the dotted line or they are simply used as ornaments on your attire. I sincerely regret that.

So I decided to write. I could think of no other recipient than my uncle, who was the one responsible for me to get started with letter writing. In my childhood days we exchanged many letters. As time went by I got mired in other things and simply gave up on writing. Had it not been for my correspondences with my uncle I probably would not have realized that I like writing. Had I continued writing I would not have been a software engineer but probably a student of some linguistics subject.

There is something meditative and blissful about writing with a pen. Time slows down. Your mind relaxes. I almost felt like a cow chewing the cud ever so slowly in green pastures :). I am a touch-typist and I can type really fast. However, neither the slowness of writing with pen nor the absence of spell-checkers and rich text formatting made me groan. Made a mistake? Simply scratch the wrong words and write the right ones beside them. To err is human, right? It is amazing that despite the slowness of this art you never realize that you have already finished few pages in no time. I enjoy the timelessness experienced while writing.

I only wish that my handwriting was a little more presentable. When I come across a written matter written in beautiful handwriting it makes my heart yearn to have such a skill.

So folks write a letter instead of an email once in a while and experience the bliss :).

Maya Needs Help

Maya is a 4 year old child of a Caucasian father and an Indian mother. She is suffering from a rare blood disease called HLH. The parents are desperately trying to find a donor but the search is difficult because Maya is of mixed race.

If you do know couples of similar mixed races, kindly pass on the message to them. You can find more about Maya here. Here is an article that appeared in LA Times. Her website can be found here

Back After Hiatus

So creating a climate of your liking around you like a mountain does is not as easy as I thought. :) I must admit that I botched up and did all the things I should not do - things proscribed by the manual of positivity. I cried when I got admitted on the first day. I rarely do. But it just happened partially because of the physical pain afflicted while putting the new line and partially because I refused to accept that all this was happening. For many days I only thought about the bleak side of things. Getting a person whose bone marrow HLA type matches mine seemed like a futile exercise.

That was some days back. I am in much better shape now. Relentless flow of positive thoughts and prayers from friends and family and reading the book that Surbhi talked about 2 posts ago has helped me immensely.

Please don't give up on me. I am still confident that I will take my next few months of treatment with stride and come out of it successfully.

A Quick Update

Isn’t it amazing how our body works? Kartik was quite unwell yesterday, however, believe it or not he is once again back into action today and that too with a laptop in his lap! The stronger dose of antibiotics worked. WBCs became visible today on the machine after going into hiding yesterday. The poor machine doesn’t report when WBC count is insignificant or less than 100 due to its own limitations. There is still some time before WBCs reach a normal range.

A dear friend of Kartik donated his platelets yesterday and that is the reason you see a respectable number in the table on the right. Blood and Platelet transfusions would be frequent in the next two weeks. On the donor front the news is that we have got 12 matching donors on low resolution DNA typing. We have still to find a matched donor on high resolution DNA typing. The search is going on. Keeping our fingers crossed that we find a donor as soon as possible.

I think a quick update went a little longer. Kartik’s neural circuitry is still finding the right connections to get back to blogging. In the meanwhile this is the best you can get from me. :-)