Dear Friends and well wishers, I have been delinquent in keeping this page current with news of Sujata’s health. But what better way to make up for this lapse than to give you a quick status update on the first day of the year, along with the very best wishes to all for a Happy New Year.   May 2013 bring happiness, health and prosperity for all of you.[...]

Dear Friends and well wishers, I am happy to bring you some good news today. Sujata has come home from the hospital after a 26 day ordeal that will be difficult to forget anytime soon. As I mentioned on this page a few weeks ago, she was readmitted to Mount Sinai on Nov 8 with an onset of Graft versus Host Disease (GVHD), a relatively common reaction to bone marrow transplants. However, Sujata’s case was anything but common. What started as isolated patches of skin rash on the surface of her hands and legs, rapidly spread all over her body and turned into blisters that caused excruciating pain and an intolerable burning sensation. We, who saw her suffer through this agony every day, could barely walk out of her hospital room without tears. It would not be an exaggeration to say that her doctors were quite concerned. Thankfully, they were able to come up with a treatment plan that eventually brought the problem under control. About ten days ago, the situation started to turn around. The blisters dried up and the skin began to regain its original color. Throughout this difficult period, the nurses at Mount Sinai provided extraordinarily compassionate care. Often, they would stay up all night with Sujata, doing everything within their power to lessen her pain. They were angels of mercy and we are forever thankful for their kindness.[...]

Dear Friends and well wishers, I have had little time in the last few days to sit down for a few minutes and provide an update on Sujata’s condition. I was hoping that she would be home for Thanksgiving, but, unfortunately, her condition will require a longer hospital stay than we had anticipated.[...]

Dear Friends and well wishers, many of you have called or written in the last few days to inquire about Sujata’s progress. She is indeed getting better, but very very slowly. She has an intense case of GVHD (Graft versus Host disease) and while all the medication and treatment at the hospital is helping, she is still in a lot of discomfort, requiring intravenous pain medication and very high doses of steroids and, of course, many other drugs. The nurses who take care of her during the day and night are very efficient and caring and have done their utmost to make Sujata feel comfortable. We are eternally grateful to them.[...]

Dear Friends and well wishers, hard as it is for me to do, I have to bring you news about yet another small setback in Sujata’s recovery. This morning she had to be admitted again to Mount Sinai for acute Graft versus Host Disease (GVHD). Her whole body is now covered with rash that burns and pains and causes extreme discomfort. Unfortunately, for bone marrow transplant patients, GVHD comes with the territory and we can only hope and pray that for Sujata it will be short-lived.[...]

Sujata is home once again after a few difficult days at Mount Sinai. The doctors took care of her infection rather quickly, stabilized her condition and started a series of intensive tests for two days, including CAT scans and endoscopies, and other procedures to rule out complications from the transplant. Most of the results were clean, but to be on the safe side the doctors made a several changes in her medication, primarily to step up the fight against GVHD.[...]

Friends, today is exactly a week since Sujata returned home from the hospital and I was hoping to bring you a smiling picture of her with a brand new, colorful head scarf. That will have to wait for a bit. We have run into a small roadblock in Sujata’s recovery process. She had to be re-admitted to the hospital today to fight off what appears to be an infection. We hope this visit will be a short one, just a few days until the doctors get her immunity back in shape.[...]

Home sweet home!! In the picture above Sujata is sporting a big smile as she sits in our bedroom, a place she has missed so much for the past month. Alas, all the hair is gone. It had started to fall off in large clumps, as is common with people on chemo, so the hospital hair dresser shaved it all off. It will grow back soon we hope. In the meantime, Sujata intends to make strong fashion statements about stylish head coverings. So, all you "fashionistas" watch this space for more dazzling and colorful headgear.[...]

Friends who visited Sujata during the past week will probably remember a sign at the entrance to her room, sternly reminding visitors to put on gloves, mask and gowns. Yesterday the attending doctor walked into her room, looked at the latest blood report and with a big smile and asked the nurses to take the sign down. So now visitors can walk into her room without all the elaborate protection, because  her white blood count has moved past the “high infection” zone into safe territory, a sure sign that the transplanted cells have started to function.[...]

Three weekends feels like a longtime, but we know we need to be patient. As we have learnt, bone marrow transplant is a complex procedure and the passage through its complex steps can take unexpected turns. In Sujata’s case we are thankful that there have been very few surprises so far.[...]