Status on Friday, September 21

Hello everybody, I just got back from the hospital and am happy to report that, after almost two days of intense chemotherapy, Sujata looks remarkably well, as you can see from the picture above. As expected her blood counts have fallen, with hemoglobin at 6.3, but her spirit remains high. She is allowed to eat only well cooked food and drink distilled water to minimize the risk of infection. Most of the discomfort from the surgically implanted catheter seems to have subsided, so she can sleep on her side without waking up from pain. We know that tougher days lie ahead, but Sujata seems to have made a running start to meet the future head on. And, perhaps more than anything else, your posts on the website have done wonders for her. She reads them over and over again on her iPad and her face lights up with a ear-to-ear grin.

Please visit when you can

For our friends in the New York area, Sujata would love it if you stopped by. The nurses  expalined the visitor rules to me and they are pretty simple -- no children under 12, no more than two persons near her room at one time and no food , flowers or plants.  In other words, if you brought food, I would have to eat it before they would let you in (hint, hint!!). I am only kidding. The visiting hours are from 11:30 am to 8:30 pm.

Sujata had a steady stream of visitors yesterday and today. Our children Anjali and Rahul and our daughter-in-law Kate have been spending a lot of time with her. Since they live pretty close to the hospital, they drop in whenever they have time. Some of our friends from Westchester came today and really boosted her spirits.

Let me repeat the details from the last post: You can enter the hospital either from Madison Ave. or  Fifth Ave. and take the East elevators to the 11 th floor. When you get off the elevator, walk towards the atrium and make a left to follow signs to the Center Tower, Oncology Care Center and then to Room 208A.  There is metered parking for 2 hours on Fifth Ave., opposite the hospital.

Photographs

I have been taking a lot of pictures of Sujata in the hospital, with the intention of putting them in this website, but unfortunately every time I have tried to do this, I have gotten an error.  Until I figure out how to solve this problem, I will be putting the pictures on Picasaweb. If you  click on the link "Pictures at the Hospital" on the left of the left side of this page, it should take you to the photo album.