Septtember 25: Done with Chemotherapy

Today was the last day of chemo and while she still manages to smile often, you can tell from looking at her (picture above) that this regimen of harsh drugs has really taken its toll on Sujata. They have been giving her blood every day to keep the hemoglobin levels to around 6, and lots of medicine to counter nausea and various other side effects of the chemo. Extreme fatigue has set in and she seems to have lost taste for food. She has eaten little since yesterday. This afternoon, Kate, who is an avid cook, made some special pasta and brought it over for lunch. And with a magic touch she managed to feed Sujata most of it. The nurses were relieved.

This evening many friends stopped by to visit, and for a short while Sujata seemed to forget her tiredness. She sat up in bed to greet every friend with her characteristic enthusiasm. Tomorrow is a day of rest. Hopefully, she will feel a little better and get mentally ready for the big day on Thursday, when the doctors infuse the donor’s stem cells.

Keeping watch

Our family has settled on a fairly stable routine for being with Sujata. Anjali and Rahul come in the evening around 7 or 8 and stay late, often till after 11. Kate, who has a flexible work schedule, shows up most afternoons. And I typically leave work around 3 to get to the hospital around 4:15 or so and then stay till around 8.  We all come with our laptops, so that whenever Sujata falls asleep half way through a conversation, we quickly catch up on work.

Posters for Sujata’s room

While Sujata does have a lot of visitors, there are long periods during the day when she lies in bed alone, surrounded by medical equipment. These days she does not have the energy to get out of bed to take a short stroll. If you have ideas about how we can make her room more attractive, please let me know. One of our close friends loaned us a poster of van Gogh’s famous painting “Café Terrace at Night”, which we have put up on the wall, so Sujata can look at it as she lies in bed (see picture in the album on left). Perhaps she can reminisce about our visit to Paris shortly after we got married, and walked hand in hand on many streets like the one in the painting.  I do plan to take her there again soon... she can count on it.