I am blank. I am at a total loss of words. It’s not that I don’t get opportunity to access the Internet every now and then, but, that I am stuck in a chaos where the noises in my mind are buzzing all day . I think a lot is going on in our lives, that has jolted me out of my psychological comfort zone. I am shaken on all fronts. From being a worried daughter to a panic struck mother I feel I am finding myself incapable of handling stress like the way I think I should.

The biggest issue is being away from home. I guess I’ll be doing a long series of posts to cover the innumerable challenges I faced in the short span besides, it also has brought to me answers and solutions to many problems I had been facing with Pari.

Mum had been diagnosed with the Adenocarcinoma of the breast, duct type, last week. A few of the lymph nodes were palpable so the doctors in my home town had scared us to death saying the malignant tumour had already started spreading, making it an advanced case. Though the bright side of it all had been that from the day diagnosis was established, we were told that the tumour was yet in an operable stage.

Our initial plan was to seek treatment at the Tata Memorial Cancer Centre in Mumbai. As we began exploring about Tata memorial, calling up and meeting people to help us with information about the same ( I must thank all the people who sent in valuable tips, warnings and even many contact numbers to help me in the hour of need. I have been unable to reply to any of you, but will get around doing that at first opportunity) many issues came up.

Moving to an unknown city with a baby was a big concern that we sure couldn’t overlook despite the need to seek best possible treatment for my mother. Second major worry was the shortage of time. We had to act fast because the tumour needed removal at its earliest.

Given these two major concerns we decided on moving to a cancer institute that was well equipped, had experienced staff, was located in a city where we could manage Pari and my mother’s treatment besides having proven good results in the treatment of complicated cases like that of my mother.

After consulting lot of people, we zeroed down to Delhi*.

Flights were booked the same day as when we received the test reports. With just 24 hours at hand packing up bags for a travel where the stay was of unknown length. We also needed to make arrangements for things to be taken care of back home. It was indeed an uphill task. Yet we somehow managed.

The travel was a bumpy ride because it entailed road travel followed by a hopping flight ( due to absence of a direct flight) from my home town. It so happened that we learnt that Pari suffers from serious motion sickness that made her go nauseous with me serving as her puke bag during the road travel. We somehow freshened up at the airport before boarding the flight.

It being the first time Pari took a flight, she was very scared in the four hour flight with her crying yelling at her loudest almost 80% of the way. From angry glares to rough words to caring pursers to all the passengers offering tips to calm her down, I swallowed and lived it all in one flight.

We knew the air pressure changes were the main reason of her anguish, but her uncooperative self only added to her our misery. Anyhow, we finally reached Hyderabad just to finish off our day with me being puked over by a distressed, sick baby yet again.

From then on started our journey of my mother’s treatment. The appointments were booked well in advance, that helped greatly, for it took us full 48 hours to get all the tests repeated (as is the usual practice of all private hospitals). Her tumour was staged as being midway between stage 2 and stage 3 (stage 4 being the last stage). Though her full body scans and many similar tests have shown negative signs of any metastasis (spread of cancer cells in body).

On Saturday, after an extensive surgery that lasted over 3 hours, the tumour tissue was removed and sent over for histological examination. It’s 48 hours hence. Mum is doing fine. Her diabetes has been a major issue but like everything else it too is being addressed aggressively.

Reports of the histological examination are yet to be received. Though mum is already on a normal diet, been allowed to move around, carry on with normal movements and has started taking everything (food and medicines) orally. It’ll be a few days before she is discharged and further treatment planning (regarding chemotherapy, etc.) will be discussed at length soon.

A heartfelt thank you to all the wonderful people who have been keeping us in their prayers and have been sending loads of good wishes our way. You all have been a major support and results are sure showing the power of positive vibes sent our way.

** there has been no opportunity to proofread any posts, so please excuse the many errors in posts, replies and emails I have been sending and will be sending in the days to come.

*Name of the city edited to protect identity