A year later

Rachana has now lived through the most challenging year of her life. It was last March when her Leukemia was diagnosed, without any warning. It is simply incredible what she has been through and I’ve seen first hand that she is now a stronger person than she has ever been. There are times when it becomes quite overwhelming, but overall she is a happy person and getting physically better each day.

On March 14th Rachana had another surgery, this time to amputate part of the left thumb, left index,and left middle fingers. These were necrotic (dead) due to blood clots and bacteria from the infection in her heart. It’s the same issue that resulted in bilateral foot amputations about a month ago. Going into the surgery she was comfortable and relaxed as usual. It was a day surgery (no planned night stay), and everything went well as per plan. The hand is healing well and the bandages will be removed later this coming week.

Earlier last week we had a follow-up visit with her foot and rehab doctors. They removed her cast, decided not to re-cast as the healing in both feet is almost complete. They gave her special boots that provide some cushion and support and she is now able to walk small distance with the help of a walker. Her pain is mostly under control but it does flare up once in a while. On one of the days when the physical and mental pain overwhelmed her, she was asking her mom if she will ever walk again normally, her mom assured her saying “You have learnt how to breath again; you will surely learn how will walk again”

With the lungs, heart, limbs and arteries all recovering (as much as they can) from the infections, the focus is now shifting to re-starting Chemotherapy. Thankfully the main course of her treatment is complete and only the ‘maintenance phases’ are pending. These maintenance related chemo drugs will not affect her blood counts, reduce her immunity or have severe side effects. This week the Oncologist did a bone marrow biopsy to check her Leukemia status to confirm that she is still in remission, so they can begin the maintenance phase. We’ll know the results in about 2 weeks. We are all eagerly waiting to hear that her Leukemia is still in remission.

As her life is slowly returning to normal, Rachana has now given up on wearing the headscarf and is sporting an awesome hairdo!