Redmond, March 19th, 2008 - A day I will never forget in my life. Shivam, my almost 3 year old son, was diagnosed with Leukemia this fateful evening.
He had been sick with ear infections for now almost 6 months, but nothing was serious or alarming. He had a fever now for almost 10 days. We had been many times to his pediatrician (Dr. Jule Wen) who is simply fabulous. She is one of the best doctors we have met. Simply.
That fateful evening, we met Dr. Wen around 5 PM for another fever checkup. After doing a bunch of routine exams, she was not convinced that this was almost normal and ordered a blood test. She promised to call us as soon as she got the results back.
She kept her promise. Her call came in just before we were about to eat our dinner. She broke the news very gently. Shivam's WBC were a whopping 83,000 (normal is 14,000). His RBC and platelets were also very low. We were speechless, shellshocked, blood drained out our system. We broke down.
AT THAT MOMENT IN TIME, OUR LIFE CHANGED FOREVER.
We called our friends Kapil and Jyotika to pick our 9 month old daughter Meera and rushed with Shivam to Children's Hospital in Seattle. Dr. Wen had called ahead and nurses were waiting for us in the reception. They took us inside and immediately started the tests. Many doctors came, talked a lot, but I have no idea or recollection of what they were saying. Only the words "cancer", "Leukemia", "Shivam" were going on in our minds.
Anyways, Shivam was diagnosed as a High risk case because of his high WBC count and age. He had more tests and then some more tests. Again, we have no idea what was happening. Our life was being shattered into a zillion peices in front of our eyes and we had no strength to fight it. We do remeber terms life blood transfusion, etc., but again, give me a break.
WHY OUR SON, OH GOD, WHY HIM...
Saturday, March 22, 2008
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3 comments:
With the gentleness of snowflakes and the strength of a mountain walk on with him the path to a rainbow of victory.
Manjushree
Nikhil you render me speechless. How do I comfort you, Urmila and above all our baby Shivam. I feel helpless sitting here and of no help. I am not even able to share your physical ordeal leave alone the emotional. I can only sense your hearts bleed at, mildly put, his pain, his agony. You are doing your best, but as a parent you are bound to beleive its not enough unless you could yourself be in his place. Almighty please spare him and give his pain to me as I don't want any of my loved ones to hurt.
I was drowned in tears when I read this blog for the first time.Nikhil and urmila,I appreciate your efforts and I am sure that shivam will recover from bed and do play normally like other kids.Thanks for updating..
God will definetly help shivam ..VANI
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