a year of lymphoma

Part 1 Lymphoma

It started with bouts of pain on the left side of her lower abdomen. The pain was tolerable and not constant. She presumed it was because of eating some wrong foods as she would also be constipated if she was even a bit careless about what she ate. But one day the pain increased. Her tests revealed that she had Lymphoma. A kind of blood cancer that affects the immune system.

She was in the Intensive Care Unit of a respectable hospital. Soon Chemo and Immune therapies started. Every day her blood was tested and dosage for therapies decided.

The therapies were very harsh. She had acute nausea and diarrhoea. She could not keep a bite of food or a drop of water in her body. Her abdomen was on fire and each bone of her body had stinging pain. She either felt chilling cold or started sweating. There were hot flashes, pain in nails, bones, joints, stomach, restlessness, flem , nausea and no sleep.

After a couple of months and extensive discussions with her oncologist she was given Homoeopathic medicine. These were two sets of little packets of some white powder. She was given three packets from the first set, before breakfast, after lunch and in the evening. From the second set she got only one packet after dinner. Her homoeopathic medicine were to help her body endure the jangling allopathic immunotherapy.

Homoeopathic medicine made the cruel but lifesaving treatment tolerable. It controlled nausea & vomiting, bruising & bleeding and allowed her to start eating and drinking the required amount of water. .

Homeopathic medicines could not cure her as one time the senior most oncologist told her that she had six more months and the doctors would do their best that her last six months on earth were comfortable.

She started writing extensively. In her writings the female protagonist was always a healthy able bodied female. But her own body betrayed her again and again. Every time a part of her body gave up her determination to make that a challenge and face it made her soul win.

She was conscious to look good and not stunning as she did in her youth. For that she innovated her own style of dressing up, makeup, jewellery etc. She felt satisfied with her appearance. As an elderly woman she was a picture of elegance, simplicity and grace. Any time of the day or night she looked the same. She felt free from the pressure to look stunning. Her expenditure on her clothes almost became nil. She never went to any beauty parlour. Never bought expensive creams and lotions for her dry skin. Instead she relied on oils and Vaseline. First time she understood the marketing strategy of product creators and producers. How venerable youngsters and non-wise elders were made to think that if they did not follow the trend set up by creators and producers of a product they were the losers in society.

She was happy that she broke that mould and realised that people still wanted to be friends with her because she was more than her physical self and looking good and pleasant was good enough.

During those six months she became the first academician, environmentalist, and author with damaged brain, blood cancer & necrophagy. She wondered if there was something else she was longing for? Probably her spiritual rebirth. She was certain that the karmas of this birth which she was careful to curate with her conscious being, would help her cross the ocean of life to her next birth, smoothly.

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