Rays Of Hope, Happiness & Life

Rays of Hope, Happiness, and Life: Discover inspiring stories of courage and resilience from cancer patients who have turned their battles into beacons of hope for others.

16/01/2025

Blog 4

A 74-Year-Old Courageous Woman Battling Cancer with Unwavering Determination

I am reminded of song from Bollywood movie “Three Idiots” – “Behti hawa sa tha woh……….”as I share this story with you.

Mrs. Aseema, a 75-year-old lady was brought to me on a wheelchair by her driver. As our conversation unfolded, I realized that Mrs. Aseema’s husband was a lawyer and he had passed away around 20 years back and the couple did not have any children. So far last 20 years, Mrs. A was living by herself. She was on wheelchair as she had a hip fracture few years back and it was fixed surgically and she could walk with mild limp, but she preferred to use wheelchair when outside her home.

Mrs. A was recently diagnosed with stage II cervical Cancer after few episodes of post-menopausal vaginal bleeding. She had already done biopsy, MRI, and PET CT by the time she reached to me. Her opening statement was that – Please don’t pity at me and I am looking for a world class treatment for my ailment.

I explained to her that she will require 25 sessions of radiation therapy (RT/IGRT) followed by 3 sessions of internal radiation/brachytherapy. For 25 sessions of RT, she will have to come to hospital 5 days every week for 5 weeks. Brachytherapy sessions will be weekly once and will be done after IGRT. Brachytherapy will require hospital admission and anesthesia. I thought overall this treatment itself would be logistically challenging for her keeping in mind that she was living all by herself.

Mrs. A asked me if there was any requirement for chemotherapy along with RT, I told her that yes ideally, she needs very light version of chemotherapy along with RT. The challenge was that chemotherapy will require weekly admission in day care. And my bigger worry was that in case she gets vomiting/fever in the middle of night then who will get her to hospital assuming that her driver would leave by evening. To my dismay, she replied “Doctor sahab I will book ola/uber and come. Don’t worry I want best treatment. Had my late husband been alive, he would have ensured that I get best medical care. Please don’t compromise on my treatment”.

Skeptically we started her on IGRT and chemotherapy. There were no relatives that I met during those 5 weeks of treatment. Everyday she would come with her driver for her radiation and chemotherapy. Driver only signed in the “witness” box in the consent form.

She did very well on both the treatments. We reached the time point of starting her brachytherapy. At this point, I put my foot down and told Mrs. A that she needs to bring some relative as anesthesia and brachytherapy are invasive procedures. She promised to call her niece, on the days of procedure. Her niece did come for her procedures but just to sign the medical consent form and would disappear within 5 minutes of her arrival citing her own chores and responsibilities.

Alas the day of last treatment came, and I told her happily that her treatment is done successfully. She was happy too but immediately said “Dr there are black circles and bogginess underneath my eyes, who is the good plastic surgeon in your hospital”. And without a pause came second question from her “When can I go out of Delhi for a vacation?”.

This is the spirit of human life!

Here was this old lady fighting cancer alone at the age of 75 years with full hope, energy, and enthusiasm- all by herself. No complaints. No tears. No self-pity. While many of us forget to count are blessings that our near ones are around us for care and support as one undergoes the journey of diagnosis and treatment.

And I forgot to share that she used to cook her food by herself even during the treatment. In fact, she used to always boast that her pickles and chutneys were very popular in her neighbourhood and would get some for me too.

Salutations to this brave lady.