I did not want to structure my blog as a series of chronological posts. There is just way too much to recap in one year, and I wanted to move fast with this. So I decided it’s best to post random “thoughts of the day”, whether pertaining to any particular event in the past or just any idea that comes to my mind.
However, I also do realize that I have been keeping a lot of you in the dark for a long time. So to catch you up, I will also randomly insert posts that “recap” events starting from the time of my first diagnosis.
The reason so many of you have not been told about my condition until very recently is my mom. She had had a brain hemorrhage a year before that, making her blood pressure unstable for a long time. Whether this thinking was scientifically valid or not, my family had decided to keep my condition a secret from her, figuring that, the less stress she is exposed to, the better. And to keep it a secret from her, I should keep it a secret from anyone who knows and has a way to pass information to her. Secrecy is a big bubble.
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In the fall of 2017, I was ready to start a new chapter in my life. I got an exciting job offer from a top Silicon Valley company (Facebook), something I had wanted for a long time. I packed up my things, moved to California, ready to embark on this new opportunity. And I did all this depite having to leave my girlfriend Diane and my house in Boston.
That chapter turned out to be short-lived. About two months into my new job, I started feeling discomfort in my chest. After ignoring the symptoms for about 2 weeks, I went to have them checked out. The following two days were a series of test results; prognoses; talks with doctors with calm expressions in their faces but alarming tones in the voices; overnight stays at the hospital; follow-up appointments; more tests. First, it was an unknown mass in the chest; then maybe thymoma; then lymphoma. Both, as the doctors said, were very curable in young patients. Finally, after the bone marrow biopsy results came back, I received a call from the oncologist, all while lounging in the outdoors areas of the Facebook campus, casually doing work. It was leukemia in the end.
Things started to sound more serious. Treatment, as the doctor said, would take at least 4-6 months. ‘Talk to your company’, they said, ‘because this is a life or death situation’.
What followed up was a long call with Diane. She got really upset, had to leave the meeting she was in for a while. In the end, she told me to come back to Boston so that I can go through all this with her and my close friends next to me.
I packed up my things and flew back home the next day.
Just another chapter 