Cancer

Moyna Sen, our editor reviews cancer survivor Geetha Paniker's book "When I Fell in Love with Life". Even as you read this beautiful review, you will feel emotional and want to read the book.    Geetha Paniker does not come across as a Cancer survivor. She, on the other hand, seems like someone who has not only conquered the dreaded ailment, but has, also, in the process, learnt the prized art of celebrating life. Even though she calls Cancer the Emperor of Maladies as…

Cancer patients are prone to infections and the home environment must be kept clean. Precautions to follow if they are on chemotherapy or radiotherapy treatment. Dr. Shital Raval shares practical tips for cancer patients and their caregivers to follow with cancer at home.  SELF: Keep a pair of gloves handy at home and wear them to clean any spills, cleansing surfaces or disposing trash. Remember to wash hands with soap before and after wearing gloves! Use antibacterial or bleaching…

B V Lakshmi, who has put up a courageous fight against cancer three times, appreciates life profoundly and says the mind has miraculous power to even change the effect of the DNA. My mother was milking the cow when she had her pains and I was delivered right there in the cow shed in a huge family mansion house in Madurai! That’s why people used to say “Thavuttukku vaangeena pullai”, meaning bought from the cows! I grew up amidst a large family in Chennai. My mother had 16…

Rajalakshmi Siva, caregiver of a person with cancer and co-author of 'When Thoughts Invade the Cancer Conqueror’, recounts her days of a caregiver and how she coped with it right through the ordeal. What started the journey to hell and back was a pool of blood with a few drops of urine trailing him all the way up the driveway, to the parking lot, into the lift, and into the house and thence to the washroom. It was reminiscent of a silent scream that seemed to reverberate: Hell is empty and all…

Nilakanta Siva recounts how his smoking habit caught up with him later in life well after he had kicked the habit. He now lives without a bladder, prostate, several lymph nodes and a solitary kidney. And wishes he had not started smoking. “Hey, Siva, you know what. They are asking for volunteers to join the National Cadet Corps,” shouted Vijay. You get credits for the hours you spend at NCC. You need not even attend Biology classes, totally exempt.” “That is great. Long live the NCC option.” We…

By Geetha Paniker, a survivor of triple negative cancer with double mastectomy reflects on and celebrates her 5 year Cancer Anniversary. A believer of being positive against all odds who pens, all that the mind can reason with the heart.  A teacher, turned home maker, she loves reading, writing and handicrafts.  Cancer-Anniversary. An anniversary is a day to celebrate an occasion or an event or something significant in life. It is a milestone of something very precious…

Diagnosed with advanced lung cancer, author and neurosurgeon Paul Kalanithi chronicles his illness and death in an emotionally moving book, When Breath Becomes Air, which is currently topping the New York Times bestseller list. Our editor Shivani Maheshwari shares her view: There are not many books that leave you as unsettled as Paul Kalanithi’s When Breath Becomes Air. It gets difficult to hold back the tears at the end, as Kalanithi battles time to chronicle his illness…

By Geetha Paniker, a survivor of triple negative cancer with double mastectomy. A believer of being positive against all odds who pens, all that the mind can reason with the heart. A teacher, turned home maker, she loves reading, writing and handicrafts.  Life after cancer teaches us to look at how we want to live in the future. Some may want to do things they’ve often thought about but never got a chance to do in the rat race of life, perhaps visit places they’ve…

Arun M Sivakrishna's father did not smoke or drink, nor did he chew tobacco. He still got oral cancer. Arun shares a poem from his collection "Songs of a Solitary Tree" My dad had oral cancer as well other ailments related to heart conditions and diabetes. He lost his left jaw bone. The irony is he never used to smoke or chew tobacco or drink. He had an abscess in the liver that was operated. He joked to me: "you smoke, I gave my jaw..you drink and I had to give my liver"..…

Breaking bad news to patients can be daunting and difficult, especially for caregivers.  Maya Ramachandran narrates her experience when she and her husband were caught in such a catch-22 situation.   My husband’s close relative was experiencing sudden onset of bleeding after almost 25 years post-menopause, at the age of 75! Fearing that it could be cancer, she had shied away from meeting doctors. After a whole year of having struggled with this almost alone, she …