If only I had listened..A Story by Aarti Sriram Ravin' Ink writing group Prompt for 12/14/2024: If only I had listened... (Ravin' Ink writing group Prompt for 12/14/2024: If only I had listened...) My father was diagnosed
with multiple myeloma two years ago. It’s a type of blood cancer. He had always
been healthy and active, a teetotaller all his life. He easily walked long
distances and climbed stairs and pretty much continued like his younger healthy days. Our relatives and new acquaintances always marvelled
at his energy and attitude. He always reminded us to be up and about early and
till late night he would enjoy talking and working etc. He never took any
medicines and preferred home food. Although he enjoyed his native Kerala spicy
food a lot and indulged relishing them from time to time. He was always eager
to know the new technology and embraced and learnt it much better than any other
in his generation. How can such a person who was happy and active and flexible
in his ways fall prey to such a dreadful disease after all these long years of
good health, we all thought. He was never sick, not even the now common blood
pressure or diabetes or any such lifestyle disease and now such a plausible psychosomatic
one. How will he handle it all in his late years of life. For a year he underwent treatment and chemotherapy. That was a sad period for all of us. We
children tried to take turns and be with him but could see him draining out in
spirit. When I was on an extended break to support my father, I discussed with him and family to shift his
base temporarily to my place and that meant change his hospital too. When they
agreed to try, we came down to my place and around 4 months of stay showed him
to a nearby hospital dedicated to oncology. We met a senior doctor here and
consulted and he gave us the same dosage of medicine and prescribed a chemotherapy
routine to follow. After about two weeks we found my father really struggling
with the after effects of chemo on his thin frail body. In the next appointment
I asked the doctor if we could lower the dosage or any other way to ease his
pain which seemed to be more destructive than the disease itself. My father
would eat nothing at all. We would spend so much time cooking something he
would like but he refused he did not find taste in anything. After a couple of tests, it
was seen that chemo had a good result and the traces of malignancy had reduced well
(he was in his second stage of cancer) and he was in remission. It was such a
relief to know. He had to still be on this maintenance drug so cancer doesn’t strike
back. The doctor spoke to us and I asked
again if we could reduce the dosage of this drug for a short break. The doctor
explained that my father could altogether stop taking chemo medicine, taking it
in smaller dose will be ineffective and still have big side effects. My father
readily agreed to stop this treatment and wait and see what would follow in
case we stopped the chemo. The doctor was supportive of my elderly father’s
decision. He clearly said “let your father decide how we want to continue, he
seems happier you asked his choice”. My siblings were not in agreement especially one of them. They
felt we were taking it lightly and pushing my father to a fatal future without
treatment. That he was not in his senses in order to decide for himself. I was scared too but something strong inside
me told to consider stopping it and let father live few days of break from this life giving but
deadly therapy. For a reasonable quality for the remainder of his life. In the coming days we tapered the medicine and then stopped it.
Its been more than two years
now and for most of this time my almost ‘Nonagenarian father’ is back to his usual self. He seems
happier, talks at length, goes for his walks and even drives his two wheeler
scooter to and fro from visiting the neighbourhood shops for errands, visits
temples and local relatives and also did a couple of air and train travelling between
cities visiting my siblings.. The biggest point was his attitude in recovering.
He never encouraged sad talks nor did he allow us to tell people about his
sickness. Also very important was that he fasted big lengths of time. Eating meagrely
and fasting (if one can) helps the bad cells to die. When you eat well you gain
strength ofcourse but you also feed these cancerous cells which multiply heavily
into malignancy. We read about this in few articles related to living herbal
and naturopathy ways to heal cancer at any stages with quiet a few success stories. There is still some traces of strain of tiffs between us siblings left from those hospital decision days. Sometimes I imagine what If I had listened to my siblings/relatives .... The expression 'if I only had listened to' usually has a negative connotation, my attempt above was to provide a positive reference to a similar such feeling. (Anju S, Amsterdam) .
© 2024 Aarti SriramFeatured Review
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13 Reviews  Last Updated on December 15, 2024 Author
Aarti SriramAmsterdam, NetherlandsAboutI am re-discovering life and more free time as an empty nester. Recalling so many days, giggles, events and emotions as I go about my day. Children bring a whole album of meaning, structure , strengt.. more.. |
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