When this diagnosis came into our life our world was turned upside down.  With a  new baby new changes always follow but little did we know we would be dealing with such drastic changes in such a short amount of time.  Our families have always been amazing and supportive throughout this process, we are blessed to have them around us.  One thing no one realizes is that when you encounter something like cancer or any health-related diagnosis there SO many avenues for treatments, what the right thing to do is, what is the right thing to eat is and what and how many doctors should be counseled.  Advice is always great to make sure that you are looking at all aspects of treatments to get the best one possible.  But for a second I want to rant about the frustrations I feel when I want to listen to everyone but I am the most stubborn person you have ever met.  (I can thank my Capricorn star sign for that one).  When I make up my mind about what I want to do, I do it.  I know in my heart what I have decided will prevail and it is the right approach.  One thing I have learned and am continuing to learn is that letting your guard down goes a long way.  You have to let people in, in order to be the best version of yourself and to get the help you need.

This approach helped me emotionally deal with the hardest thing I knew I would have to encounter- my hair loss.  Last week my hair felt so ‘dead’ that I just wanted it off my head.  I didn’t know how I would tackle this alone.  My parents were coming up to the City to hang out with Kiaan and Ariaan the next day at Gargi’s condo so I called them up and asked my dad to bring his hair buzzer along.  Side note,  in our culture when babies are young they get their heads shaved off to help grow healthy hair.  My sisters both had their heads shaved as babies, I never did.  This was the MOST emotional thing I have ever had to experience in my life thus far.  I had my dad do the honors of buzzing my hair.  He was so nonchalant about it that it made me feel like this was no big deal at all.  Anytime I need to feel calm about life or anything that is bothering my dad helps me get that way right away.  This dreaded day came and left and I am so happy my parents were there every step of the way.

This was a drastic change that I knew I would have to face and I am glad its over.  But as anything in life you pick yourself up and it goes on.  I still get emotional from time to time but I know it will grow back and until then I will be rocking some fancy wigs and some chic hats!  Last week was also one of our Indian Holidays – Karvachauth.  It is a holiday where you fast for your husbands life. This would be my 3rd year participating in the tradition and I wasn’t about to let my Chemo get in the way of that.  I love our Indian culture and traditions and since my biggest thing with everything going on is that-I just want to be normal.  I did everything I would normally have done to celebrate the holiday and my body handled everything just amazing.  Its phenomenal to see what a little mindset does for your well-being.

I also had my 3rd session of Chemo on Friday and it was all around great news.  My tumor has shrunk to the size of a pebble, I only need 5 more treatments and all my labs are great.  My oncologist is very optimistic that I will complete Chemo on December 30th and have surgery at the end of January.  She even reinforced our idea of a big travel trip in January to celebrate completing chemo.   At this session I was happy to have 2 amazing visitors one of my best friends, Diane and my sweet cousin Shilpy.  This weekend of chemo was also fun-filled with my sister Sadhna visiting from LA to hang with the babies.  We went to the pumpkin patch and got to celebrate one of our friends daughter turning 2.  It is always so nice to be around people that you love to make you forget about what is the normal reality and what changes the future may hold.