How (Anaplastic oligodendroglioma) it all began:

My family story is a bit old, like 25 years ago. In June 1996, my father was diagnosed with a hybrid brain tumor. This made my father's energy level go down. After consulting with a doctor at AIIMS Delhi, it was very clear that he needed surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation.

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Diagnosis and Treatment:

The diagnosis was so bad. After the surgery, the doctor informed my mother that he did not have a lifespan of more than 1.5 years. We had the option to go abroad, but we decided to stick to Indian treatment as our neurosurgeon was one of the best. My father had the will to fight. In the last 6 months of my father's life, we went through very aggressive chemotherapy treatments. We knew he was declining, and it was tough to save him. In September 2001, due to a strange reaction to one of the chemo drugs, he lost his eyesight. This was a very dark period in our lives. Initially, we thought that he had only lost partial eyesight.

 One day while we were sitting in the room, and he asked us to switch on the light or pull off the curtains. We told him the lights were on, but he did not believe us. We then realized how bad the situation was. He too realized what was going on and stopped talking as he was in shock. He survived from June 1996 to June 2001. We are satisfied with the fact that we did not leave any stone unturned. We even went for gamma knifing, in which they burn the cancer cells. This cannot be done for all types of cancers. For example, in the case of blood cancer (Anaplastic oligodendroglioma), we can't burn blood. We also tried Ayurvedic treatment from Ahmedabad. We also did Gayatris mantra Jaap every morning to keep him fresh and to increase his power to fight.

How did you manage your student life?

My student life was from 1995 to 1999. When my friends used to make plans to go somewhere, I was always in a hurry to get back to Delhi. My brother and I focused more on our careers because we wanted to give our parents a good quality of life."

How did we handle the news of Cancer?

Initially, we were surprised by the fact that a person who exercises so much and has an active lifestyle can get such a disease, but then we were more focused on his treatment. My mother was upset listening to what the doctors were telling. She wanted him to be with her for life. We were upset when we realized that the tumor was spreading rigorously to other parts of the body. Also, the treatment had side effects.

Parting message

However bad the news is, there is always hope. Support the patient, give them the will to live and fight. Explore all lines of treatment, read the internet a lot, and it's also very important to sort out finances. It's crucial to find answers; they will not reveal themselves. There are very innovative products in the market, and one should be knowledgeable about all the modern facilities.