Day 2 in the Hospital and Diwali in Miami

Family:

Below are some pics from the Diwali celebrations in Miami. The pictures are from the Lakshmi Puja we do every year at Suresh Uncle's store for blessings to begin another year with luck, prosperity and success. This year, I think many of us are praying extra hard.....

As Alpen enters his second day of chemo, I am thinking about the synergy of life. On the eve of a new year , Alpen started a new chapter in his fight against cancer, and even more specfically, his body began the journey towards creating cancer-free blood and bone-marrow. What a great blessing that this journey has begun on the auspicious day of Diwali.

As for an update on Alpen, he is nearing the end of Day 2 of high-dose chemo and while chemo is always rugged, this chemo seems to be a much stronger level of intensity. Alpen remains super-strong and is getting through the chemo, but the side-effects are starting to take their toll. Right now, he mostly feels nausea, body pain, and is a little weak and temperature-wise feels cold. His legs ache a little and he is feeling some sensitivity to light. To pass the time, he listens to his amazing music collection on his IPOD and Skypes when he is up to it. Today he video-chatted with Rohan & Jess and me.

As usual, the gang in Boston (Niru Aunty, Palak, Sush, Rahul & Vivek) are right by his side, taking great care of him. Sush is trying to do some chinese acupressure massage and Rahul just came by to check on him. Niru Aunty has been holding down the mornings and early afternoon at the hospital and Sush, Rahul, Palak and Vivek come out later in the day to give Apu some love. FYI, visitors now have to wear gloves and masks when they are in the room.

Rumor is the nurses at DFCI have been GREAT. Thank god for good nurses. Seems as though one of the good things about the chemo right now is that they are giving him great medications through his I.V. to ease the side-effects--so generally, when he feels really crappy he tells the nurses and just has to hold out until they can give him the right meds to feel better. His appetite has been low, but thanks to the I.V. he doesn't have to eat if he doesn't want to!

So we have begun this journey....a few days down in the hospital....only a few weeks to go...

As for contacting Apu right now: showin some love on the blog, e-mails and Skype is prob best.

More updates soon! Love to all of you!