Photos from Gloria L. in Miami

Here are some pics from Gloria L. in Miami, Fl. She sends pics of her and her 2 beautiful children, Lauren and Anthony who give her hope and joy as she struggles to raise them in this crazy world with good values, a good education, and a strong sense of self. Thanks Gloria!!

First Photo for Alpen - Thanks Lisa from Los Angeles!

Props to Lisa from L.A., California for being the first person to send in a picture for the blog. Check our her picture (she is on the right), out doing what she does best--organizing! Her organization the Labor/Community Strategy Center has been working hard to defeat some racist, sexist, homophobic propositions in California--including Proposition 6. Thanks Lisa...and keep them coming! And remember vote NO on prop 6!

The Journey Ahead....We NEED you!!!

So Day 4 in the hospital starts today. As you all know, Alpen has been going through a barrage of high-dose chemo--almost 12-14 hours a day for three days straight. As he says--things are "non-stop" right now. Good news: today is the last day of chemo. Bad news: as you can imagine, Alpen is going through it right now.

The chemo is taking its expected toll on him. He is pretty weak right now and is battling the avalanche of side effects that are beginning to hit him like a freight train. But luckily, the anti-nausea medications he is on also help him sleep. So he spent a lot of the day yesterday sleeping. Thank god.

As usual, Alpen is a gentle warrior and is fighting to get through this. The nurses have been great and of course, the Dream Team (Niru Aunty, Palak, Sush and Rahul, Vivek) have been taking amazing amazing care of him. Reinforcements from the rest of the Dream Team in Miami (Suresh Uncle, Harsha Aunty, Nayan Uncle, me and Sharda Baa) are on the way to Boston soon-- this weekend my Dad will be in Boston and next week I will arrive as Sushma returns to Miami.

As Alpen's parents have said: some parents have to send their children off to fight in wars---this is our war. We must keep our spirits up and keep fighting! As Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda, one of the world's great spiritual masters, has always said "We can, and We must!"

Alpen likely will probably feel worse before he feels better. So the next 3-4 days, he needs your love and support, to get through this challenging time. Right now, Alpen has not been interested in the blog, or emails, but sometimes he will Skype, so check and see if he is online. Chances are you probably will have better luck in a few days.

To lift his spirits, I am sending out a request to each of you: SEND me pictures of something, someone or some activity in your life that makes YOU feel STRONG and HOPEFUL. Please be creative, funny, inspirational, or wacky.

Here are my pics. As many of you know, yoga is my physical spiritual practice. It balances me and centers me and makes me feel strong!




So take the five minutes and e-mail your pictures to me at purvi.nayan.shah@gmail.com. I will post your pics on the blog as soon they come through and we will print them and hang them up around Alpen's hospital room for him to see!

We knew this was the journey ahead....Alpen needs your positive energy now more than ever, so hang on, muster that bit of strength and hope...and send us a picture!

Much love to all of you!

Stephen Colbert endorses Barack Obama...(kinda)

Enjoy Alpen.....

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!

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thank you, you're welcome

What would it take for me to actually post something on this blog? I've been just as curious as anyone else.

It seems like one night in the hospital can make anyone a little bit more reflective. Can I start with one simple thought? I have heard many people speak of me in a kind of exceptional manner. "He is so strong," or "what peace of mind." These are nice things to hear, but I have to confess something very obvious. If you have received even a small fraction of the unbelievable love, ever-present support, or perhaps the wonderful company I have, there is nothing very remarkable about me or my response to this challenge of cancer.

...Where to start with my thank you list? I guess I'd like to start by thanking my sister Purvi for creating this blog without which I probably couldn't really reflect on or fully come to appreciate what has happened to me. More critically, each of my sisters (Palak, Sushma, and Purvi) have incommensurably redefined or at least outmeasured the idea of what a sister is. Each has been incomprehensibly adept at making any stress disappear, and all fear and pain fade away. And can I begin to thank my brother, Rahul? I have, but it is not at all simple. On second thought, I don't think continuing with my thank you list is such a good idea, mostly because I cannot just say thank you. I cannot abbreviate my appreciation for my family nor my friends who have consistently blurred any distinguishable line for our relationship--"friend" sounds so distant now adays.

Maybe this is enough for my first entry. Maybe not. I should at least (in)formally welcome those that have come to this site. You're all welcome to post or comment to this site as you see fit, though you're also welcome to just read it if that is all you wish to do. As many of you may know, I tend to overcommit to hobbies. Fortunately, my stay in the hospital and whatever time I take to recover will embolden me even more so. I don't know which of these things will occupy me more or less, but I will probably share some of my experiences on this site. It strikes me often that people have to wait till they are much older before they can "do what they want." I take this opportunity to start now what may have taken me decades to take up.

If I can make a request, I'd like to see the same from you. I know that something about this blog makes it seem like it should center on me, but I don't think that would be very interesting. Each of you is extremely talented and creative and it would please me a great deal to read and hear about whatever interesting things you are doing.

Regardless, though, I thank you for coming to this site and I thank you for making this time a chance for me to be a little more real to each of you and to myself.