“In March 2018, I got the worst news of my life. I was at the hospital to get a dry cough checked and expected it to be a viral infection, but when my report came, the doctor told me that he wanted to speak to my parents. I told him to tell me what was wrong. He said, ‘You have Leukaemia’.
I started shaking in fear. I was alone in Surat and my family was in Bombay–I called my dad and told him. The same day, my parents came to Surat, and took me home for my treatment.
After, I had chemotherapy every 2 weeks. Chemo was as bad as they say it is- I vomited after every session; The pain was indescribable. My sister often walked in on me squirming in pain. She’d tear up, trying her best to hide it.
In a few weeks, I started getting bald patches, and within a month, I lost all my hair. I was easily irritable, and often thought I’d relapse. I lashed out on my sister a lot and told her she didn’t understand what I was going through. Still, she’d hold my hand and say, ‘I’m here with you.’
A few days later, she walked into my room–she’d completely shaved off all her hair and was bald…just like me. I cried, ‘Aayushi!’ in disbelief and asked her why she did that, and then broke down. She ran over and hugged me tight and we cried together.
From that day, I felt like she was with me every step of the way. She came for all my chemo sessions, and spent all her time with me. We’d meditate together and play cards. We even kept up our tradition of midnight snacking and long conversations, but now we’d only watch funny videos. We’d laugh all night while hogging home-made makhaana and chips. And soon, our hair started growing at the same pace–we began competing on whose hair grew faster!
She’d do anything to make me smile–when my family hid take-out from me, she always let me have a small bite.
My doctor says I’m doing a lot better and I’ll be able to stop my medication and chemo by Diwali. We have big plans to celebrate after. We’re going to binge eat all that junk food I’ve been craving! So that’s the first thing we’re going to do– order a large box of steamy falafels! And maybe after, we’ll go to the salon and try another cool new hairstyle together!”