Update

Ten days back, Rajesh fell down outside the house when he was going for a check-up and hurt his back. He was bed-ridden for a few days with acute back pain. He went thru some physio-therapy and massage and is ok now. His walking is still wobbly(like a 9 month old baby as he puts it). Fortunately he didn't fracture any bones as that would have complicated matters.

Rajesh Update

Rajesh is feeling and sounding much better now. He is able to walk without a walker but with a walking stick. His food intake has improved also. The hand twitching has reduced too. If not for the antibiotics treatment regimen, he would have gone home already. They will be doing a MRI on monday and most likely he will be discharged on wednesday. They are planning to go to Palghat after Rishi's exams.

Out of the hospital

Dear All,

After sudden chills and fever due to an E-Coli infection on my Hickman’s line, I was admitted to the hospital on the 6th of Sept. I got discharged from the hospital yesterday night after 14 days. I had to take antibiotics every 6 hours. The Hickman’s line has been removed as it was causing the infection. This was the sort of setback they were expecting after the BMT since my immunity levels are low.

Infections like these happen due to very many reasons. So it's not as if I have been careless. I have also been administered with an Immunoglobulin Injection to improve immunity level. All these days, the immunity level was controlled by the immuno suppressants drugs. They would have to keep juggling between these two drugs for some time and hope for no more such infections / setbacks. My general health and counts are holding on fine. For the next few months, it would a weekly visit to the hospital. My appetite is slowly and steadily getting back to normalcy but I have a long way to go. Do remember me in your prayers to help me get past this phase without much hitch.

Thanks for all the support and strength provided so far. I am glad to say that with the current status of my MUD transplant, there are at least 4 or 5 cases waiting on the wings to go through the process. This gives hope to a lot of patients who would have otherwise not had a chance. So we have all set a path for a lot of people to follow and pray that all these cases would proceed smoothly. Kudo’s and thanks to one and all who has been a part of it in some way or the other.

Thanks and regards

Rajesh

Update

Rajesh's fever and infection have cleared. He is in the hospital to complete 14 days of antibiotics treatment. He will be getting discharged around 19th September. Counts are normal.

Update

Rajesh has fever and chills. He is back in the hospital to check it out. His counts are normal. It must be some infection and they are investigating. His food take is very little and that is causing some weakness. So please keep the calls only to uncle or Padmaja.

Transplant!

We are delighted to announce that Rajesh Ramanathan underwent a bone marrow transplant in the early hours of Friday June 27th as per schedule in CMC, Vellore, India. He has started the next and hopefully last phase of battle with the dreaded disease of Leukemia. Rajesh's bone marrow transplant - from an unrelated donor - is the first time such a transplant is attempted in India. Please keep Rajesh and his family in your prayers.

Update from Rajesh

Preparations are underway and everything is on schedule for a transplant on 27th. Yeah!

Rajesh has completed two rounds of Chemo and three rounds of radiation. There are three more rounds of radiations ahead. He had a bad day yesterday with headache. But today he sounded much better after the 'roasting'(his words). But I could hear the strain in his voice.

He was in good spirits. He is still getting food from home but all the food goes thru the steam to sterilize. He said even the biscuit goes thru the steam! The new facility seems to be top quality and he likes it. He is in isolation and access is limited.

Update from Rajesh - BMT ahead...

Dear All,

Looks like the waiting is over, my rather extended parole days with my family is coming to an end as of tomorrow. I would be admitted tomorrow for the Bone Marrow Transplant program. The schedule would be :

19th Admission
20th Hickman’s catheter
21st Chemo (Cyclophosphamide)
22ndChemo (Cyclophosphamide)
23rd – 25th TBI
25th night we expect the Donor Cells to be here in Vellore hand carried by the NMDP personnel and as per the schedule I am to have the transplant on 26th morning.

Hopefully this should be the last part of my treatment. I would be admitted into the Bone Marrow Transplant rooms from the 21st onwards which means I would be in Isolation from then on until I recover from my transplant and my counts reach normalcy.

The contact numbers would remain the same for now. The phone number in the hospital room shall be provided once I have it.

Thanks and regards

Rajesh

Close to Transplant!

Update from I.V.Rajesh from UK:

Spoke to Rajesh this morning.

Rajesh is in good spirits since the bone marrow match has been found and the transplant will happen in June 1st week. He is eagerly waiting to go on a short break to Palakkad in the next few days so that he can come back recharged.

He has started using elbow crutches to support his leg. Pain is still there but has reduced quite a bit. He also keeps watching the IPL matches, although he feels some of them look completely rigged.

Good news from Vellore!

Dear All,

Please find few of the latest photos from Vellore.

The 3rd Surgery was successful and I am slowly and steadily recovering from the same. Ortho people feel that the bone is doing fine and found no traces of any fungal infection anywhere. The site of hip bone from where the Bone Grafting was done will be the pain area and would hurt for longer period. My stitches would be removed next week and the good news is that two donors have approached NMDP and donated their Marrows for Transplant.

We are finalizing the mode for bringing the marrow here and the tentative days for the Bone Marrow Transplant(BMT) to start. In all this week has been a rather good week. My walking is still limited to a few steps as my right Hip joint hurts and hopefully I should be back to my regular walks using the walker before the end of the month.

Regards and Advance Happy Vishu to You all.

Rajesh

Update

Rajesh's surgery on 2nd April went very well. The bone grafting went well too. But he is still under a lot of pain from the grafting. In another few days, he will try to sit up and go thru further physiotherapy.

There is no word from NMDP yet about interaction with the potential donors yet.

From the horse's mouth....

Dear All,

The day before yesterday was my luckiest day in the last two months as I got a parole from the hospital room and got to be with my family at home. This was the 1st outing for me from my Hospital room after Jan 19th. Though there was the challenge of how I would climb the stairs to reach home with my walker and one leg, I was hell bent on taking this opportunity given by my doctors. So after my fungicide injection on Saturday I left for home. I wnent back on Sunday afternoon for the next day’s injection and continued the same for Monday also.


Well, I have done so and I am really energized to take on the next set of treatment from now on. Being with Varun at home and seeing him in full-flow was really breathtaking and energizing. Unfortunately Rishi was in Bangalore enjoying his time with cousins. I am now back to my room getting ready for my next operation on the 2nd.

Regards

Rajesh

Surgery moved to April 2nd

Rajesh's surgery has been moved to April 2nd. He has been shifted to Room no 709 in the 7th floor. The phone number in the room is +91 416 2283938

Rajesh shifted to 7th floor

Rajesh has been shifted to Room No 704 in the 7th floor. He will be undergoing the third surgery on his hip tomorrow(28th March). The move to 7th floor is to facilitate easy access for the Ortho doctors for post operative care. The 9th floor being a hepafilter area will not be convinient for that access. His counts have reached normalcy and he doesn't require the hepafilter facilities.

Another wonderful news is that NMDP has identified a few potential matches to donate bone marrow for Rajesh. NMDP is in the process of contacting those eligible donors to find out their willingness to donate and to setup further medical tests.

Here are a few pictures - first was taken before Rajesh left Dubai and the rest from a few days back.

Update

Rajesh has started moving around using a walker. He can not use his right leg yet. His counts are looking up. The surgery for the leg has been scheduled for 28th. He is still in a lot of pain as one of the bones is not fully set yet. The third surgery will correct that. He is weighing 52 kg down from 68 kg.

Rishi will start attending Sunbeam school in vellore in June. Now he will get some tuitions to cope up with the new subjects.

Update from another friend who visited Rajesh

Lakshminarayanan studied in BITS with us and visited Rajesh yesterday. His message:

I was on an official visit to Chennai and used the opportunity to visit our dear friend Rajesh who is undergoing treatment at CMC, Vellore. He is in Room 903 Building A9 now. I found Rajesh quite cheerful and looking forward bravely to the chemotherapy sessions ahead of him. His femur bone fracture is healing well. He is able to sit up.

We recalled old times at BITS, names and characteristics of several mutual friends etc. I was allowed to stay there only for about 30-40 minutes. He also mentioned about his work experience so far - in B'lore, middle east etc. While I took leave of him, he said "the prayers of all my friends and family will get me out of this."

On the whole, I got a feeling that he is on a full recovery track. And let us all pray for his speedy and complete return to good health.

Regards

Laksh

UPDATE

Spoke to Rajesh a little while ago. The doctors have started the 2nd phase of Chemo from this morning. He will have his chemo dose in the morning and evening for 3 alternate days. He has still got severe pain in the leg. But he mentioned that he has learnt some little tricks to mitigate the pain. Sounded little groggy - perhaps due to heavy dosage of pain killers that he is on. He was in quite good spirits though - pepped up a little having watched India beat Sri Lanka in the tri series one day match.

Plenty of good work has been done with the marrow drives and fund raising. However, all of us need to maintain the momentum, particularly for raising more funds.

Regards to all

Dinesh.

Cooks4Cure

Last week saw the first fundraising effort thru catering by the Richmond families. The "Cooks4Cure" team of Meena Sankaran, Chitra Ravindran, Vanaja Narayanan and Sreelatha Parasu made a great effort and it was a huge success. They cooked for the Richmond Tamil Sangam's Pongal program and RTS Executive Team graciously allowed them to sell the food as the proceeds were going to HelpRajesh.

The ladies sacrificed a few hours of their valueable family time on saturday, and pulled it off. The food was great and appreciated by all. Sankaran made a last minute dash to Costco and purchased soft drinks and water. That was well worth the effort.

The emphasis was to keep the cost low and the ladies achieved that objective. The total sale was over $560 and the net to HelpRajesh should be $400+. You can see some of the pictures from the food stall in the slideshow on the right.

The momemtum is picking up and word is spreading around like wild fire in the community about the quality of the food and the cause it supports. The Cooks4Cure team has already bagged another huge order for a Bharatanatyam Arangetram in Richmond on March 1st. This is a bigger undertaking as they will be cooking for 300 people. The amazing part is that a few ladies from the local community are chipping in and have signed up to volunteer and help the four principals.

Kudos to the Cooks4Cure team.

Team HelpRajesh

Update on Rajesh

The four of us from Richmond got together and had a long chat with Rajesh on Saturday night. He is currently getting treatment for the fungal infection. The surgery on the femur bone will be done after 10 days depending on the outcome of fungal treatment. Rajesh told us that the problem with his femur is away from the ball and socket joint and is now less likely to require a joint replacement. He might still however need some kind of metal insert to stabilize his bone.

And the following is not for the weak-hearted. They have drilled a hole thru the bone below the right knee when he was awake and talking to them. A metal rod thru that hole in a traction keeps him straight. Because of that, the pain is less now. But 'less' is here is relative. From spasmodic, gut-wrenching pain, it has dropped couple of notches.

The donor search is underway at NMDP and let us hope for the best.

The last week had ups and downs for all of us. The good news is that Sonia Kumar, another AML patient, found a matching donor. And we also received the crushing news that we lost Bevin Varughese to this dreaded disease. May his soul rest in peace.

So plan your next drive soon to stop further losses! ITS NO TIME TO SIGH.

Update on Rajesh's leg situation

The exact medical facts may differ in the following but this is Nagu's understanding of the situation based on a call with Rajesh and his father:

Rajesh's leg problem has worsened. They saw some fungal infection on the femur(thigh bone) and opened to take a sample for analysis. In the process, the bone was scraped causing a small crack and that disturbed the hip joint. Now, the bone is out of the joint and he is bed-ridden. And in a lot of pain. He has been on morphine continuously. So if you call him, please do not talk to him that much and have the conversation with his father.

In another 10 days, he would be heading into a surgery for replacing the hip joint. The next round of chemo will not start until this is taken care of. The silverlining - if there is one in this - is that the fungal infection has been identified now and not in the middle of a chemo round.

Why do all these happen to this guy....

Anyway - he is battling it out and is in immense pain. He wanted to talk but had to hand over the phone to his father as he could not withstand the pain.

His wife Padmaja and his kids come everyday in the morning at 11am. She brings the food. Kids play in the play area. After spending some time, Padmaja leaves with kids after 1. That has been their schedule. Padmaja has her hands full with the little ones and looking at ways of continuing Rishi's studies. A friend will be bringing Rishi's book soon.

Keep them in your prayers and do what you can to help them.

Update from Shashi - Rajesh's brother-in-law:

Visited him on 2nd and 3rd of February. Leg situation bad and will continue at this level till 20th. He is on an Antifungal for curing of the bone infections. After that they will schedule a surgery to correct the problems. Which may, in the worst case, be a hip joint replacement or otherwise a Metal jointing. This can be evaluated by the doctor only during the actual surgery. He is on traction and cannot move out of the bed. Has spasmodic pain attack on and off inspite of the morphine. Most of the time he is in a drowsy state on account of Morphine.