The world would stop for some time when you hear that a family member is diagnosed with Cancer. Its fangs are spread in not only the life of the victim but also affects one’s family, friends and other loved ones—in some cases even more so than the victim. Chaya’s story is a motivating and gripping one of a bone cancer survivor
Chaya’s introduction goes like this in almost all the interviews and conversations she gives. ‘I too am a bone cancer survivor, I am almost 25-years-old now and will soon be celebrating the quarter-life milestone, yet the memory of my treatment, my experience with Ewing’s Sarcoma is still fresh. As if it was only yesterday that I was wheeled into the OPD for a biopsy’.
She was just 13-years-old when she was diagnosed with a bone tumor— cancer— and her lower left fibula got affected by Ewing’s Sarcoma. She says, ‘I was in class 8th and was part of the school’s basketball team.
I had just started playing competitively, alongside was singing in the choir and was academically doing well too. One might be able to say that I was climbing the ladder of successes. Like any other family, even ours was unprepared to suffer such a jolt.
‘A swelling above my ankle started to appear and began discomforting me around March 2008. I was suddenly finding it difficult to wear my basketball shoes. It was an oddly placed lump of skin and mass that pained when pressed.
This oddly placed lump of mass was checked by a string of doctors and few called it an insect bite or just a peculiar swelling and handed me ointments to cure it. I started getting restless with all that failed diagnosis. The pain increased every day and it became a hindrance lump to my game’ sighs Chaya.
Chaya says, ‘I have been living with a proud scar for over 12 years now, a lot has unfolded at this time. There is a constant crippling fear of bearing the pain again—while being aware that the chance of its reoccurrence is very rare and definitely, zero considering so much time has passed.
‘In this journey, I have acquired lots of rare knowledge of medical care and jargon— cannula, cathedra, bone marrow, chemo ports to me. My parents have been my constant support to me and I admire them for the suffering my parents went through.
They traveled to different places to give me the best treatment in the country, speaking to the doctors in India and abroad. They had never lost hope and were determined to make sure that I stay alive with my leg intact’.
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