A sudden storm derailing my professional and personal journey
From the Brink of Death to a Life Reclaimed: One Woman's Remarkable Journey Through Leukemia and Resilience
n 2017, my life shifted in a way I could never have imagined. I was diagnosed with leukemia—an abrupt and devastating turn from what had been the most fulfilling years of my personal and professional life. Between 2014 and 2017, everything seemed to be falling into place. My husband, Koushik, and I both earned tenure and promotion; our research was receiving national and international recognition; and we were exploring the world with our young son. Life felt full, balanced, and beautifully in rhythm.
And then, suddenly, it wasn’t. However, since my diagnosis, it has been an incredible journey, and I would not have been able to fight this without my two warriors: my husband, Koushik, and my son Deep.
I still remember the fateful night of April 4th, 2017. Due to excessive fatigue, at Koushik's advice, we went to Instacare after canceling my afternoon class. They did a blood draw and a complete blood count (CBC), but then said that their machine was faulty. They asked me to redo my CBC at the hospital, so I did, and later we went to pick up our son from school. After returning home, we went to the park. We were thinking the doctor would call with an anemia diagnosis and prescribe some supplements. The doctor did call back, and when he said "blood cancer", things became hazy for me. I said, "Blood Cancer???” in utter disbelief to my husband. He was also in disbelief and speechless, but he hugged me tight. The doctor advised me to go to the ER immediately. We dropped our son off at a neighbor's place and went to the ER. What seemed like excessive fatigue was diagnosed as a very aggressive form of leukemia (blood cancer). In fact, my white blood cell (WBC) count was 800K (the normal high range is 10K), and doctors at Logan Hospital told me they haven't seen that high a count in their lifetime. The Instacare test wasn't faulty after all. I was on the verge of death and transferred via ambulance to LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City, where I went directly to the ICU. I had a near-death experience that night. Somehow, at that moment, all that mattered to me was some more time to spend with my husband and my child. Nothing else mattered, not the recognition, nor the professional success, nor the house where I lived--nothing else.
By morning, I knew I was most likely stable and going to live at least longer than the previous night, thanks to my doctors and nurses. The next emotion to fill my mind was denial. Why me? I had been maintaining a healthy lifestyle. A lot of people say cancer is a lifestyle disease. In fact, in the last few years, I made many lifestyle changes, eating fresh organic vegetables and fruits, rarely eating carcinogenic foods, exercising regularly to maintain a healthy weight, and never smoking in my life. I had perfect and normal Lab results just a year ago. None of my parents or siblings had cancer. Why me? What did I do wrong to get this? I had no answer, and neither did the doctors have any answers as to what caused this. All they could say it was not genetic. I guess life is a great equalizer; everyone goes through good times and bad times, and this was one of my top ones.
Me and my family at LDS hospital where I stayed many months in 2017.
After a couple of days, when my mind had enough of near-death and denial emotions, I decided that I was going to fight the disease to get my amazing life back--the life for which I had worked hard for many years. And I will use this unique journey as a new avenue for growth and learning. Right from the diagnosis, my husband has been beside me every step of the way. His only focus was to get me well. We had to relocate to a place 80 miles away from our home and stay away from our son Deep for several months. I know how incredibly hard it can be as a caregiver, but I am ever so grateful for Koushik's love and patience in caring for me, and cooking for me, while also undertaking his professional responsibilities at work. In these 8 months, I have never seen a drop of anger or frustration in him, but endless love and encouragement, and giving me the hope that I can beat this terrible disease. Deep, our 6-year-old son has shown such an amazing strength during this difficult time in our lives. I cannot imagine a 6-year-old having to live away from his parents for several months. But he never complained and adjusted quickly to the two wonderful families caring for him. Deep learned to pack his luggage every time he came to visit us and carefully take his things back. This child has been through so much but never complained once, and I am so grateful to be his mom.
My eldest sister, Rini, is the reason I got into remission for a year and a half. She turned out to be a full match and very generously donated her stem cells to me. I got a stem cell transplant in September 2017 after receiving several months of chemotherapy treatment. Her baby stem cells have grown in my body, and the hope is that they will give me a new immune system to remain cancer-free.
And I was doing well after a year in 2018. The past year has shown us amazing support from some of our family, friends, and students. I felt so happy to see the selfless love and kindness in the people around me. I have gained some great new friends during this journey. I try to do a little of that each day, something to help others grow, or to help someone in a crisis. I try to enjoy blissful moments with my loved ones and with the nature surrounding me.
When I wrote the above story in 2018, I believed that I had won the battle against the beast. The year 2018 was filled with joy, travel, and excitement. There was some PTSD occasionally, but I was still enjoying every moment of life that I did not think I would get to live. However, in January 2019, the darkness cast its ugly shadow again upon me and my family. Through a dermatological test on my scalp, we found the same leukemia cells again, while these cells were absent in my blood and bone marrow at the time. My cancer relapsed after 1.5 years of my stem cell transplant. Within weeks, the count of leukemia cells started growing as this mutation was a fast-growing and deadly one. Along with reliving the shock, the possibility of impending death, and the severe pain of separation from my 8-year-old child, there were numerous chemo treatments, radiation, and hopelessness.
My cancer team members at LDS Hospital were immensely supportive. They suggested trying the CAR-T cell therapy, a clinical trial ongoing at the Fred Hutch Cancer Center in Seattle. CAR-T is a promising immunotherapy technique where the T-cells from a patient's body are collected and re-engineered to target and attack cancer cells with specific proteins. At this point, there was no choice left for us, as the only curative treatment—stem cell transplant had already failed. We left Deep with his friend’s family in Logan and drove to Seattle in February 2019. One of our PhD students—one of the kindest people I have ever seen—also drove with us. Both Koushik and I took a short leave from work. We were feeling hopeless, but still trying to fight till we had no more options left. Seattle was nice, the doctors and healthcare staff were caring and very competent. After 2 months, Deep also joined us in April. Deep had to fly alone at the age of eight from SLC to Seattle. He had a lot of assistance from a very caring aircrew/staff. After Deep joined us, we visited every single museum in Seattle over the next month as we reunited as a family.
By sometime in late April, we drove back to Logan, Utah, after Car-T therapy was completed, initially showing the absence of leukemia. Again, we were thrilled and had a wonderful summer. We celebrated the graduation of 4 PhD students in our research group in May 2019. We also took a fun vacation, traveling to Montreal, Canada. We even attended the Design Automation Conference (DAC) in 2019 with some of our PhD students. Unfortunately, CAR-T was unable to conquer my leukemia, and I relapsed yet again in September 2019. Alas, the good times never lasted, when all I wanted was to be healthy and to enjoy some more time with Koushik and Deep. I can’t even imagine what went through Deep’s mind at the time. He developed anxiety and became very clingy towards his dad. The poor child had also lost hope of mommy being alive much longer.
Our trip to Montreal, Canada in July 2019, hoping the storm had passed.
My team at LDS hospital suggested that I should try another stem cell transplant combined with an immunotherapy named Blina. With another transplant, I ran the risk of dying from liver failure, as my liver had gotten enough toxins from all the treatments so far. We said yes as we really had nothing more to lose at this point. But who would be my stem cell donor this time? Should we use my other sister or use my minor son with a 50% match? Or should we just try to find an unrelated matching donor from the “Be-the-Match” registry? We spend days critically thinking about the choices of my next stem cell donor. There was no right answer, as my chances of survival in either case were pretty low. We finally decided to use my middle sister, Millie, who was also a full match. Millie readily agreed to make this very generous donation, and I received her stem cells on December 20, 2019, in a second stem cell transplant.
My liver was somehow able to survive the blow of another transplant. My eldest sister, Rini, flew down from India to support me through this second transplant.
What can I say? The days after Dec 2019 kept getting brighter and brighter. Koushik and I both took a work sabbatical in the Spring of 2020 when I was recovering from my second transplant. While COVID started tearing apart the entire world, our little family was home, taking long walks in our neighborhood each day. And what one day seemed impossible actually became possible. I lived! Today, in 2026, I am still in remission and living and enjoying each moment of life! As a family, we have grown and evolved so much during these three years (2017—-2019). Cancer will forever be a part of my story, whether I am a survivor or a fighter. I wish to grow and develop more as life takes me through this unique journey. I want to encourage everyone to never give up, even when faced with a difficult diagnosis. Along with treatment, the human body can do amazing things when combined with hope and positivity. I will end this story with a beautiful quote: “Bad things do happen in the world, like war, natural disasters, disease. But out of those situations, always arise stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things” – Daryn Kagan.
