Mind Of Mine - Page 2 of 3 -

CHALLENGES OF HOME-BASED CARE AND HOW TO OVERCOME THEM

Ira was given all care at home for 16 months after our initial stay at the hospital. During those months, we as a family, faced several challenges regarding daily care giving. These pointers may be useful for not only patients who have undergone critical surgeries or who are bedridden but also for elderly family members…

By Pratima Mehta January 5, 2019 3

WHY INDIA NEEDS TO WAKE UP TO PALLIATIVE CARE?

Palliative Care & Resources

What is palliative care? How many of you can answer this without google-ing it? (Let me know in the comments below.) Palliative care has been around for more than 75 years in this world and yet many of us don’t even understand what it means. I didn’t know anything about palliative care. Back in August…

By Pratima Mehta September 30, 2018 5

TERRIBLE, THANKS FOR ASKING!

Ira - Diagnosis, Treatment & Prognosis

For a lot of us, talking to a grieving person or family can be quite a challenge. How do I ask? What will he/she think? Is this the right thing to say? People either dread the answer or the uncomfortable silence. How you ask and what you say rarely matters, especially if it is well-meaning.…

By Pratima Mehta September 23, 2018 13

POST-SURGICAL COMPLICATIONS IN BRAIN TUMOUR PATIENTS – HYDROCEPHALUS, MENINGITIS & VENTRICULITIS

Ira - Diagnosis, Treatment & Prognosis

I have been quite off-the-grid lately. Writing a post after oh-so long time! Does it happen with you? You have set your mind to doing something, you begin with all determination and b-a-n-g pops out an obstacle and then you have to stop doing what you so so so wanted to accomplish. Well, it definitely…

By Pratima Mehta August 12, 2018 6

POST-SURGICAL COMPLICATIONS IN BRAIN TUMOUR PATIENTS – SEIZURES & INVOLUNTARY MOVEMENTS

Ira - Diagnosis, Treatment & Prognosis

It is weird how I always believed that nothing bad would ever happen – at least nothing majorly bad. I now blush at my idiocy. Life isn’t meant to be fair. Not even for a 3 year old. I did not attach much weight to the many possible complications that the doctor had informed us…

By Pratima Mehta July 1, 2018 1

NEUROSURGERY & POST-OPERATIVE COMPLICATIONS OF RIGHT THALAMIC GLIOMA IN CHILDREN

Ira - Diagnosis, Treatment & Prognosis

This will be the first time that I am posting a photo of Ira while in the hospital. This was taken on the day of her surgery, just before I carried her into the operation theatre (OT). Pictured here is Ira wearing a head-cap over the gauze covering the wound from the biopsy two days…

By Pratima Mehta June 3, 2018 3

THE BRAIN TUMOUR TYPE – A REALITY CHECK AND A MISDIAGNOSIS

Ira - Diagnosis, Treatment & Prognosis

Bombay Hospital is a huge place, harboured in three separate buildings- old, new and not-so-old one! A modern and tall structure nestled into the narrow lanes of Marine Lines and surrounded by age-old residential buildings, tiny hotels and even a theatre. It looks discreet and unfashionable- unlike the theatre standing opposite its gate, a commonplace…

By Pratima Mehta May 19, 2018 0

THE CANCER DIAGNOSIS – PART II

Ira - Diagnosis, Treatment & Prognosis

This is the second part in the series of The Cancer Diagnosis. Here is Part I. When I first heard about the tumour, I felt lost. Consonant with the feeling of falling between the cracks. First, there was the denial. How could this happen? She has cancer! Yes. Oh! Why Ira? Never before did I…

By Pratima Mehta April 29, 2018 3

THE CANCER DIAGNOSIS

Ira - Diagnosis, Treatment & Prognosis

Anyone who has known our family and Ira has always had the same question since her surgery last year. I feel like it’s the question that everyone wants an answer to: how did you come to know about the brain tumour (तुम्हला कसं कळलं?)? Remember the tremulousness that I talked about in my previous blog…

By Pratima Mehta April 16, 2018 2

AN OPEN LETTER TO PARENTS ABOUT ‘VIGILANT’ PARENTING

Ira - Diagnosis, Treatment & Prognosis

Parenthood. Raise your hands if you feel that parenting is a beautiful, wondrous and humbling experience- yet can get overwhelming, exhausting and mind-numbing. I understand that “Parenting is the easiest thing in the world to have an opinion about, but the hardest thing in the world to do” (not me, Matt Walsh). And I absolutely…

By Pratima Mehta April 8, 2018 10