Another Period of No Blogging
Monday 1st December, 2008If anyone has been following my personal blog, then you may know that I had some personal events happen recently that had taken me offline. I am posting today to update my blog as there is much "dust on the keyboard" from not posting since Lotusphere 2008.
There is never a good way to say state this so here I go. A few months after Lotusphere I was not feeling well. I was thinking it was from traveling as I do go to India yearly (I have a team in Bangalore) which is usually a month or two after Lotusphere. I was loosing weight which I thought was good as everyone can shed some pounds. But in April my health was not well overall. I decided to go to the doctor on May 1, 2008, after what I thought was a rash or hives which would not go away. My doctor was treating me previously and the redness started to spread fairly quickly. In fact I had red dots on various parts of my body and my legs were all covered with these spots. Tests were ordered and my doctor had to give me the bad news that I have cancer. The details of the cancer are here on this blog entry.
The entry explains that I have Mantle Cell Lymphoma. A very rare cancer as it makes up 6% of lymphoma cancers and is rare for someone in the thirties. I have had a transplant which I am currently recovering, but I have been able to work remotely from home during this time (reduced schedule of course).
As I said, I did not reveal much of the information to any of my blogs. Only a tight circle of my family, employer, a few close friends, some past co-workers, and a few people within the Lotus branch of IBM (a sales person and a few members of the Domino Programmability team at Westford, MA) knew. As my linked entry states, I have been conflicted to blog the treatment/recovery as it is a very private matter, but the treatment does take away a lot of one's energy.
Currently, the recovery is going well and it is too early to deem the transplant has a success or failure. Let's just say that I am going to be able to celebrate the holidays/new year. This type of transplant does take a good amount of time to rebound.
There is never a good way to say state this so here I go. A few months after Lotusphere I was not feeling well. I was thinking it was from traveling as I do go to India yearly (I have a team in Bangalore) which is usually a month or two after Lotusphere. I was loosing weight which I thought was good as everyone can shed some pounds. But in April my health was not well overall. I decided to go to the doctor on May 1, 2008, after what I thought was a rash or hives which would not go away. My doctor was treating me previously and the redness started to spread fairly quickly. In fact I had red dots on various parts of my body and my legs were all covered with these spots. Tests were ordered and my doctor had to give me the bad news that I have cancer. The details of the cancer are here on this blog entry.
The entry explains that I have Mantle Cell Lymphoma. A very rare cancer as it makes up 6% of lymphoma cancers and is rare for someone in the thirties. I have had a transplant which I am currently recovering, but I have been able to work remotely from home during this time (reduced schedule of course).
As I said, I did not reveal much of the information to any of my blogs. Only a tight circle of my family, employer, a few close friends, some past co-workers, and a few people within the Lotus branch of IBM (a sales person and a few members of the Domino Programmability team at Westford, MA) knew. As my linked entry states, I have been conflicted to blog the treatment/recovery as it is a very private matter, but the treatment does take away a lot of one's energy.
Currently, the recovery is going well and it is too early to deem the transplant has a success or failure. Let's just say that I am going to be able to celebrate the holidays/new year. This type of transplant does take a good amount of time to rebound.
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