16 cycles of chemotherapy, one surgery, radiation, Covid: The mother who fought cancer to give birth to her child
Deepika was suffering from Pregnancy Associated Breast Cancer (PABC), a special variant of cancer that can complicate 1 in 3,000 pregnancies. Dr Pranjali Gadgil, Breast Surgeon at Pune’s Jupiter hospital, saved her with chemo and a multi-disciplinary treatment protocol. A story that busts myths on National Cancer Awareness Day.
There are just three of them now. The man, woman and child, who wrestled with fate to stay together as a family and are happy with a simple Sunday in the park. Just like any other millennial couple, Deepika Gopnarayan and husband Sugat had their life neatly packaged for them. Both engineering graduates, they got the jobs they wanted, travelled around and decided to have a baby five years after they got married and settled down in Pune. She was 28 then, he was 32, a perfectly healthy age to become parents. And then midway through her pregnancy, she was diagnosed with a rare cancer.
The rest of her story reads like a believe-it-or-not newsreel: Sixteen cycles of chemotherapy, one surgery, radiation, a bout of COVID, a year of struggling to keep the body alive. Yet in between she delivered a healthy baby boy, the dew of life that nursed her back to health and has made her the mother she is today.
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HomeLifestyleHealth Specials16 cycles of chemotherapy, one surgery, radiation, Covid: The mother who fought cancer to give birth to her child
16 cycles of chemotherapy, one surgery, radiation, Covid: The mother who fought cancer to give birth to her child
Deepika was suffering from Pregnancy Associated Breast Cancer (PABC), a special variant of cancer that can complicate 1 in 3,000 pregnancies. Dr Pranjali Gadgil, Breast Surgeon at Pune’s Jupiter hospital, saved her with chemo and a multi-disciplinary treatment protocol. A story that busts myths on National Cancer Awareness Day.
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Written by Rinku Ghosh
Updated: November 7, 2022 5:00:01 pmNewsguard
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Deepika Gopnarayan with her son.
There are just three of them now. The man, woman and child, who wrestled with fate to stay together as a family and are happy with a simple Sunday in the park. Just like any other millennial couple, Deepika Gopnarayan and husband Sugat had their life neatly packaged for them. Both engineering graduates, they got the jobs they wanted, travelled around and decided to have a baby five years after they got married and settled down in Pune. She was 28 then, he was 32, a perfectly healthy age to become parents. And then midway through her pregnancy, she was diagnosed with a rare cancer.
The rest of her story reads like a believe-it-or-not newsreel: Sixteen cycles of chemotherapy, one surgery, radiation, a bout of COVID, a year of struggling to keep the body alive. Yet in between she delivered a healthy baby boy, the dew of life that nursed her back to health and has made her the mother she is today.
Surviving all of this, she tells us how she took each day at a time, determined to give birth to her child and live for her husband, who took half of her worries and anxieties. “Once I was diagnosed, Sugat read up and kept himself well-informed about my condition, the complexities involved and the delicate nature of the healing journey. He took on all the chores at the house and asked me to focus only on my recovery. Frankly, I didn’t overcrowd myself with information and focussed only on what had to be done one day at a time. His effort to pull me out of the trough made me stronger and I willed that I had to be there for him. And as my son grew big inside, I told myself that I could not leave him in the lurch.”
