The Background Story

One day in early April (shortly after the COVID lockdown was put in place in Chicago) I went out for a run after work. About a quarter mile into my run I was extremely winded, and my leg and hip muscles felt as if I just completed a leg workout at the gym. I continued to push myself to run/walk 2 miles. Although I knew someone was not right, I just chalked it up to not working out for a few weeks and having a bad day. A few days later I tried another run with the same results. This went on for a couple of weeks with my shortness of breath and ability to push through declining. At this point (a few weeks in) I had also started to notice that I was becoming more fatigued throughout the day and even winded when bringing little Anya up the stairs from her crib (a mere 20lbs and 10 stairs!). As the time passed, I also started to develop a constant headache each day, it was very minor pain so again, I brushed it off as “allergy related”. As time progressed (probably about 1.5 mos in now) everything got more severe and I started having trouble concentrating/focusing visually. At this point I was convinced I had COVID, so I called my PCP. He directed me to go and get tested for COVID so I did so that week. I had my COVID test performed at a walk-in clinic on Thursday, May 28^th with results showing I was Negative on the following Tuesday, June 2^nd. I reached back out to my Doctor with this news and he scheduled me an in-office appointment that Friday, June 5^th.

Heading into that appointment I still had no thought that anything serious was wrong and in fact walking out of that appointment it was the same b/c there was nothing tangible found/discussed during the visit. The result was let’s see what your blood work says….and that’s when it all changed. Feeling very fatigued that day I got home after my appointment around 3pm and laid down for a nap. I woke up around 5pm and noticed that I had a few missed calls and voicemails from my Dr. The 1^st VM stated that it was close to 5 (closing time) and to give the doctor a call back immediately. The 2^nd VM stated that it would now be afterhours, they had found something serious in my bloodwork (possibly anemia) and I should go to the emergency room immediately.

I quickly grabbed Maneesha and told her about the VM’s. We asked our nanny to stay with Avani & Anya and Maneesha dropped me off at the ER. Once admitted to the ER all the blood draws, tests, and questioning began. Within a few hours the doctor had enough preliminary results and told me I would be admitted to the hospital and for the first time I heard the dreaded word CANCER. I can remember the exact quote being, "now I don't want to alarm you but one of the things we're concerned about is the possibility of cancer." - I sure was alarmed!