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'I am the healthiest person I know, and I got cancer': Zerodha founder's wife shares her inspiring breast cancer journey
International Women's Day 2022: Nithin Kamath, Founder & CEO, Zerodha, took to social media to share his wife's breast cancer journey aiming to create awareness around early detection and break taboo.
International Women's Day 2022: Breast cancer is one of the common cancers in women and as per studies, the number of cases has dramatically increased in the last four decades. Even the healthiest, fittest, and youngest person around you could get the deadly disease and the only way to nip it in the bud is early detection which could improve chances of recovery. (Also read: International Women's Day 2022: Dear women, it's time to priortize your mental health)
Nithin Kamath, Founder & CEO, Zerodha, one of India's largest online brokerages took to social media to share his wife's breast cancer journey that aims to create awareness around cancer screenings, regular health check-ups and health insurance. Kamath supported his wife in every way during the journey, even going bald along with her post chemotherapy.
"I am Seema, and I am, or maybe was the healthiest and fittest person I knew. I absolutely did everything possible to be healthy and I thought nothing could physically slow me down until I was diagnosed with breast cancer in Nov 2021," the blog started with these powerful lines.
Seema goes on to explain how the last few months since her diagnosis have been a blur and an emotional roller coaster and that she continues to be in shock.
"While I am generally a private person, I also realized while going through all the tests and conversations trying to find the best doctor, that maybe I am not talking about it also because like mental illness, cancer is also a taboo in our country," she wrote.
Talking about the importance of early detection, she says that it could help considering "it can happen to anyone, even someone with no cancer history in the extended family, a very healthy diet, good fitness routine, good sleep, low stress, and no other health issues."
The diagnosis: 'Maybe I should have done a mammogram back then'
Seema further wrote in her blogpost that there were early signs over the last two years that indicated trouble like deformity in her nipple, but the annual check-ups did not confirm the disease.
"I potentially could have spotted this earlier. I noticed a slight bit of deformity in my nipples over the last 2 years. I was told that this could be because of breastfeeding. In my annual check-up the year before, the shadow of the breasts seemed slightly abnormal during one of the tests. But the results said I am alright and I believed that there couldn’t be anything wrong with me. Maybe I should have done a mammogram back then. And yeah, a mammogram isn’t part of all health check-ups, something I hadn’t really cared about, maybe I should have," she said.
Mastectomy: Making peace with the 'boob job'
"Among the many shocks that I have had to go through in the last 4 months, the biggest was when I was told that I need to go through a mastectomy. That my right breast cannot be saved when the surgery is done to remove cancer. While the cosmetic aspect shouldn’t ideally have even bothered me when there was a much bigger issue of cancer in my body, it did! The frustration only got bigger when every doctor I spoke to just spoke about cancer and not how I would look. It took me a few days to make peace with it, maybe it got easier when in one of the conversations the plastic surgeon mentioned how many Bollywood and Hollywood heroines get a boob job done. And thus, my mastectomy & cancer treatment became my boob job event for Nithin. All the fun and fooling around has made my last 4 months a lot less tough than what it could have been," wrote Seema.
Post-surgery recovery
"I had pipes fixed near my armpits and breasts that were connected to a container to collect waste fluids for almost 3 weeks. I had constantly questioned myself on why I should have cared for my diet and fitness as much as I did if someone like me could get cancer. I soon realized how important it is to stay healthy, apart from a thousand other reasons, you can also bounce back much faster if there were any unforeseen incidents, like the mastectomy in my case," her account read.
The chemo shocker
Seema further shared how the mastectomy had to be followed by chemotherapy, something they were not expecting, and how doctor told her that one of the side effects of the Chemo drug was the hair loss.
"Once again, no other side effects that the doctor spoke of registered in my head, except the hair loss. I loved my hair and never thought of my head without it. I guess Nithin also figured that this losing hair could be psychologically more disturbing than everything else I was going through. So we started figuring out our options, which was really only one - the ice cap. But the doctor said it will only help to reduce hair fall by a bit, but I could still lose hair in patches. So I decided against it and to go with the flow. I did land up for my first Chemo session with a boy cut, thinking maybe it will help seeing shorter hair fall off vs longer," she wrote.
Post chemo: 'It felt like being run over by a truck'
"So, the good bit of my Chemo is Docetaxel, one of the Chemo drugs that has high alcohol content and makes me feel intoxicated. It is almost like a welcome drink to hell that starts in two days. Yeah, surprisingly I experienced nothing for the first two days after Chemo and I thought ah this isn’t too tough, and then suddenly it hit me. It felt like being run over by a truck for the next 5 to 7 days. Weakness, joint pain, diarrhoea, constipation, nausea, no sense of taste, and more. But thankfully it ended within 7 days," she wrote.
"Chemo drugs kill all growth cells within the body, which means that I am quickly losing muscle mass and feel tired much faster. I still try to get some form of exercise, not just for my body, but for my mind as well. Trying to do whatever to feel normal," she adds.
10 days post first chemo
"While I could see some hair loss in the first-week post-chemo, around 14 days into it, I started losing hair fast. While using a wig is an option, and by then Nithin had already spoken to a bunch of wig manufacturers, it just didn’t feel right. By now, both Nithin and I have spoken multiple times about how cancer is taboo and why it is important for those affected to speak openly about it," she writes.
Seema says that the purpose of sharing this story is to address the core issue of cancer being a taboo, and encouraging others to share their experiences too for spreading awareness.
