Mamata Shetty : as told to Ritu Sharma

 Chat with Mamatha Shetty  

  by Ritu Sharma

I ring the bell to her house. The door opens and I see a lady who seems to be in her early sixties. She looks lovely, dignified and in very good health.  I think, she must have looked stunning in her youthful days. She gives me a warm hug and invites me inside. She makes me feel very comfortable and we settle down into an easy free flowing conversation.

 

Mamatha Shetty, 73 years old – Breast Cancer Survivor

Initial Signals

At the age of 45, Mamatha, a teacher, noticed a small lump on her sternum closer to the right breast. Without telling anyone, she kept a close watch on it and started reading a lot to understand the situation. The lump was hard like stone ¾ in diameter, the skin around was puckered but there was no pain. A few days later when she took her mother for a medical checkup, she told the doctor hesitatingly about the lump. After examination, the doctor immediately referred her to an oncologist at a well known hospital.

The biopsy revealed that the tumor was malignant. There was no family history of cancer. It took her a while to start accepting the fact. Initially she was shocked; she just couldn’t eat or sleep, she was becoming a nervous wreck. It was with the help of her family and close friends that she could emerge from the shock and start thinking of the next steps. Her husband and the eldest son, a medical student, were a great support in these difficult times.

When she went to the hospital to understand the treatment, she was just not comfortable with the way the doctors came across to her. They were indifferent and had no time to spare to answer her questions. This really upset her and she was dead against getting her treatment done there. Though now when she reflects on it, she is able to understand why the doctors at that hospital behaved the way they did. They have a huge queue of patients to handle and very few doctors. They are hard pressed for time and are not able to give sufficient time to each of their patients to answer their queries.

Treatment

She then decided to go to St John’s Hospital for treatment. She was advised to go through mastectomy. The surgery was extremely painful and due to removal of lymph nodes up to the underarm, she just could not raise her arm after the operation. She had to undergo physiotherapy to get back her hand movement. Initially she also found it very difficult to look down at her scarred body; it took her a while to accept the changes. Radiation followed surgery which was initially a harrowing experience, but she had to deal with fewer side effects like darkened skin and soreness.

Recovery

It has been 28 years since she was diagnosed with cancer, no one can make out she was ever a cancer patient. She looks healthy and much younger than her 73 years. After her treatment, she went back to teaching and also looked after her family. When she retired from her job, she did a course in counseling with the purpose of counseling cancer patients. Now she devotes her time counseling people who have been diagnosed with cancer. She also runs a cancer support group which she formed with the help of few other cancer survivors. One of the reasons for starting support group was to give that emotional support to the patients which the doctors are unable to give due to lack of time. As a counsellor, she wants to equip the patients with courage and the conviction that the medication and the suggested treatment is going to help them.

Mamatha’s Thoughts

She says, all cancer survivors should enjoy this extra life, lead a disciplined life, eat healthy and do the daily exercise. She cooks meals herself to ensure that it is healthy (less salt, less oil, hygienic etc) and takes her daily walk and also goes swimming. She feels lucky to have the finances and acquaintances overseas as they could send her the specially designed bras and swim suits which made her feel much better about herself.

There are a few things she found very difficult to handle when the treatment was going on and even afterwards. She says that whenever people get to know that you were a cancer patient, they look at you as a specimen. Some of them ask too many questions, more out of curiosity than sympathy. Close friends sometimes sympathize too much, and become a constant reminder of something that you want to leave behind. Though all you want is to be treated normally, they keep asking you all the time “are you feeling ok”, “you are looking tired today” or “I think you should not go out..” etc etc.

What she would like to tell everyone is

-         Cancer is a disease like any other

-         It is not a killer disease, if detected early

-         Do not think of it as a curse (some people try to hide it from others because they feel it is as a result of their “karma”)

-         If you feel any change in your body, immediately go to the right doctor (not homeopathy, or other forms of medicine)

-         Get a clear and right picture of what is going on

-         To the doctors, she would like to say that do not give any false hope

-         Once all your questions are answered, have full faith in the doctor

-         Go according to doctor’s advice and complete the full treatment

-         Change your lifestyle after treatment (healthy, positive thinking)

-         Love life, enjoy this extra life

 

She offers me a delicious mango shake prepared by her. Then we say our good bye and she gives me another warm hug before I take leave. And my thoughts are, this is what human struggle, survival and celebration of life is all about.

Ritu Sharma can be reached at ritusharma@newmorning.in