MY MOTHER GETS GBM

27TH of October 2009 will be a day that I can never forget. At 10:45 AM my illustrious mother
P O Vasanthi died of brain tumour. What a zest she had for life but everything came to an end from a disease that would never let go. It was like the grasp of a python and we saw her being sucked in helplessly.(It is 10:45 AM)

Two years prior to this date she was diagonised with Anaplastic Astrocytoma an aggressive brain tumour which later got converted into GBM meaning Glio Blastoma Multiforme. She was operated upon and survived barely for an year when the disease appeared again, this time to take her.

On 28th October her body was brought to our house from the morgue by my father , me, sunil and few other relatives. Her front teeth (incisors) were protruding outside a bit. Don the american legal head of caterpillar, Prema Bhaktavatsalam, the father -in-law of my sister Keshavan Nambiar and few other members of the Kerala Samajam were present. My brother and myself performed all the rites at home and we took the body to the crematorium which is off mysore road and I performed many rites as a faithful son of my mother and then she was sent into the furnace. I cannot forget the gesture of my younger brother Sunil who insisted that he should touch her feet before she was sent into the furnace. thus ended the life of our mother who fought a valiant battle through life.

I must thank the american company CATERPILLAR for bearing a sizeable amount of my mothers' treatment through medical insurance.

My grand mother was some sort of a divorcee. In her first marriage to a poduval she had a daughter rohini. Fom her second marriage to edakalon karunakaran nambiar she had three children namely padmanabhan nambiar, yeshodha and my mother. The relation between my grand mother and grand father seemed to have strained possibly due to negative influence of surroundings thereby making my grand mother the sole guardian of all the four children. This was a set back and was tough. The first daughter rohini died of mental illness somewhere in 1973. My father and mother were married in 1964 and since my father had a job in bangalore they re-located to bangalore. My mother had a good life in Bangalore largely enjoying many comforts. During the last days of her life she was housed in the ICU of the hospital for more than a month.

It is difficult to believe that my mother is no more. She could not get good formal education but was very important force behind the education of we three children. We expected a miracle would save her life but that miracle never happenned. We conducted all the ceremonies and on the 6th of december 2009; my father, myself , keshavan nambiar and my sister P O Supriya travelled all the way to srirangapattana and immersed her ashes at the sangam there. My mother is eternal in the waters of the kaveri river. My brother Sunil was not in station and hence could not accompany us.

Surviving GBM is a difficult and impossible task it seems. However people with such diseases should not loose hope. Please contact me and I could be of some help and advice.