Blog Updates

Nothing new going on - believe me, no secrets - the blog will be one of the first things we update when she notices something. Monica and I struggle to update the blog when you feel you don't have anything to report. So, we are going to try and get down to some basics and talk about our daily lives and India more. We have taken thousands of pictures and not shared any of them with you. Additionally, I have taken some video of one of Monica's procedures that I want to learn how to put together and into the blog. The pictures and video take so much time to organize!

Even though I have not written in the blog recently, for the past few months I have been working on a case study about Monica. I have been observing, researching, analyzing and writing about her daily. It has been a very difficult task because it forced both of us to really look at the progression of her disease and how it has affected her daily life. It also caused a lot of reflection and grieving for myself. My goal has been to capture what her life looks like today and try to explain every detail and answer every question that any one has about her condition. When you meet Monica you meet a "normal" teenager. However, when you look much deeper you realize how amazing and high functioning she has become in a body that does not support her.

I am really glad that I have spent these past few months compiling the information. I knew Dr. Shroff, Dr. Verma, and Dr. Sudeep would be interested. Based on our last blogs you could probably sense that they were having a difficult time understanding why Monica would be willing to do stem cell treatment, but not a lumbar procedure. I didn't plan on giving my paper to the doctors, but wanted to capture what she felt like now before her sensation returned. Once it returns we will never recall these details. However, based on what was happening with treatment I realized the doctors needed to understand Monica as a person better and maybe what I had written would trigger some new direction in their thinking on how to treat her. Reading my paper they now understand much more than we could articulate on why we must follow her intuition. They now have a new approach in their treatment plan.

Keeping the faith ...