Piece of Cake - In the Brain

Author : Vikas Verma

Date : September 15th, 2022

It was Nov 15th, a day after we celebrated my wife's 30th birthday. My son was a year old then and a drum full of joy. And I was about to go in what would end up being a 14 hour brain surgery for getting a skull base tumor removed.

Rewind 2 months. I usually don't have headaches. At worst, I would have 1-2 headaches a year, nothing a hot cup of tea couldn't fix. But one night and six more nights following that, I woke up in the middle of night with debilitating headaches. Being a serial procrastinator, I ignored it for a good 7 days after which I was forced by my better half to go see a doc. Confident that it was nothing. I bravely strolled the doctors office not realizing my life was about to take a decent size jolt. The MRI came back with a 2x2x4 inch tumor right where the skull meets the spine. The two words that I only had heard or seen in movies - Brain Tumor - sent shivers down my spine.

The next two months were mentally grueling for both me and my family (except my 1 year old, who still gave his 100% to keep us on our toes). I consulted with a number of doctors and neurologists in the next two months, who listed all the fun things that could potentially go wrong during my surgery, which was inevitable. Raging from deaf to blind to crippled and potentially fatal. The fun did not stop. Not all stories have a happy ending. Mine wasn't looking too good either, until I called a real life hero: Laligam Sekhar. The man who would give me a second life.

The doctor was in Seattle and I lived in Chicago at that time. In the very first phone call he convinced me that he was the person who would open my skull and take some sh** out. Fast forward to Nov 15th. A quick Gayatri mantra from Mr. Sekhar (yes, I got to listen to that in USA), and I was put to sleep. When I woke up, I had a large covered hole in my skull but most of the cyst was taken out. So my scary story does have a happy ending. Its been 10 years since then and fingers crossed the cyst hasn't come back. So that's my story.

It was a roller coaster ride with heart aches, heart breaks and some heart attacks. But we all tried to keep a positive outlook and kept our faith. That helped us get through the bad times. I sincerely hope everyone going through any trauma big or small has a similar happy ending and can keep an upbeat attitude....