Beating Cancer and Finding Strength: Real Stories, Real Heroes – RCOZ

0:01 this meeting is being recorded 0:04 hi vikas how are you thank you for 0:06 taking the time to talk to us today 0:09 how are things 0:10 things are great rupali thank you for 0:12 having me How RCOZ overcame cancer 0:14 you know we connected a 0:15 few months ago about you being diagnosed 0:19 with cancer 0:21 and that was during the covert times 0:23 so 0:24 i know a lot of things have happened 0:26 since then uh do you want to just talk 0:28 about what happened and you know how did 0:30 you overcome 0:31 uh what was your process that you 0:33 followed 0:35 right 0:36 so during 0:38 march of 2021 i got diagnosed with 0:41 preparatory thyroid cancer and 0:44 as you can expect it it felt like oh my 0:47 god what happened 0:48 yeah but as i processed some of this 0:50 information it was the prognosis was 0:53 very good 0:54 uh this the setback was there 0:57 so one the process that i followed was 1:00 i really felt that i need to share this 1:02 with a lot of my family and friends 1:04 and create a community support that can 1:06 help me navigate through this tough 1:08 times yeah and so the process became 1:11 talking to a lot of people with multiple 1:13 purposes a 1:16 the energy that i was getting from 1:17 others really helped me sail through 1:19 this difficult time yeah second i was 1:21 looking for best of the medical experts 1:24 and some of these conversations 1:26 uh led me to that and third the fear of 1:29 unknown 1:30 there was this fear of unknown what will 1:32 happen what was the process 1:34 and by talking to a lot of people it 1:36 became clear it's not really a big deal 1:39 a lot of people get Coping mechanisms 1:40 but i mean just hearing the word cancer 1:42 would scare somebody right instead of 1:44 like turning inward it almost seemed 1:46 that you turned out words right like you 1:47 were 1:49 i mean i would say that i would probably 1:51 like just not talk about it for a few 1:53 days but how you were saying that you 1:55 shared it with a lot of people 1:57 yeah i think everybody is different 1:59 right the coping mechanisms are 2:01 different and one of my coping 2:02 mechanisms was to talk to people yeah 2:05 and 2:06 and that's that 2:08 help i got from community about 2:10 different ideas and 2:12 uh was tremendous and as you mentioned 2:15 cancer world is big 2:17 yeah but there are different types of 2:18 cancer so thyroid cancer for example you 2:21 you use dr google yeah and you will 2:24 realize that the prognosis are pretty 2:25 good Community support 2:27 yeah 2:28 yeah so so basically you're saying that 2:30 even though it was scary but your uh 2:33 you got the help from the community just 2:35 by talking about it more 2:37 absolutely committee my 2:39 family played a huge role in making sure 2:41 that i don't get a word uh over fearful 2:44 of the fact that this is going to happen 2:46 surgery is coming yeah so so the first 2:50 action was not to focus on the thing the 2:52 first action was 2:54 now what's the next step 2:55 yeah how will we deal with it and what's 2:58 the what's the plan being a 3:00 uh being a little bit of a program 3:02 management kind of a style i took it in 3:04 a program management style of how to 3:06 tackle it yeah Mental health 3:08 so i mean 3:09 now you're smiling but i'm sure that 3:11 time your mental health was suffering a 3:13 lot right 3:15 yeah 3:16 it it did suffer and what happened 3:20 uh after surgery i lost my voice for a 3:22 couple of months so that time it was a 3:24 bigger issue 3:25 about uncertainty yeah my job really 3:28 involved talking to a lot of people and 3:30 what will happen yeah and mental health 3:33 suffered quite a bit 3:35 uh 3:36 my family my mom my wife supported 3:39 a lot during that time but 3:42 i really went for therapy at that time 3:44 i started to take three therapy or uh 3:47 not voice therapy mental health uh the 3:50 the voice therapy as well as mental 3:54 therapy so i started doing medic 3:56 meditation more 3:57 i 3:58 talked to 3:59 some doctors about it psychiatrist and 4:01 said what should i do in these 4:03 situations yeah Losing his voice 4:06 so really like basically what you're 4:08 saying is even though it was a cancer of 4:11 the thyroid 4:13 but and that you found help because it 4:15 was all medically related but the thing 4:17 that happened after that the losing of 4:19 the voice and that mattered to your lord 4:21 because of your job and 4:23 just as a person who can't talk 4:25 that's effective more 4:27 it affected me more and 4:29 if you ask my friends i'm very 4:32 socially active i'm an extrovert i'll 4:34 pick up porn and talk to people yeah and 4:36 i felt that this would change all of my 4:38 life 4:39 yeah and that was a very dreadful thing 4:42 to think about 4:43 yeah 4:44 but by 4:46 all the help and everything the therapy 4:48 that happened i 4:50 one fine day suddenly the voice came 4:52 back 4:53 oh just like that 4:54 just like that and that was the best 4:56 blessing of all everything that happened Getting his voice back 4:59 so after that how once you got your 5:01 voice back 5:03 uh 5:04 you know we talked a little bit about 5:05 like seeking mental health um 5:08 you know uh 5:10 through therapy so all that 5:12 was done then by then 5:15 of course no i 5:17 don't know i continued on my journey 5:18 with therapies right so voice was back 5:21 so voice therapy is done 5:23 but overall therapy and 5:25 let's 5:26 therapy is not a big thing therapy is 5:28 really about 5:30 having somebody who's analyzing 5:32 what are your trigger points 5:34 about stress what are your trigger 5:36 points about 5:38 anger 5:39 yeah i think therapy is a very very 5:42 powerful thing which can lead to very 5:44 good outcomes 5:46 yeah 5:47 so you wish you had done this therapy 5:48 before 5:50 i certainly think so i certainly think 5:52 that as we 5:54 as the corporate world is going fast 5:56 yeah you tend to think about 5:59 things that are not very meaningful 6:01 yeah 6:02 and 6:03 uh when you analyze these 6:06 emotions or thoughts during your therapy 6:08 sessions 6:09 you clearly see some of it is not 6:11 beneficial to you so it's almost like 6:13 your voice or your thoughts are equaling 6:15 back during therapy sessions so i highly 6:18 encourage everybody uh 6:20 in when they are in stressful situations 6:22 yeah to use this as a tool to cope up 6:24 with it 6:25 yeah 6:26 true true Outro 6:28 now thank you so much vikas for sharing 6:29 your journey 6:31 um i know 6:32 uh we met her with herodectomy issues 6:35 also 6:36 and i i also told you that the voice my 6:39 ma i'd lost my voice also for a whole 6:41 year 6:43 and it was stressful because you know 6:44 nobody would understand what i'm talking 6:47 and it's you know people just say it's 6:49 just voice what's the big deal it could 6:50 be worse but when you're going through 6:52 that that that is the biggest thing for 6:54 you 6:55 correct 6:56 it is it feels like this is the most 6:58 important thing in the world 7:00 because this is the mechanism through 7:02 which you communicate your emotions 7:04 yeah your needs 7:06 right and when it is not there it 7:08 becomes the most 7:09 important stuff in your life 7:11 yeah great thank you so much for sharing 7:14 your journey today 7:16 thank you thank you 7:18 i really thank you for all the help 7:20 during my journey you are one of the 7:22 support mechanisms that i use to gather 7:25 information 7:26 yeah how this we will look like when 7:28 will my voice come back yeah you're 7:30 living a little bit together yeah i 7:32 think we all need to lean on each other 7:34 for those times 7:36 thanks because for your time today 7:38 thank you