I am Padmini Muraleedharan, aged 71years. I was diagnosed with DLBCL in Feb/March, 2023.

I regret to say, I wasted a lot of time after noticing a few swollen lymph nodes in the neck. Wishing and hoping it will go away on its own. Wasted some more time going to hospital and seeing Doctors. Finally, we came to Amala Institute of Medical Science and after some biopsy and other tests, I was diagnosed as having lymphoma DLBCL. I was referred to Dr Sreeraj of the Medical Oncology Department there.

He said I would have to undergo chemotherapy, six cycles. I noticed, all the palpable nodes had disappeared after just one cycle of chemotherapy. But I had to complete 5 more cycles. By July the same year I went into remission. My health improved, my hair grew back thicker than before. I was happy. But unfortunately, I relapsed after about one year in August, 2024. Without wasting time, we went straight to Dr Sreeraj. This time, a different type of chemotherapy was administered. By December 2024, I was again free of any sign of the disease and well and energetic. I was happy again and confident that if anything went wrong again, I could rely on Dr. Sreeraj. But he said doing chemo over and over again was not good and not always successful.

Dr Sreeraj , then talked about a treatment called Car T Cell therapy, which could cause many side effects, which were of course, treatable but had to be monitored closely. This required a hospital stay of about a few weeks. But I was very reluctant and did not want to undergo anymore treatment. I was terrified of the side effects more than the therapy itself, which was a simple, painless procedure. So I told my Doctor and my children that I did not want to go for it. And then, we got the permission from ECHS. After thinking about it over and over again, I decided to go for the above therapy.

Luckily for me there was no big side effects. I was closely monitored by a team of Doctors and nurses besides, Dr. Sreeraj. Their kind and helpful approach also helped. I did have a mild version of some of the side effects. like feeling dizzy on two occasions lasting only for a minute or so.

Back home now, feeling a bit tired, but otherwise able to attend my routine jobs. And hoping for the best. We thank the entire team of Doctors, nurses, and others who were there round the clock to take care of me.

Thank you all.

Mrs. Padmini Muraleedharan