When life gives you a Second Chance!

It's been 6 years since my journey in Microsoft began, rocking 6 years where I have seen lot of highs and some lows (which I know have been key learnings that have shaped me well). As I begin my new chapter in this Journey with my move to Redmond, it makes me immensely proud for all that I have achieved with the support from my family, friends, colleagues, mentors. Iam writing this to share that never stop dreaming, trust in yourself, enjoy the journey and last but not the least be empathetic and spread love! In this month of Pride, let's celebrate by being more caring towards each other, you never know what life has in store the next second.

I have a list of people from Microsoft who I specifically want to call out, if it was not for them, I wouldn't have been able to pick myself up and chase my dream. To Daryl who didn't doubt me even for a moment, infact he pushed me to explore and give it a go. To Oindrila and Jacinda for being such amazing leaders and bringing sea of changes to the India/ Asia GTA teams and to the best India GTA team ever (Deepika, Nikita, Sunita and everyone else on the team)!!?Thank you to Brett for that meeting in India three years ago, taught me never be afraid to talk to leaders! To Renate for pushing me to have conversations and confront when needed…. To Anubha who has been my guiding force and mentor for 3 years now…. To Sarah for helping me settle in and making me feel at home!

Sharing my story that happened in June of last year, when my life turned (now I think maybe for me to take more risks in life ??)

The day I almost!!!

It was a normal weekend on June 12th, caught up with a few friends on phone, made special dinner, sipped hot cup of coffee and then retired to bed. It all started around mid night, grumbling stomach, slight uneasiness and then an upset stomach…. Happened couple of more times during the night and I thought ouch, must be something that I ate.

Cut to 13th early morning, the uneasiness didn’t go and it started getting worse, woke Madan (my husband) and he checked my regular parameters and got worried when my BP was lower. He gave first aid but something made him check my BP again and it just didn’t move up. Worried he said let’s head to a hospital, that’s when things started going down hill, I couldn’t stand without feeling dizzy and I started panicking. He insisted that I put in all my effort and walk till the car, after much coaxing holding him tight (with the world turning upside down) I agreed and we got to the car with lot of difficulty. In all this Dri was shocked and crying inconsolably seeing me struggle….. that face will stay with me forever ??

The uneasiness was at its peak as I was wheeled in to the emergency. Everything after that for the next 4 days is blurry…. It’s what Iam recounting from what I heard from Madan and others!!!

The BP kept dropping, 2 bottles of Saline later it was so low that the doctors were clueless as to what was happening….. here I recount few instances….. my dad coming in and looking at me and I holding his hand telling him “please take care of Dri and Madan if anything happens to me”, the look on my dads face makes my heart wrench even today! He saw the low BP And walked away wanting to Find a doctor…… The next I remember is the doctor shouting instructions to the nurse “keep rubbing her hands and legs, we are losing her…. Everything’s getting cold”……. It didn’t mean anything to me then as I closed my eyes again….. The next was me pulling every bit of machine tagged to me and shouting at the doctor to “let me die, why are you troubling me” and the doc shouting at the nurse to give me sedative! Then I was in a dark space and I thought for a moment this was it, I was May be floating in to the next world ???? only to realize I was in a CT scan machine getting my body scanned….. I again pulled everything apart only to be scolded by the doctor to stay still (and comments that please give her more sedative, she won’t cooperate ??).

The next time I tried opening my eyes, I knew it was bandaged and there was no voice coming out of my mouth nor could I move my hands and legs! My first thought was “ ayooo did I become vegetative!” Struggled for a bit and tried telling my Brain please move please move and then I gave up…….. and then I could open my eyes, and saw Madan walking up smiling….. that face of his stays with me forever! I didn’t converse and don’t remember anything after that!

And then mom came and I shouted Amma, the happiness of seeing your mother is no bounds ???? and I introduced her to the nurse, mom cried….. met dad, the emotions on his face was beyond anything. Walked in my bro all love and happy…. That’s when I remembered seeing him talking don’t know when but asking me TO FIGHT! He video called Madan and I saw Dri….. the love and soul of my life, her happiness knew no bounds……

Then Madan walked in and I asked what happened? He said brace yourself to listen to the fight of your life!!!

I started giving up when the pain in my body shot up, seeing that I was not co-operating…. The Doctor walked up to brother (who was waiting outside) and said, sorry we have no hopes of saving her! He was shattered and called Madan (who had gone back home to get all my medication prescriptions which the docs needed) called my other brother Vineeth who ran from home to hospital….. Madan rushed and went to talk to the doc, by then they had done the CT scan and found a mass near the uterus…. They then did another CT to exactly check what was happening….. the doctor then walked up to Madan and said do you have previous scans? Madan was perplexed what scan? That’s when they broke the news that I was pregnant and the baby was in the fallopian tube which had now burst and there was internal bleeding!

Madan was clueless, he said we didn’t even know….. Vinny in the meanwhile was talking to my uncle Somu who is a doctor in the US and he was shocked, he knew there was almost no hope of survival….. the doc spoke to Madan and told, her Hemoglobin is at 3% she has already lost 4L of blood, if we cut her now there is 99.95% chance that she may die, she is on ventilator support currently and we can continue that till we up the Hemoglobin but there are chances of organ damage…… Madan knew that I would hate being vegetative so told the doc go ahead and operate and we will leave the rest to god! After multiple signatures and discussions even with my uncle, I was operated! And then began the process of my fight, fight for survival….. the next two days was waiting, waiting for me to breathe by myself, waiting for me to open my eyes, waiting for me to talk! After 8 bottles of blood and 2 platelets transfused…. I started responding ?? slowly they pulled me out of ventilator, removed the connection to my neck (trust me most painful) and then the Chittar chatter with every one around ??

This is my story of survival, they say brushes with death will leave you scared!!! Yes, Iam a normal human being, Iam scared even today but Iam fighting everyday to thank god for giving me a new lease of life and I will make the best use of this…. I will stay happy forever and will do my best to give back to this world!

They say prayers work miracles, yes in my case as well it did! It’s not just family and friends but my lovely colleagues as well….. I wanted to share this so that we all know how much life is unpredictable but for that don’t live in fear but be brave and ensure that you have your set of friends and family who will stay by you when it matters the most!!!! Trust me nothing else matters……

This second innings made me explore and take newer steps in life, now Iam here in Redmond waiting for this chapter of life to take me further.

Love, Peace and Happiness to all!!!!!

#Microsoft #Empathy #liveandletlive #secondinnings