In Loving Memory of Ravi Chhabra.
5/27/1988 - 2/7/2023

Ravi wrote this in September of 2022 when he was selected to be a motivational guest speaker to launch the fundraising campaign for Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Lavaman Waikoloa Triathlon. The event took place in April of 2023…

My name is Ravi Chhabra.  I’m 34 years old, born in Montreal and grew up in North Texas.
I’m a survivor of B-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. Here’s my story:

In October of 2021, my wife, Rachel, and I were living the dream with our beautiful 7-week-old son and 18-month-old daughter.  I hadn’t been feeling well - dizzy spells, fatigue, etc., but I chalked it up to working full time, chasing a toddler and being a full-time bodyguard to our son.  If any of you have or have had kids close in age, you know what I mean by this.

My brother was in town for Thanksgiving, and in true brother fashion, as soon as he saw me, he said, “Dang, you look like terrible.  Do you feel okay?!”  I told him that I had actually had blood drawn a couple weeks ago and was waiting for the results.  He, working in the medical field as a paramedic, could tell just by looking at me that something was off and encouraged me to push for the results or to get a new blood draw.  It was the Monday before Thanksgiving, and I wasn’t able to get an appointment on short notice, so I showed up Tuesday to their office to obtain a copy of my results and leave. My Hgb was 6.4 and my platelets were 22 (normal Hgb (hemoglobin) is 13, and a normal platelet range 150-370). My doctor ordered a second round of labs to confirm, and he called me the next day suggesting I go to the closest emergency room. Upon arrival to the ER, I was immediately seen, and my Hgb had dropped to 5.8. I’ll never forget the moment the doctor came back into my ER room, pulled up a chair, put her hand on my leg, and said “I’m sorry, but it appears you have leukemia / cancer.” She suggested transferring me to Dallas as they had a better developed oncology unit, and I told her she has the wrong guy. That I was perfectly healthy. She said you might be right, there’s a 1% chance it could be anemia, so let’s go to Dallas to rule that out to which I obliged. They immediately began to transfuse me with two units of blood while we waited for transport, and off to Dallas we went. Luckily, my brother knew the severity of what was going on just based on my looks and suggested I pack an overnight bag “just in case” so we were prepared to stay.

I briefly spoke with my oncologist on Wednesday night, and he told me there was an 80% I had AML (Acute Myeloid Leukemia) and a 20% chance I had ALL (Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia). The next day, Thanksgiving morning, my doctor walked in and said I have B-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. I FaceTimed my wife, Rachel, to let her know…

Since it was Thanksgiving weekend, we had to wait five long days before we could begin treatment.  Those five days were some of the longest, as I was trying to process what was happening and prepare for what was to come. As you all know, there’s nothing that can prepare you for what you’ll go through.

Five days later, on Tuesday, November 30, 2021, I started my first round of chemo, and left the hospital after 22 days on December 15th. I’ll never forget walking out of that hospital. My doctor recommended Hyper-CVAD (chemotherapy combination) for my treatment regimen. There was uncertainty about when I would be admitted for the second round of chemo therefore we decided to celebrate Christmas a week early with the kids, on December 18th. We started “Christmas” morning off by my shaving my head…Hope I don’t have to start another Christmas off like that :)

I received my second bone marrow biopsy on December 23rd and found out the next week that I was in remission. Looking back, I wonder why we didn’t celebrate that more since it’s seems like such a huge deal, but I think we were overwhelmed with what was going on and the road ahead.  I know now how lucky I am to have reached remission after the first round and am forever grateful.

Since my ALL abnormalities were so rare (Philadelphia Negative, ETV6 deletion, extra MYC and an extra RUNX1 chromosome), my medical team decided right away that continuing with chemo and a bone marrow transplant gave me the best chance of preventing the leukemia from returning. Over the next several months, we blasted in and out of the hospital through five week-long hospital stays where I dabbled in all sorts of different chemo IVs and cocktails and other exciting adventures like 8 lumbar punctures, 1 blood patch to fix a leaky lumbar puncture, multiple bone marrow biopsies, blood clots, etc.

24 hours after my 6th lumbar puncture, my support team and I actually participated in the Big D Climb, an LLS event where participants climb 70 stories in the Bank of America building in Dallas to fund cancer research.

Luckily, my search for a donor was short as I have three amazing siblings who were more than willing to help and be part of the process. My two sisters were full matches, but we ended up collecting from my brother who was a half match based on medical team’s recommendation. After several Granix shots, he was able to produce over five million stem cells during the first day of collection, which exceeded our need!

I checked into the hospital to prepare for transplant on April 14th and received another round of intensive chemo for 3 more days followed by four days of radiation twice a day.  I finally reached Day 0 (Transplant Day) on April 22nd of this year (2022).

The doctors told us that the actual transplant would be uneventful like the numerous blood transfusions I’d received up to this point, but boy, were they off on preparing us for what was about to come!  Of course all of this was going on in the middle of a pandemic, so visitation was very limited.  The hospital made an exception for me on this day, and I was able to have my brother and wife in the room with me.

Within the first three minutes of receiving the stem cells, I began to have a severe atypical reaction. My heart rate spiked, my oxygen plummeted, and I started breaking out in rashes all over my body. My nurse immediately called for additional support, and what was supposed to be a quick hour and half to two hours turned into a four-hour arduous process, but I was successfully given the desired amount of stem cells. Thank God for Zofran, Benadryl, Ativan, and a great medical team.

The next couple weeks were focused on getting me out of the hospital and on with my life.  I was expected to be in the hospital for three weeks after transplant.  However, my body started to take a turn after a couple weeks, and the next month was quite the fight.  I developed mucositis and then graft vs host disease (GVHD) of both the skin and the gut. I had mostly Grade 2 GVHD of the gut with some spots of Grade 3.  (GVHD is graded on a scale of 1-4, with 4 being the most extreme). I lost 50 pounds over the next six weeks and was on IV nutrition for a couple of weeks. To put it lightly, it got pretty ugly for a while, in more ways than one. My doctor recently told my wife and me that this could have ended very differently for me if I hadn’t kept up the fight.

After 66 days post-transplant, I was finally released from the hospital on Father’s Day and was able to celebrate my first as a father of two!

My post-transplant life has been full of ups and downs. There aren’t words to describe how thankful I am to get time with my family and to remain in remission. My family has gone above and beyond with their love and support, and I will forever be grateful. I know others are not so lucky, and I’ll never lose sight of that. I still receive blood and platelet transfusions twice a week and also undergo photopheresis twice a week every other week.  Photopheresis helps, along with steroids that are used to treat GVHD, but they of course have their negative side effects.  I’ve been on them for such a prolonged amount of time that I found out Tuesday I developed osteonecrosis and will need a hip replacement.

I signed up for this event (Lavaman Waikoloa Triathlon) with full intentions of participating.  With a hip replacement on the horizon, I’m not sure it will work out this year, but crazier things have happened!  My wife will be participating regardless, and I’ll be on the beach cheering you all on.

My motivation and inspiration stems from hoping LLS can continue to help fund research and advance treatments even further so that fewer people have to go through what we’ve been through.

Our thoughts and prayers are with all of our fellow fighters, survivors, angels, caretakers, and any and all who have been impacted by cancer.  We know how brutal it is, but we also know what an amazing organization LLS is. From the resources, to the funding to the sense of community, we love LLS and are so thankful for this organization.

THE REST OF RAVI’S STORY (written by his wife, Rachel)

 

Ravi continued photopheresis treatments, blood transfusions and platelet transfusions on a regular basis. When he wasn’t admitted, we were at hospital appointments for three to five days a week undergoing various procedures, scans and meeting with different specialists.

 

Between the appointments, hospital stays and procedures, we were able to spend amazing quality time with our friends and family thanks to Ravi’s tenacity and incredibly positive and driven spirit. We celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary, we did a small family cake smash for our son’s first birthday then celebrated with a birthday party along with family and friends at our home in McKinney. We attended the McKinney Plano Balloon festival, and visited every pumpkin patch within a 50-mile radius of us.  

Ravi had his right hip replaced on October 19, 2022. He recovered like the champion he was and pushed himself to get better and stronger every day. We went on frequent family walks where he worked diligently and relentlessly to gain his strength back. In true Ravi fashion, he always insisted on pushing the stroller.

 

We attended LLS’s Light the Night on October 23rd, with one of our dear friends who came in town to visit Ravi, where Ravi got out of his wheelchair, 4 days after his replacement surgery, and proudly held his survivor lantern alongside other cancer survivors.

 

We celebrated Halloween as a family of four, going as characters from Frozen. (Our daughter - Elsa, our son - Olaf, Ravi - Kristoff, Rachel - Anna) We attended our niece’s Halloween party at her elementary school and went to the Dallas Stars Hockey Fights Cancer in November with our wonderful family from Canada who came in town to see Ravi.  We celebrated Thanksgiving 2022 with our families, and we took our 3-year-old daughter to Disney on Ice and her second Dallas Stars game.

At some point we found out that Ravi needed his other hip replaced as well as both of his shoulders due to the long-term, high-dose steroids that were used to keep the GVHD at bay. Ravi went in for a left hip replacement on December 13th, 2022. When they went in for the replacement, they found a significant infection, and were unable to do the replacement. We went home with IV antibiotics that he endured twice a day for the next six weeks. We were to reschedule this hip replacement surgery 12 months later to ensure the infection had cleared.

On December 22nd, my best friend, along with her family and company, The Real McCoys Realty Group, showered us with the most unexpected and most magical Christmas we ever could have imagined. They showed up with a literal truckload of love and toys and gifts for our family. We will forever be grateful for making what unknowingly was our last Christmas with Ravi, the most special Christmas of our lives. We were able to celebrate Christmas as a family and will forever cherish that time with our Ravi.

Ravi always had a bucket list going, and thanks to his tenacity and get-stuff-done attitude, Ravi and I checked one last thing off his bucket list 7 days before he passed away. Ravi bought courtside seats to see Luka Doncic (and the Mavericks) live. Luka was actually hurt the game prior, so we weren’t expecting him to play, but much to Ravi’s delight, he played and did not disappoint! As his wife, I knew he was not feeling well, but an outsider never would have known, based on his attitude.

 

Ravi’s health had been declining, but his persistence, hope and positive outlook never had us worried. His body took a turn the day after the Mavericks game, and we were admitted to Medical City of Dallas on February 2nd, for what unknowingly was our last time. Over the next week, Ravi fought like hell for his kids, me and himself to stay on this Earth. He ultimately passed from klebsiella sepsis on February 7th, at 4:44 am.

 

Although I have desperately tried to express my gratitude for the consistent and endless love and unwavering support that we received during Ravi’s battle, afterward, and still continue to receive on a daily basis, it’s something I will never be able to properly verbalize.

 

Our family, friends and companies, Careington International Corporation and Industrial Networking Solutions (INS), just continue to outdo themselves with their generosity and thoughtfulness.

 

While Ravi’s earthside void is something I’ll never recover from, I know that the kids and I have full support from so many fabulous people in our lives. The best way I can think to honor Ravi’s life is to help continue fighting the good fight against cancer in his name. We’re ALL in on this life for you, Ravi!