When Niyati Tamaskar was diagnosed with stage IIIC breast cancer in March 2018, she faced many uncertainties: How would she manage treatment along with her career as an engineer and mothering two small children? Which reconstruction option was the right choice for her? Should she tell others about her diagnosis?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That last question felt particularly fraught for Tamaskar, an Indian-American woman who practices Hinduism. In Indian culture, serious diagnoses like cancer are often kept secret.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSome of that shame comes from the fact that in Hinduism, we believe in karma,\u201d Tamaskar says. \u201cPeople choose to not share cancer news because they feel like they\u2019re paying for their sins, and they must have done something horrible. So it\u2019s extremely complex.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Breast Cancer and Indian Culture: Niyati’s Fight 00:06:15<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tamaskar says among many in her culture, a diagnosis like cancer is dealt with privately to avoid stigma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere\u2019s an irrational belief that if you say the word \u2018cancer\u2019 out loud, it will happen to you,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd what ends up happening is it becomes the \u2018C-word,\u2019 and the word is a taboo.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Tamaskar knew she could not face this disease alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAll the feelings of shame and stigma came washing back to me, and I decided I would do the one thing we are not supposed to do, and that is tell people about my diagnosis,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tamaskar reached out to family and friends, sharing the details of her breast cancer and treatment plan, enlisting some of them to assist the family with child care and meals. She approached the illness as an engineer would manage a project \u2014 building spreadsheets and timelines to track treatment, surgeries, and friends who offered help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But one part of breast cancer treatment that felt out of her control was mastectomy and reconstruction. She says she just accepted her surgeon\u2019s recommendation to have breast reconstruction with tissue expanders and implants without asking enough questions about other options. And when learning about the reconstruction process, she was dismayed to see a lack of diversity in the before-and-after photos she was shown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe nurse came in with the pamphlet, and I was really surprised,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was three pages of just white women. None of them looked like me, so my reconstruction would not look like theirs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since completing treatment, Tamaskar has become an advocate for breast cancer patients and survivors in the Indian community. She has conducted TEDx talks, and she even wrote a book, Unafraid: A Survivor\u2019s Quest for Human Connection<\/em>, which details her experience with cancer. While she says the writing was a cathartic exercise, she also wanted it to spark conversations in the Indian culture about the realities of cancer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt has gotten a lot of Indian people talking,\u201d she says. \u201cPeople from my culture, they acknowledge there is a shame, and they also acknowledge it shouldn\u2019t be there, but they\u2019re not able to break that cycle.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tamaskar says the connections she has made with other Indian breast cancer patients and survivors have become an unexpected silver lining to one of the most difficult periods of her life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI find people who are about to embark on this journey, this battle, and I\u2019m able to support them \u2014 that has been a rewarding experience,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n breast canncer org.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When Niyati Tamaskar was diagnosed with stage IIIC breast cancer in March 2018, she faced many uncertainties: How would she manage treatment along with her career as an engineer and mothering two small children? Which reconstruction option was the right choice for her? Should she tell others about her diagnosis? That last question felt particularly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1243,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[102,1],"tags":[103],"class_list":["post-842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-uncategorized","tag-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pinksheild.bashdevelopers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pinksheild.bashdevelopers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pinksheild.bashdevelopers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pinksheild.bashdevelopers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pinksheild.bashdevelopers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=842"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pinksheild.bashdevelopers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1244,"href":"https:\/\/pinksheild.bashdevelopers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842\/revisions\/1244"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pinksheild.bashdevelopers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pinksheild.bashdevelopers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pinksheild.bashdevelopers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pinksheild.bashdevelopers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}