Ashish passed away at home on January 27, 2023.
A celebration of life will be planned in the coming weeks. His obituary is located here:
https://www.fischerperimeterchapel.com/obituary/Ashish-Sharma#tributewallWays to help - please feel free to reach out to us. The obituary lists places to donate as well as an education fund for Rhea. We are always happy to hear your stories and make personal connections. We love you all.
Intro and summary: As you know, Ashish is a professor at Emory, and he is a sweet understated brilliantly smart guy that everyone likes. He puts in way more than his share into everything he does and would give anyone the shirt off his back.
What's going on with Ashish:
Ashish has a stage 4 brain tumor (glioblastoma). Ashish’s tumor was found in the thalamus. While still very rare, Glioblastoma is the most common form of brain cancer. It is always stage 4, but rarely metastasizes outside the brain. It has no cure and no remission. It cannot be completely removed because it’s very invasive and will grow back. A number of well known people have had glioblastoma such as John McCain and Beau Biden. The cause is not known. Ashish has studied brain cancer for many years. He says there is no known cause, he just “drew a bad card in the genetic deck.” Until his diagnosis on February 25, 2020, Ashish was almost never sick.
Ashish had a stroke after returning home from his brain biopsy on February 27, 2020, limiting his left side function. He suffered numerous other complications. Most notably, He suffered numerous spinal fractures and rib fractures due to the long term high dose steroids prescribed to control brain swelling, which in turn caused osteoporosis and his bones to break. Due to this, Ashish has been bed-bound since November 2020. He could at times get into a wheelchair with assistance from a physical therapist and a hoyer lift, but that hasn’t happened recently.
Back in February 2020, Ashish had a bad headache for about 10 days. Thinking it was caused by flu or an infection or something, after toughing it out as long as he could, he walked into the ER at St. Joseph's Sunday Feb 23, 2020. A CT scan revealed a mass on the right side of his brain. An MRI revealed a tumor deep in the right side of his brain close to the ventricle. He was kept in the hospital and had a brain biopsy on Tuesday 2/25. He was sent home after 24 hours on 2/26. Late that evening, he had bleeding in his brain following the biopsy and had a stroke. Cognitively he seemed fine, he talked to me the whole time, but was having a lot of pain and difficulty using his left side. He was brought back to St Joe and, after a painfully long wait, transferred to Emory neuro icu.
He had life-saving drains installed initially to relieve pressure in his brain and then had a shunt installed, but it later had to be externalized because there was too much sediment in his brain and the shunt clogged. He woke up and was talking at a whisper. He couldn’t leave the icu with an open drain, however. We were banned from the hospital on 3/22 due to COVID19. He ultimately went to a rehab facility, completing 6 weeks of chemo and radiation which is the “standard of care.” He then completed 6 rounds of 5/23 (5 days chemo, 23 days off).
Ashish has been a warrior, he tries and tries, but he’s caught some really tough breaks. We are both totally exhausted but overwhelmed by the well wishes and support. Our daughter is doing her best to understand everything going on.
Ashish’s parents have visited twice. When he got sick and again in summer 2021.
Everyone is asking what can I do. Even now, I’m a overwhelmed and honestly don’t know most of the time, but I’m open to offers and appreciate when people check in. Rhea can use play dates sometimes, and I’m often too tired to organize them. And it’s hard for her to answer questions about her dad. I’m using the Instacart gift cards and we really appreciate all the kind offers and kind things people have done to help. Under the ways to help tab, you will see a list of places we can use gift cards to, though we do not expect them from anyone.
Please keep your well wishes coming. We are so far beyond exhausted and need them more than we ever have. I’m updating this at the 18 month mark, and I can’t even begin to explain the exhaustion. Love and thanks to all of you for your help and support. You can also send well wishes to Ashish’s phone.
Love and light to all of you in trying times.
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