Cancer chronicles- Mayhems of real life patient encounters

‘Cancer is the Voldemort of medical world.’

The one word that people are petrified to utter. We all know that we are talking about it, be it the doctor, the patient’s relative or the patient himself. There are so many alternatives that we use to refer to it constantly, “this disease”, “problem”, or thanks to medical facility, using the well known Abbreviation CA has become a norm. Saying it out loud makes them numb, scared to death of their impending death, even if it might not be a lethal form of cancer.

I don’t understand if it is their way of denial, or is it that the disease seems less atrocious just by avoiding the mention of its name. Either way it helps them keep going, I believe. It give them the strength to fight back, to give life a chance against this barbaric ailment whose name calls to mind of ordeal and suffering.

While I’m posted here in PET clinics, taking detailed case histories of all my patients, I have no escape from this superfluous affliction. It breaks me everyday to see the kind of pain that people go through. The anguish of seeing their entire life collapse, their crashing support system when it is a dear one that is affected. Out of nowhere now their life starts reeling from hospital visits, chemotherapy, countless needle pricks into those barely visible thinned-out veins, and the ever building frustration as a repercussion of their defeat at the hands of cancer.

I had my day starting with a 28-year old dainty lady, mother of a 2 year old baby girl, who developed a lump in her breast while breastfeeding her daughter. The doctor who examined her gave her the advice that most of us would give, that it is it common to have such lumps while lactating, and it should simply go away with time.

Until a few months later when she noticed it had increased in size, and then on tissue diagnosis was confirmed to be Ca. Breast. Who could have thought of that at her age? Only a hypochondriac! It came to me as a surprise that she was well aware of her diagnosis unlike many patients her age. (The other lot usually has over-protective family members who do not disclose the diagnosis to the patient and get all the treatment done without their consent, doing what they think is best for the patient.) So this young patient of mine continued innocently how she and her family recently got to know of “the disease” and that she had never had any major medical history until now, only to learn of this monster, hiding underneath in disguise of lactation.

At another extreme of age, the same day ended with a 87 year old, well-off, healthy-till-date man who was incidentally found to have a raised tumor marker on routine health check, which led to a biopsy revealing Ca. Prostate. This gentleman very subtly admitted how he would have lived at peace had he not got the damned blood test done, and not got to learn of “this problem” by chance, as he had no complaints of any sort.

Every patient is a reminder of how gruesome can life be. Everyday brings new people, new stories, none really good, but all worthy lessons, of what tomorrow might hold, we have no control over, and all we have to do is face it, headstrong, or in doldrums.

Such is life!