A friend's sister, aged 29, was recently found to have multiple lumps in her liver through ultrasonography. The initial FNAC (fine needle aspiration cytology) showed only blood, so we were hoping the lesion would turn out to be a benign or infective one. But since the family was a little panicky, their doctor immediately referred them to a bigger centre without a repeat FNAC. And now I hear she might be having cancer of the colon which has in fact metastasized to her liver.
And just this week, one of H's close friend's mother was found to have cancer of the colon with metastasis to the liver.
A 22 year old man from Lunglei went to the doctor because the lump in his neck felt 'ugly'. They turned out to be malignant. Biopsy from his nasopharynx showed the cancer started from there.
A 14 year old girl from Saiha has lumps on her neck, which kept growing. Biopsy and CT scan showed she had widespread Lymphoma.
A 9 year old boy has a hugely swollen upper jaw. Investigations proved he has cancer of the maxilla.
We have 360 cases of cancer in Civil hospital, Aizawl so far this year (some duplication possible from FNACs, then biopsies). That is approximately 51 cases per month. The statistics are scary. And the saddest cases are the ones where the patients are still so young!
9 comments:
Cancer should be feared and prevented as far as possible. But, its still infections which kill more here in Mizoram
Our traditional diest is catually quite healthy...lots of greens and fibre. It's the tobacco and possibly adulterated food which harms us
And btw, ur new layout hides the comment and label links
grrr i gotta learn typing...
"diet is actually"
I have a close friend who's been undergoing chemo for cancer of the uterus. We thought she was getting better but tests show the disease spreading to other organs..
Btw I've sometimes wondered if you docs are given any kind of counselling on how to deal with emotionally distressing situations like these. I have a friend with a younger sister who's also a doc and I remember her once talking about how Zoteii's first patient was this old man who died and she was so terribly upset, her mother had to give her a little talk about how dealing with death was going to have to be part of her profession etc. On the other hand, some other docs seem so distant and uncaring about their patients.
OP, you're right about the infections. Malaria and TB are still major killers, as also the dreaded 'septicaemia'...I hear blood cultures are not even done in these 'wastebasket' cases, or if they were done, they are usually sterile. Maybe you can find out what exactly we're dealing with :)
About cancer, our genetics probably have a lot to say about the high rate. Tobacco is an obvious culprit, but not always. The addition of soda bicarb in our 'bai', our love of saum, smoked meat and fermented food could be another major cause.
And I suppose I will have to change my template again :( Even the spam comments will not stop!
It's so sad about your friend, Calliopia. Some people get cancer, but luckily continue to live a long, healthy life. Some like your friend, have cancer that spreads and there is not much any doctor can do about it. I hope she does get better though.
About your point, I quite agree. We doctors, atleast not in our institution, did not have much training about how to deal with the emotional aspects of medical life. It just seems to fall on your common sense and innate 'goodness' to be tactful and kind in dealing with patients. I guess you can always catch any doctor either being really nice or really terrible at some moments. But there are some who seem to enjoy twisting the knife sometimes, like saying 'you've come too late', 'there's no hope'. etc, or blowing something totally out of proportion and scaring patients unnecessarily. Luckily, I don't have to interact much with patients in my line, so I am spared dealing with that :)
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