What I Saw, Staying

  After three days, when we went back for a follow-up under Dr.TSR. He asked his assistant doctors to remove the staples and Dr.TSR examined the wound. I stepped into Dr. TSR’s room and asked him for the next steps. When they were performing surgery, they collected samples for culture. I collected the report from the lab and showed it to Dr.TSR. I asked him, to please tell me his cancer stage. Dr.TSR told me that we have removed the part, which is affected by cancer. This report doesn’t make much sense. But, as per this report, it is Stage 3. He asked me to consult a medical oncologist by giving a reference in the same hospital and get   chemotherapy  treatment. All this while, only I was with Dr.TSR and my father was in the procedure room (to get rid of staples and a jejunostomy tube). When I told him about this to my father, he couldn’t take it, as he was still in the process of recovery. Either I or my father didn’t expect that there would be the following treatment af...

  I was baffled completely after learning the further treatment procedures. It was in the last week of July when we came to know about this. As I earlier said, I actually had come to the home before lockdown, to get all the documentation done for my MS abroad. I hardly had 1 month then, to apply and get the visa in order to start my postgraduate studies in a foreign university. I was not in my senses at least for a day and also tensed because I left my job and other job offers for this. I had planned for this long back but it got delayed for some reason. Before the surgery, I didn’t give much thought to it, as I felt I could figure it out once the operation was done. To be honest, I wanted to pursue postgraduate studies in India. But, it’s my father’s push that turned out to be a motivation for me to pursue abroad. So, even before surgery, my father said, don’t stop your arrangements for onboarding flight for master’s education. I didn’t care about it back then. Now, it’s time for ...

  After thorough inquiry and approaching doctors and family, we decided to undergo further treatment at one of the cancer-specialized hospitals, which is 30km away from our hometown. We also thought that it would be feasible in all the ways, to get treated, even if there was side effects during the treatment. We met Dr Srinivas (medical oncologist), he was friendly and also made my father settle down by starting the treatment with fewer doses and increasing the dosage gradually. There are many types of chemotherapies available to treat cancer, but the doctor would suggest the best chemotherapy for the type of cancer, the patient is suffering from. So, they have decided to treat with a chemotherapy combination called  FLOT  ( Fluorouracil, Leucovorin, Oxaliplatin, and Docetaxel )  for 8 cycles with a 15-day gap for each cycle. Each cycle would require a 1.5-day stay in the hospital, there are many ways chemotherapy infusions can be done. Doctors have suggested us...

  Chemotherapy  —Chemotherapy is   a drug treatment that uses powerful chemicals to kill fast-growing cells in your body   (src:   Mayo Clinic ). But, I would say it is a  lethal drug, one would take with a belief to get cured of the disease .  It doesn’t mean, I am against chemotherapy but I am worried about the side effects, it would affect your body’s immune system. After the first cycle of chemo, he initially had uneasiness but the doctor had already prescribed the medication to treat it. He resumed work, the very next day after his first cycle of chemo. He was also active and had the food in small quantities at regular intervals even after major surgery. Side effects like loss of appetite and hair fall started after the third cycle and he felt irritated easily because of the reaction of these chemo drugs. Then, I understood that  we need to be so patient with the people, who are under chemo treatment.  He slowly started becoming weak aft...

  After the 5th cycle of chemo, initially in the nights, he used to complain of unbearable pain around the left side of his abdomen. In general, when a patient is under chemotherapy, he or she experiences unbearable pain as their immune system becomes weak. So, I thought that he was complaining of such pain. On the first day, when he complained about this unbearable pain in the night, I thought it was appendicitis. But, my father was a biology student, so he was pretty sure that it was not appendicitis. I made a call to the hospital around 2 AM and they connected the phone call to the duty doctor, he advised me to give him a  pantoprazole  tablet, and after a while, if the pain didn’t subside then give him an  aceclofenac  tablet. If he still complains of the pain, then please bring him to the hospital. Consulted the doctor regarding this problem, Dr. Kishore suggested for Ultrasound and the reports of the ultrasound were negative (which stated that  everyt...

  As said in an earlier chapter, we decided to take an opinion from the hospital, where the surgery was done. I, my father, and the driver started the journey to Hyderabad. My father loves driving. So, he drove at midnight for 150 KM, he could have driven the entire journey, he stopped after 150 KM only after I hesitated and yelled at him not to drive more and get strained. The next morning when we reached there, he wasn’t able to bear the abdomen and lower abdomen pain. I thought that because of getting strained due to driving and even he didn’t understand the reason. After taking the medication, we went to the hospital, consulted the doctor over there and spoke to Dr.TSR, he said after looking at the reports, try to get the PET-CT report rewritten by the radiation oncologist downstairs (by handing them the CD — whenever patients undergo MRI or scanning, along with the report, they would also give us the CD). I spoke to Dr.TSR personally then he said that according to this report,...

  I was really tensed and didn’t understand why they had put him in the ICU. I was thinking all about it and browsing the internet about it and returned home around 1 AM. On the way back home, I made a call to my friend and told her about the condition and asked her to please be available at any time at midnight. It was so generous of her to accept the request. I couldn’t sleep the whole night because of stress and tension. I went back to the hospital in the early morning around 5 AM and the nurse who was standing outside the ICU for some work told me ‘Your father is doing fine now and he passed his stools also’. I requested him to allow me inside to see him once. I went inside and spoke to him and also saw him with a smile. I felt relieved then and went to have breakfast. I was waiting in the waiting room near the ICU to speak to Dr. Kishore, meanwhile, my friend came with her mother to see my father and spoke to me and gave me some confidence. Dr Kishore came and inquired about h...