The day, we came to know about papa’s cancer it was already stage iV B - the last stage. He din’t have time!
Om my very first visit to the hospital, the oncologist said - "Your father has got 9 months or may be less to live. No treatment will work on him . All we can try is to lessen his pain". That is it! and nothing. Tears rolled down my cheeks. A senior doctor of a high profile CANCER hospital in Delhi was saying this. I felt suffocated. I wanted to say, tell me something that i don’t know but chose to remain quite. I wiped my tears, got up from the chair and rushed towards the door to get some fresh air, that i desperately needed.
In my entire life, i never felt so weak and miserable as i felt in those 15minutes I so hated myself, for not noticing papa's degression. The body was giving hints continuously, but I was never able to pick. Why wasn’t I aware of something like CANCER? Why is there so less awareness about GALL BLADDER CANCER. Why did i have to loose my father to know about cancer?
I lost my father, but i don’t want any one else to suffer like papa…like me..like my family. In the hope and with the conviction that my efforts will save somebody, if not papa. May be i will attain some peace. I will start by the ways which cancer spread in the body.
Since papa, was a GALL BLADDER (Metastatsis) case, therefore all my findings and research are related to the metastatic stage of cancer
How does CANCER spreads in the body?
Generally, there are 3 ways in which cancer spreads in the body
Tissues : By growing into the nearby areas
Lymph System : Travels through the lymph vessels to other parts of the body.
Blood : Travels through the blood vessels to other parts of the body.
And when cancer spreads from its point of origin to other parts of the body, it is known as metastasis.The cancer cells break away from the original (primary) site and travel to the other parts of the body through lymphs and blood.
The metastatic tumor is the same type of cancer as the original tumor. In papa’s case the primary site ( or the point of origin) was gallbladder which spread to the liver , pancreas, lungs and finally to the bones. The cancer cells in the liver were actually the gallbladder cancer cells travelled to liver and to other sites . Therefore it is metastatic gallbladder cancer, and not liver cancer, lung or bone cancer.
It is said that , if detected early. Cancer is curable. I don’t know how true it is. But if it is, one should the know the stages to be aware.
Different Stages of Gall Bladder Metastasis Cancer
Stage 0 (Carcinoma in Situ) : In stage 0, abnormal cells are found in the inner (mucosal) layer of the gallbladder. These abnormal cells may become cancer and spread into nearby normal tissue. Stage 0 is also called carcinoma in situ.
Stage I : In stage I, cancer has formed and has spread beyond the inner (mucosal) layer to a layer of tissue withblood vessels or to the muscle layer.
Stage II : In stage II, cancer has spread beyond the muscle layer to the connective tissue around the muscle.
Stage IIIA : In stage IIIA, cancer has spread through the thin layers of tissue that cover the gallbladder and/or to theliver and/or to one nearby organ (such as the stomach, small intestine, colon, pancreas, or bile ductsoutside the liver).
Stage IIIB : In stage IIIB, cancer has spread to nearby lymph nodes and:beyond the inner layer of the gallbladder to a layer of tissue with blood vessels or to the muscle layer; or beyond the muscle layer to the connective tissue around the muscle; or through the thin layers of tissue that cover the gallbladder and/or to the liver and/or to one nearbyorgan (such as the stomach, small intestine, colon, pancreas, or bile ducts outside the liver).
Stage IVA: In stage IVA, cancer has spread to a main blood vessel of the liver or to 2 or more nearby organs or areas other than the liver. Cancer may have spread to nearby lymph nodes.
Stage IVB : In stage IVB, cancer has spread to either: lymph nodes along large arteries in the abdomen and/or near the lower part of the backbone; or to organs or areas far away from the gallbladder
Papa, in particular showed NO signs of cancer except for that he had lost considerable weight in the past few months. But we thought it was old-age and papa was very particular about of NOT putting on weight. Papa was a very health conscious person and never compromised on his health . Ironically, for years i saw him starting his day with an apple ( What is that famous saying...An apple a day keep the the doctor away).
A couple of years ago, papa had an operation for enlarged prostate gland. So papa was regularly visiting this doctor besides, papa also had history of urine infection. But look at doctor’s in India- this man never diagnosed properly…all he gave medicines for urine infection….that too because papa said so….my question to this doctor is…papa was visiting him for more then a year…when pain was not subsiding...why din’t he suggest to get an ultrasound…X-ray.?
Why din’t he refer papa to some bigger hospital?
I wonder is he actually a doctor?. …Look at the plight of india’s medical system…later..when papa on his own got an X-ray…the X-ray said nothing..everything perfect!
But owing to the continuous pain, and our insistence papa got an colored X-ray…done…it said papa had stones in the gall bladder. Such is our medical case…. LANCE ARMSTRONG, the famous american racing cyclist…in 1996 was given 2 % chances of surviving….cancer had spread to abdomen, brain and lungs. But he not only survived the cancer, but also went on to to win the Tour de France over and over again….thanks to treatment and the treating doctors.
If only papa would have met the right doctor, got the right treatment timely…he would have been here with me and my world would have been perfect.
Love you papa!
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