Anatomy of a Tumour : A Patient Intimate Dialogue With The Scourge

The patient is Sudhansu Mohanty, an Indian civil servant in his early fifties his scourge is the carcinoid tumour which, unknown to him, he has been carrying around for some time. Mohanty's introduction to this 'scourge' was gradual, starting with an almost continuous fatigue, followed by intermittent diarrhoea, a loss of appetite, enhanced perspiring, especially while eating and a wasting away of muscles. He ignored them all, he lived in denial. Before he knew it, he was overtaken by nemesis in the form of a sharp drop in his haemoglobin. The cause is carcinoid a rare form of cancer, rare in terms of appearance, hard to detect in its nascent stages and therefore, all the more deadly. In Mohanty's case, it was suspected early, post-colonoscopy, thanks to the perspicacity of his gastroenterologist who most unusual for a physician pronounced, 'I consider this malignant. I want to go in and see.'