Thus She was Cured of Calcification of one Breast
By JIRARA
© JIRARA, March 2021
Published by JIRARA on matrubharti.com
All rights reserved. No parts of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, for any commercial purposes without the prior permission of the author and/or publisher.
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Disclaimer: This is the work of fiction as far as all the characters, their names and the names of all the events are concerned and all these are imaginary and hence any resemblance to the persons (and their lives) dead or alive, and any places are coincidental. Even if a few events might look realistic/’real’, these are fictionalised and the associated names are changed in order to maintain their privacy, honour, and security. No intention whatsoever is meant to hurt any feelings of whosoever, irrespective of their personal/cultural beliefs, social or political inclinations, religion-orientations/practicing/philosophy, life styles, and work/business. The ‘I’, ‘my’, ‘me’, and ‘mine’ (if any used) do not necessarily mean the author of this book, and these and other such pronouns: her, hers, his, he, she, him, you, your, yours, ours, theirs…; are used for effective personification and dramatization, and the readers should not take these on their ‘own persons’.
The readers should take these stories/verses/thoughts with/in good spirit. The presented ideas and material are based, where feasible, on readings and (thought-) analyses of scientific/other open literature (which seemed most profound and trustworthy), with as much care as possibly taken. The readers are requested to verify these notions on their own, and use their own discretion. However, these stories/verses/thoughts/ideas (mostly original) are expressed here with an intention of increasing awareness of the readers with a hope that in an overall sense, their (and ours) consciousness would be heightened (in all and multiple directions), so that we all can live our lives on this planet with true happiness, ever-lasting peace and real joy (irrespective of our orientations). The author and the publisher will not be responsible for any negative effects/situations arising as a result of reading these stories/verses and/or following the suggestions if any. No discussions/dispute of any kind will be entertained at any time and in any way, manner, and/or forum; because the dictum is that if you like(-d) you read, otherwise ignore, what is the point in making a fuss about it?; anyway you are independent to judge the messages in the stories and utilize for your benefits if found useful, since here the idea is in the direction of ‘consciousness raising’. JIRARA.
Preamble: Here is my personal account of the health care that She (Gatusko's mother/Ba) had received from our family- and other doctors over a period of more than last three to four decades. Here, I am going to mention the names of the drugs/medicines/tubes/drops (where applicable and based on my memory) used for the treatment/s, because it is very important to mention these for the sake of clarity and completion (and usefulness in the future); rather than hiding these names for the fear of adverse or over-publicity or being ‘dubbed’ as an advocate of the medicines and/or their manufacturers; and I want to ascertain here, that I am not the brand ambassador of any of these (allopathy or ayurvedic/herbal) medicines, and this story is not sponsored or suggested by any of the doctors involved in the treatment. I am writing a 'true' story related to the health of some individual/s, and hence, it is important that I clearly and openly mention the true names of the doctors and the medicines without any hesitation; and I am not interested in any kind of my personal publicity.
This particular problem is also known in the short form as Ca-breast, it could mean as calcified breast (that may signal cancer), or carcinoma.
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Dedication To
Smt. Virmati J. Raol who took immense of care
of the mother/Ba
And
To Smt. Vilasba Pradipsinh Raol, and
In Loving memory To
my sister-in-law and our Niece
Smt. Dakshaba Bhupendrasinh Raol
who both took lot of care of the mother.
Acknowledgements: This medical treatment related story is profusely dedicated to our family doctors: Dr. Rajpuria (in Vijapur, Gandhinagar Dist., Gujarat during 1950-1980); NAL-CSIR doctors (in Bengaluru): Dr. K. S. Nanjundaswami (CMO), Dr. A. Pranesh, Late Dr. Mrs. K. Lalitha (CMO), Dr. Mrs. Swetha Desai, Dr. D. Amaranarayan (CMO), Dr. N. Ramakrishna, and Dr. L. Prakash; and the physiotherapist Y. Nagaraj; who from time to time had provided correct diagnoses, complete prescriptions of medicines, and proper referrals (including health care aspects/suggestions/treatments) to other doctors and/or Hospitals in respect of the BA as well as all the members of our family for several decades.
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In this special case of the BA, the initial diagnoses by Mrs. Swetha Desai, and several subsequent follow ups as suggested by Dr. N. Ramakrishna had been tremendously useful. Also, the diagnoses and treatment by Dr. Somashekhar S. P. (surgical Oncologist, Manipal), Dr. Amit Rauthan (medical Oncologist, Manipal), and Dr. Vadhiraj B. M. (radiation Oncologist, Manipal) are gratefully acknowledged.
In fact, due the treatment that Gatusko's mother had received, her health-index had been very high, and her life had definitely prolonged by some years.
Mayur J. Raol has been of tremendous help as something like nearly a complete nurse-cum-semi doctor, for his grandmother as well as for all of us for last two/three decades, and he even does not like us to tell him 'thank you'. Bhupendra's and Pradip's families also had taken good care whenever earlier the BA had stayed with them.
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Note: As I have said earlier we all are mortals, and we basically need oxygen, water, and food (hence lot of energy) to sustain our lives on this planet. Most of our food is plant based, and these plants ‘prepare’ food by absorbing energy from the Sun. Even though, the most non-veg food comes from animals, these animal also eat mostly plant based foods, and hence their stored energy in some form comes to us. Now, if there is any contamination in any or more of these ingredients, in most cases we fall sick: breathing problems, food-poisoning, vomiting, acidity etc. Also, if there is deficiency in any or more of these, we become malnutrition-ed; the balance of food is always necessary for usual and normal life sustenance. We also fall sick due to: i) over work (get exhausted, and weak and our immune system becomes weak, and might lead to other complications), ii) some genetic problems inherited from our parent/s, and iii) in many cases due to bacterial and/or viral infections. There are other diseases/ailments: a) blood pressure (BP), b) diabetes, c) vertigo (Chakkar), d) cancer, and others. Also some problems are related to i) liver, ii) pancreas (diabetes Type I and II), iii) kidneys (stones, failures), iv) intestines, v) eyes, vi) heart/lungs, and vii) brain. There are many more minor or major issues (urinary track infection/UTI, allergies, eye-infections, and so on…), since the human body is a vast system in the number of components it has, and the continuous functioning of these sub-systems and their interactions are so involved that a common lay person cannot understand, except only superficially. The medical doctors, in my opinion, are like our own ‘relatives’, and true friends; and the correctly prescribed medicines are our regular companions.
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Thus She was Cured of Calcification of one Breast
Presently Ba is 95, and she has been staying with us for nearly last 25 years, and has been keeping good health. Main reasons for her good health are: i) her own discipline, ii) proper diet, and iii) good health care and correct medications.
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BA: Harshabeta, I want to show something, but don’t tell your parents, especially your papa, since he is always busy, and this will add unnecessary tension to his already busy schedule.
H: Yes, Ba what is it that you want to show?
BA: Come in here, and close the door. (Then she showed her breasts, and pointed to one of them and asked her granddaughter to touch and feel).
H: It has become very hard, is it not paining?
BA: No, it is not as such, but when I am taking bath and if I press it while applying soap I feel some pressure and pain, but otherwise there is no regular pain, but it feels odd. But, don’t tell anybody, it does not seem a big thing right now.
**
This was a decade ago, and the 'H' was very reluctant to tell her father, but she did tell her mother. However, since it was not paining and the hardness was small (volume), the issue was ignored, rather it was overlooked, and was un-intentionally forgotten for a few years. Nearly four to five years passed by, and by that time in 2014, the left breast had grown in a considerable size, and had become very hard like a leather ball. It is not clear to me how she tolerated this situation and did not tell me for all those years. However, in 2014-2015 she did finally told to my wife and showed the breast, which could have burst any moment, and we got scared, if that really had happened what would we had done?
**
And it was at this time that we started worrying, and discussing what course of action to take, of course to consult our (NAL) family doctor, and then decide. And almost concurrently, we were planning to go to our native place (nearly 6 years after our previous visit)), since Ba’s old house was renovated and we had to perform the house warming ceremony; so all the arrangements were done, and we first took Ba in confidence, that she will be able to manage for a few days in travel, and in the native place with this hardened breast to which she had told that she would be able to manage; so we proceeded to the native place for the function which was all planned by my second younger brother who had also supervised the renovation and rebuilding of our house. During the security checks at the airport every time we had to pre-warn the security lady who would use the device for scanning, that she should not press hard the devise on, by mistake, or physically touch Ba’s chest with pressure, to which they had agreed and complied also, I was always embarrassed that we were travelling despite her precarious condition, but Ba had assured that she would complete the to and fro journey without any complain from her side; she was damn determined to go to the native place where she had spent several decades of her life, and was hoping to meet several of her relatives, and she was in accelerated mood and spirits since her own house (built by my late father) was renovated.
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In the native place everything went as planned: the function, the lunch for which nearly 300 people were invited, and nearly 150 relatives met Ba over a period of two weeks that we stayed there; to which she was tremendously excited, and in the over excitement, she showed her hardened breast to very close relatives, (we had forgotten to warn her against this before leaving for the native place), and when I learnt this I really got upset, and it was a kind of shame for me and my wife, that we had not resolved this issue much earlier; I was all the time thinking what these relatives would think of me, and then I strictly instructed her not to show, to which she agreed, but by that time the damage to my prestige, and honour had already been done; to which she just had said: they are our very close relatives, and she had not shown the stone-breast fully to anybody, what an intelligent cover up for not attracting any further wrath from me!
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After returning in the end of November 2015, I took her to our family doctor, and she referred us to Manipal where several tests were done for Ba: i) X-ray, ii) blood tests, iii) lungs functionality, iv) abdomen, v) ECO, and vi) for metastasis; based on the suggestions from the: a) Oncologist, b) Pulmonologist, c) Heart/Lung specialist, and d) Anaesthesiologist; and the entire process of meeting the four specialists in the initial stages, then six tests’ processes (paying the fees, collecting the results), and again seeing these doctors with the findings from the tests took nearly 14 hours in one day’s time; we all three were damn exhausted, and even our lunches and dinners were scanty; and the total expenditure was nearly 17,000/- rupees.
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After all the tests were done, we had to see each doctor again with the corresponding reports to get their opinion on the test-results, and get their recommendations so that we could show these to the head-oncologist who would give final decision and the action plan like: i) an operation of the breast, ii) some therapy (chemo/radiation), or iii) prescribe some course of the medicines. So, first we went to Pulmonologist (Dr. Isaac Mathews, Pulmonologist, Manipal) who on seeing the test results in the form of tables/graphical plots exclaimed: “her results are much better than mine, we nowadays don’t get to see such ‘old model’, rarely if any”. The Anaesthesiologist also seeing the results expressed almost the similar feelings. After the recommendations from these and other concerned doctors we had to show all these plethora of documents finally to the head-oncologist who looking at the test reports, the recommendations from the other doctors, and the results of the metastasis test decided that no operation was required, and we all had a great relief.
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After all the hassles of the test-procedures and consultations, it was decided that no operation would be done because the condition had not spread to other parts/organs of the body; and even if it had spread, then also there was no point in operating only the calcified/solidified breast; because in any case all the other parts could not be operated!
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All the test results were studied also by our CSIR-NAL doctor/s, and we were advised to meet the medical oncologist, who after the examination of all the reports, and her hardened breast advised the course of Anastrozole 1mg tablet one per day for the initial period of one month, and to be checked after every one month for some more months; this course was followed up as per their advice; and the treatment has been on since January 2016; and Ba has responded to the treatment very well, and the hardness has reduced to nearly 15% from the solid stone condition, with almost no side effect; and there was no pain, unless accidently if pressed hard while bathing.
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In this long ordeal of the test-processes and medical diagnoses: i) initial check-ups and getting the prescriptions for the tests from the four doctors, ii) waiting in the cues to pay the test-fees, iii) waiting to get your turn for the tests, iv) getting the results of the tests, v) consulting the concerned doctors with the test results again, and vi) finally seeing the main doctor; it was in the final analyses ascertained that the functioning of her other organs and physiological processes was normal.
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Unfortunately, I could not do anything to reverse our embarrassment that she had already created by showing her offending hard breast to some of our close relatives back in the native place; what these people might have thought about our ‘care system’, that we are negligent and careless people, etc.; although now that she has recovered, there is no way to inform those scores of the people about her present improved conditions. Only if they ask about her welfare, then only we could clarify the situation; and in most such cases, ironically rarely such people would like to follow up the status; they had got the (old) news and more stuff for the gossip (that was good enough for the then time being!), and the life continues!
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Presently, at the age of 95 she is still doing her routines herself, and following the diet regularly, the latter is interestingly just as similar to our own diet only!
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