


Received treatment for Classical Hodgkin’s lymphoma, mixed cellularity subtype.
The patient is my wife aged 29 years.
Background:
Diagnosis:
Dr SK Gupta:
Treatment:
PICC Line:
With the administration of chemo given intravenously, my wife developed a severe phlebitis at the injection site. It was very painful for her, and It became impossible to continue the chemo via intravenously.
Gupta Sir advised us to go for a PICC line insertion. It is peripherally inserted central catheter –a surgical procedure where in a vein like tube inserted into a body from arm’s veins to the greater veins inside the body. The thin tube will be inside the body and it will be connected to the extension pipe hanging out, through which the drugs are given and blood is drawn.
We started noticing that there were few air bubbles forming inside the picc line extension tube after some time and every 2-3 days, we had to go to hospital to do the aspiration of the bubble and flush/clean the tube. We brought this to Gupta’s sir notice. He informed us that, though it’s a problem, but it was not life threatening, and it only required some maintenance. We needed to weigh in the risks/benefits of having a picc line. We felt it would be better to continue with the picc line with a replacement of extension tube.
Even though the replacement was not much help, but we could not help but admire and commend the commitment of Dr Gupta for his zeal to resolve even a trivial issue associated with his patients.
Side Effects:
As her husband, I feel proud that she fought this disease very bravely and had never let the burden on any one else. She was always extra cautious to ensure that she does not catch any infections. I also had to make our children to keep distance from her for some time. She withstood all the side effects and always hoped and prayed to GOD to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Conclusion:
Never ignore a febrile fever, anemia, un intentional weight loss or any swollen lymph nodes.
Instead of doing a self-treatment by taking over the counter medicines, consult a doctor or a specialist and get the tests done. The early this disease is caught, higher the chances of beating it and reduces a whole lot of financial burden.
Hodgkin’s lymphoma is one of the most curable cancers now a days if caught early.
In our country, we have people believing in rumours than fact. We have people trusting in non-proven medicines than in well researched medicines.
When we started our journey into this, many of our well-wishers advised us not to go for chemotherapy related treatment. They cited examples of their loved ones who succumbed to this treatment 10 year or 20 years back. But they failed to realise that these drugs are well researched and are getting better and better over the years. Few years back, sure they might have been less efficient and could have had higher side effects, but it’s different now and the drugs are always improving year after year. Today’s chemo drugs go through rigours researches and they go through many phases of trials before they could put it up on market for further use.
One more a very basic thing I learned from Dr Gupta sir and felt it worthy to share is – there r 2 types structure/organ in our body—solid vs liquid . Doc who treat solid organs (breast, lung, mouth, brain, prostate excetra) disorders – are either medical oncology or surgical oncology or radiation oncology based on requirements. Liquid organs (blood cells, their producing factory –bone marrow cells , their storage area – spleen, their developmental area – lymph nodes ) in our body are very much inter-linked to each other, disease can easily compromise their vital function leading to life threatening situation – so handle there 4 liquid organ disorders a very super specialised branch in oncology – HEMATOLOGY/HEMATO-ONCOLOGY is there. So before going to any oncology branch think which organ disease is there and who is best suitable oncologist.
The treatment is safe and effective and this cancer is even curable if diagnosed in its early stage and is treated by a “Gold Medallist”.