A husband recalls his wife’s losing battle with pancreatic cancer. He shares his experience and his advice for families in similar situations.
My wife Nirmala, 69, and I had gone on a tour of Eastern Europe, which entailed long trips by bus. Nirmala started complaining of back ache. Well, our reaction was that this was due to sitting in the bus for long spells.
We met our doctor as soon as we got back. The dull back pain persisted. The X-ray showed an inflamed pancreas. A scan also showed an inflamed pancreas. So she was treated for pancreatitis. There was no improvement. She was hospitalised and had a host of tests including another scan. She was discharged, but as the pain persisted and she was getting weaker, we went to the cancer hospital. The scan there showed cancer on the pancreas and she was classified as "stage 3 cancer". There’s no history of cancer in her family. The surgeon called me and my son and pointed out that surgery would be very high risk as an artery ran through her pancreas. (This happens in about 15% of people.) He said that apart from the risk, he did not expect her to live for more than 12 months.
At this stage we met an Ayurvedic doctor, Vaidya Balendu Prakash (Rajpur Rd., Dehradun), who had a good reputation for treating cancer. He said that as long as the cancer has not spread, he may be able to treat her. So we took her to Dehradun and spent three weeks at his clinic. He gave her some powders made from plants collected from the foot hills of the Himalayas. She started to put on weight and could go for short walks.
We returned home and the slow progress continued and she was without pain. The doctor from the hospital, who used to come home, was amazed as pancreatic cancer is normally very painful. Alas, the cancer spread to the liver. The Vaid (Ayurvedic doctor) said that he could no longer cure her, but he continued to keep her out of pain.
Nirmala survived for five months after her diagnosis of Pancreatic Cancer. After all was over, we discussed matters with our doctors. What came out is that 1) pancreatic cancer is very difficult to detect. 2) It is usually detected late when nothing much can be done. 3) It is very painful - she was lucky the Vaid kept her out of pain.
The hospital doctors wanted to know how the Vaid kept her out of pain. The Vaid said he learnt this from his father and would not share the knowledge with others.
I must add a small para to my note on Nirmala's illness. As the patient grows weaker, a full-time nurse is essential. Similarly, diet becomes very important as the intake goes down. Finally equipment for intravenous glucose and morphine should be close at hand. Luckily for Nirmala, a morphine patch was needed only in the last 2-3 days.
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