"My dad was in the emergency room, short of breath, chest tight, upper back aching. He looked pale and confused. An ultrasound showed excess fluid between his lung and chest wall. "We'll drain it," a resident said, as if he were unclogging a sink. For the next five days, thick, red-tinged fluid filled a plastic container beside my dad's hospital bed. Doctors sent his cells for "staining," a way to identify cancer. But no one used that word."
"Breakfast remained untouched at lunch. And a cough that was a minor nuisance had become big enough to break a rib. "What's your pain level today?" the doctor asked. "It was a four," my dad said. "Now it's a six." Tylenol wasn't cutting it. The doctor suggested morphine. "We keep treating symptoms," my dad questioned, "but what's the cause?" "Hopefully it's an infection," the doctor said. "We'll try antibiotics." But my father didn't have a fever."
"After nearly a week in the hospital, a resident casually mentioned that my dad had malignant epithelial cells. I called the doctor in charge. "He has cancer," she confirmed, "but we don't know which kind." The pulmonologists didn't talk about cancer. Oncologists hadn't been consulted because pathology needed more time to make a definitive diagnosis. And I didn't know I should ask for palliative care."
A man presented with shortness of breath, chest tightness, upper back aching, pallor, and confusion. Ultrasound revealed a pleural effusion that was drained; thick red-tinged fluid was collected for days. Cell staining suggested malignancy, but clinicians avoided the word cancer and delayed a definitive diagnosis. Pain increased despite acetaminophen, and a worsening cough caused a rib injury. Care focused on symptom treatments and empirical antibiotics while pathology awaited clarification. After discharge he returned with blood clots, impaired breathing, and severe pain; oncology and palliative services were not promptly engaged.
Read at Psychology Today
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]