Medical bulletin

OK, since I cannot answer so many phone calls, whatsapp messages and emails, here's a post about my father's condition: he had been growing steadily weaker over the last couple of months, until he lost the use of his right hand, then he fell down in the bathroom at dawn on the Bengali New Year's day (Saturday April 15), and had to be bodily lifted and hospitalized. A CT scan followed by an MRI revealed a suspicious looking growth in the brain, but the neurosurgeon said he strongly suspected lung cancer which had metastasized to various organs. He has been transferred to a major facility in Kolkata where the oncologist - a dear old boy and close to the whole family - has just begun radiotherapy, not wishing to wait for the biopsy report. He is nearly 79, so wish him luck, if not for a quick recovery then at least a relatively quiet and painless passage. I wouldn't ask for more for myself.

I shall post updates here from time to time.

Update 1, May 05: He is back today in Durgapur after radiotherapy, which the doctor says seems to have shown encouraging results. He will be staying at home for a month, regaining a bit of his strength - right now he is virtually bedridden - then it will be back in Kolkata for the first dose of chemotherapy: the doctor will continue only if he can take it. So now my house will become in some ways a nursing home apart from a little school. I'd like everyone concerned to cooperate in every possible way.

Update 2, July 03: We tried a mild dose of chemotherapy at a local hospital - moving him to and from Kolkata having been decided to be too much of a strain for him - last month, and it did no good. Now he is almost totally incapacitated, and has to be nursed night and day. He is sleeping or dozing virtually all the time, become almost inarticulate, and developing bedsores. Nothing left but prayers. No one who hasn't been through this should open his mouth about life, and karma, and the miraculous advancements of science, and stupid stuff like that...