The Scare

It was Ankit who collected  the x-ray report.He reached my residence and immediately logged on to the internet.When I came to the room where the computer is located I found him  mulling over the numerous sites explaining 'pleural effusion'.Yes that was what the report had suggested.The left CP angle was obtuse meaning thereby that there was fluid in the outer layer of the the lung.The discovery, to say the least ,was nothing but a shock. There are many causes for the pleural effusion, but the most important include --tuberculosis, pneumonia and cancer. Since I had no symptoms indicative of the first two ,the ineluctable conclusion would be the third. This meant that the disease was now trying to get into the lungs and that I should bid farewell to any hopes I might be nursing.. Needless to say,the night was nothing but a long , uninterrupted  stretch of anxiety.Not only for me but also for my wife.So much so  that Monu, the son of my wife's brother, who was visiting us,  became thoroughly restless.The following day, he insisted that he would accompany me to hospital where the good surgeon had agreed to meet us to discuss the reports Ankit, my son-in-law was with us as he has always been .Even my daughter went along. As the Capital of the country was readying itself to tackle the likely law and order situation that Anna Hajare's fast for adoption of the Jan Lokpal Bill could create, traffic on many roads had been diverted resulting in long jams and denser crowds.We were late for the appoint ment.Dr. Agrawal, helpfully suggested on the mobile phone that we could see him in the OPD if we did not reach his office room in time. And we did not . He was in the OPD  with one of his team members examining patients. He greeted us  and asked us to wait. When finally he could go through the reports and the x-ray plate he said "Everything is okay".I expressed my apprehension about pleural effusion but he dismissed it as inconsequential and suggested that I could go for a CT scan if I so desired. It was an immense relief writ large on our faces.We thanked the surgeon and came out.
I realized how man can never be without fear and how important a role fear plays in our lives .