Vijesh Sarki, 30, of Tokla Tea Garden, Mechinagar-6, Jhapa, has been battling a rare type of blood cancer called 'myeloid sarcoma' for a year. Initially, his parotid glands under both ears suddenly started swelling. There was no pain in the swollen area. So, for the first few days, he did not pay much attention to it. However, when the swelling increased, he went to the hospital.

He consulted physician Dr. Poshanaraman Tripathi at a clinic in Jhapa. The doctor prescribed antibiotics for two weeks. Even after taking the medicine, the swollen area did not improve. On the contrary, it got worse.

Then, on the doctor's advice, he underwent a video X-ray and a complete blood count (CBC) test. In addition, cells were removed from the swollen gland and a fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) test was also performed. They had just reached the shop after getting tested, when a report of the previous test came in a mobile message. It was written below, ‘Show the doctor immediately.’ The CBC and FNAC reports suspected cancer. ‘I didn’t feel much fear after reading that message,’ said Vijesh, ‘But, I was skeptical whether it was really cancer.’

He couldn’t sleep all night. The next morning, he reached Purbanchal Cancer Hospital in Birtamod. He showed the report to hematologist Ishwarman Singh. After looking at the report, he said, ‘Don’t panic, let’s do a bone marrow aspiration.’

Bone marrow aspiration is a test of a sample of fluid extracted from the bone marrow inside the bone. The report was said to come in seven days, but it came in five days. The report confirmed the first stage of blood cancer.

On Jestha 23 of last year, he was admitted to the Purbanchal Cancer Hospital. He stayed in the hospital for a month and underwent treatment. In the meantime, he underwent three cycles of chemotherapy and then underwent another biopsy. The next report was positive. The rate of blood cancer progression has dropped sharply to 0.1 percent.

The doctor, due to the decrease in infection, now started giving two ‘maintenance chemotherapy’ treatments a month and regular chemotherapy treatments. He was breathing a sigh of relief. In the meantime, suddenly both his eyes started turning black like ripe tomatoes. Then he focused on eye treatment. An eye doctor said after the treatment, ‘The retina is fine.’ However, a small lump (lipoma) was seen in the eye, it needs to be biopsied.’

Then he consulted Dr. Ishwarman Singh again. He suggested a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the head. After nothing was seen in the MRI, he was sent to a hospital in Gujarat, India, for a biopsy.

The Indian hospital confirmed that he had myeloid sarcoma. This is a rare cancer that occurs when myeloid cells in the bone marrow grow abnormally in other parts of the body. Vijesh, who was excited about being cured of blood cancer, became even more depressed after contracting another rare disease. ‘I was busy preparing for the teacher license exam because the disease was cured,’ he said, ‘But when another disease started, my spirits were lifted.’

He is currently battling both bone marrow and myeloid sarcoma cancers. He is battling a double disease after his blood cancer, which he had cured, flared up again.

He visited the hospital dozens of times in a year. He spent about 4 million rupees on treatment. But instead of curing the disease, another one appeared. ‘I spent 4 million rupees with my own assets, the help of friends, donations and loans,’ he said in a bewildered manner. ‘Everything is over, but I have not given up on life.’