"It could be just normal proliferation of the group of lymph nodes in and around the neck which is quite normal at this age," I explained to the anxious father of this boy of 2 years. The mother of the kid had discovered the lymph nodes on the sides of the neck while bathing him. Worried at this sudden discovery of the enlarged nodes they had rushed to the local practicing Pediatrician who had in turn ordered FNAC (fine needle aspiration cytology). The results were inconclusive and the safeguard sentence of the pathologist -"kindly correlate clinically" had increased the worries.

They couldn't sleep the whole night. The stories of some known to who suffered from leukemia -the so called blood cancers started haunting them throughout the night. Again and again they took out the pediatrician" prescription and the FNAC report and tried to decipher the jargon and Greek of the medical world. Finally they gave up and decided to call me-that was around 11:45 pm at night when the phone rang in my house. The worried father then explained the disease to the sleepy doctor. Finally, I thought it was better to call them over with all the reports in the morning. So at 6:00 AM the next morning they were already there at my residence. I had known this Manipuri couple for about a month.

So for the next few minutes I tried to be in assuring and explaining mode. I tried to explain them the innocence of the enlarging Waldeyer's ring of lymph nodes which has the growth spurt around this age of 2-4 years -the exact age of their child. But on the safer side I fed them the rare possibility of the undesired. It's quite natural for anybody to want to be on the 100% on the safe side. So I wasn't very successful and the couple oscillated between denial phase and anxiety. That was when I told them to get a Montoux test (an indirect skin test for tuberculosis) done and a repeat FNAC from another node at another side.

Finally they went.

I remembered the small boy playing in my house quite unaware and detached from the pangs the parents were going through. I read and discussed with my colleagues. Most were inconclusive with the tests and the clinical findings. This was one of the many situations in Medical science when your intuitions guide you-even in this modern evidence based world. My intuitions told me the boy was fine and if not for the lab reports I would asked them to give a damn and go to the Appu Ghar.

For three more days the couple kept dropping in day in and day out whether it was morning or evening or night. But they never did the investigations I had ordered. Same anxiety and same worry, "Oh we had been to the other doctor in Vikaspuri..." Then I realized what they expected from me. It wasn't a consultation but and assurance from a brethren Manipuri doctor. So I changed to listening mode. When my patience ran out after a week, I finally decided to give them or myself a respite.

"Normal or at the most TB, I told my verdict. "And as of now TB is one disease which we can treat easily. You need not worry. Let wait for the antibiotics course to finish and consider the ATT trial." So to take out the Leukemia fear I told them that TB was so simple to treat and that we should have a party if it was the final diagnosis! To this the father's face changed and said, "So, Doctor, you expect to be invited to a party because my son is suffering from TB" and they stormed out of the house. I was left spellbound and I told myself "Was that a sad joke, learn Swasti learn."

After they left I found two small bundles (mapun) of Shougree (a sour leafy vegetable) on the centre table and I thought that it must have been my consultation fee. It must have been carried by someone who came from Manipur-a distance of 2500 kms. The couple must have thought that 2 mapun was more than enough for this pakhang doctor (I wasn't married that time) I took and stacked them into the refrigerator. Five days later I discovered the shriveled beyond recognition carcass of the Shougree and had to throw.

This must have exorcised the "haunt"; they called again after a gap of 2 to 3 weeks. This time it wasn't the kid who was the subject of the call but the mother who had diarrhea and whom the neighboring doctor had given some medicine. The typical question, "Dr these medicines are OK?" I knew that the child must be OK now. And I didn't ask anything about him because I didn't want to open the "TB party Pandora box" again