Stage Six: The Return

Then the chief complaints began.

Burning sensation in the mouth—four hours.

Vomiting—four hours.

Slurred speech—four hours, especially after trying to swallow liquids.

It was the 29th of November, 2024. My grandma was conscious, alert, and oriented to time and place. But her tongue had multiple superficial ulcers, about half a centimeter each, and her teeth looked strangely bleached. The doctors wrote it down clinically, but we could see it—her mouth was burning from the inside out.

A few weeks earlier, around the 5th of November, she had consumed a liquid at home. We still don’t know exactly what it was—maybe a household chemical she mistook for water. Almost immediately, she felt a burning pain in her mouth, followed by four to five episodes of vomiting within hours. The vomiting wasn’t projectile, wasn’t bile-stained—it was just relentless. The mucosa of her mouth began to blister and peel. Her tongue and lips swelled.

She was rushed to the nearest hospital, where they gave her first aid and then referred her to the ESI hospital in Rajajinagar—the same place where her cancer had been treated before. She reached the casualty ward conscious but in distress. Investigations were ordered immediately. Fluid therapy started. She was kept nil per oral—no food, no water—to protect her from further injury. Perforation was ruled out.

A medical gastroenterologist was called in, and an endoscopy was performed. The results were grim: corrosive injury of the esophagus and grade 2B injury to the esophagus, grade 3B injury to the stomach. The damage was extensive.

An ENT evaluation revealed superficial ulcerations over the vallecula, epiglottis, arytenoids, and aryepiglottic folds, all with congested mucosa. The bilateral vocal cords were thankfully still mobile, but swallowing was nearly impossible. She was started on antibiotics and given only liquids as tolerated.

And then came the final blow. The follow-up PET and CT scans revealed what we feared most—the leiomyosarcoma had returned.

The original surgeon, the one who had performed the thyroidectomy, was informed immediately. When he learned what had happened, he was furious—not at us, but at the radiation department. He had explicitly instructed post-surgical radiation to prevent recurrence, but they had dismissed it. Now the cancer was back, aggressive and unforgiving. He scolded the team for ignoring his orders, for persuading her out of treatment, for wasting precious time.

Then, with visible frustration and sorrow, he refused to operate again. He knew what we didn’t want to hear—that a second surgery in such a condition, after corrosive injuries and rapid recurrence, would do more harm than good.