the Maze

John sat down with his tenth patient that day. A stubby man with long bushy beard that concealed his lips. His head compensated with a clean bald that was speckled with pockets of sweat. This was not the first time Marc Opollo had come to see him. One year ago when he walked into the clinic, John had been so worried that had cancer after he told him he had lost weight, was in constant pain and could not keep anything that he ate. He wept bitterly when he recalled how his mother had died of cancer when everyone ignored the same symptoms she had. Several intensive scans, blood investigations, tissue samples and multiple consultations later, John was frustrated. Marc Opollo was diligent, eager to be tested. Once he was at the clinic at four in the morning because he had to take a test before he had breakfast.

“Has it occurred to you that all his tests are pristine?” one of his colleagues said when John shared his dilemma. You probably need to tackle this differently,”

“Maybe he has not stopped grieving his mother,” another one said.

Marc Opollo was livid when John asked if there was anything upsetting him emotionally so that he felt these symptoms as real. “I am not mad doctor. This is how my mother died when no one could find the truth. I thought you were different from the others who have dismissed me,” He stormed out of the room when John introduced him to the psychologist.  From then, he came back with medical journal documents and fact sheets of different conditions that could explain his symptoms.

Today was another appointment.  

“This rash that I got when I was working in the garden,” Marc Opollo told him pointing to a bump on his elbow, a skin tag that John had seen before. There were scratch marks over the surface, evidence that it had irritated him.

“It must be Sporotrichosis or Poison Ivy. I think that’s why I have been losing weight and may be connected to a cancer doctor,” he asked John to send him to the laboratory, “we must have missed this one,”

John knew not to fight about. He sent him to the lab as he wanted to even after a discussion where he suggested to watch and wait on it.

John looked at the test results. As had been in the past, it was a clean health record.

“Marc, all the tests came back negative. He pulled his chair closer to him and explained all the results. He could see the changes on his face showing disapproval as before when this happened. “The results can sometimes be wrong doctor, we need to treat it before it spreads to my blood,”

John took out his prescription pad. He wrote down Pandox 2 tablets daily for five days.

Marc Opollo put the prescription in his bag. “Thank you doctor. You know how to take care of your patients.”

He leaned over his seat as Marc Opollo walked over to the pharmacy.

The nurse peeped through the door. Marc Opollo had showed her the prescription as he walked out and said that would help to stop the cancer. 

“How long do you think it will be before he notices that you gave him painkillers,”

He sighed, “I hope it will be long enough for me to find a solution,”