Last time I mentioned about a young lady who desperately wanted to get operated. Our senior consultant was withholding the surgery in view that her imaging findings were too trivial to cause such severe pain, and we calculated that the dearth of surgery would be more painful than what she is suffering from now. Any way she was persistent and finally got operated.
What we removed was a capsulated collection of thick paste like a dermoid, of size of a thumb attached along the chest wall, we also had to remove a small piece of rib to allow proper access to chest cavity. It was also noted that it was attached to a thin cord like structure, doubtful whether an entrapped nerve or just a thickened parietal pleura.
The bottom line is she is happy now. Every day we ask her one question, "how is your pain?" and she says, she does not feel that kind of pain she suffered earlier, but just the pain of surgery. She seems very reasonable and she says she can feel difference between both kind of pain.
It is difficult to generalise, but sometimes patient is the guide, and one has to believe blindly and hope for the best. I remember my zoology professor who used to instil in our mind that biology is the science where 'there is an exception for everything' is the rule.
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