Mesothelioma is a disease caused by exposure to the asbestos dust. The most unfortunate aspect of this disease is that its symptoms do not appear soon enough or within a short enough time after exposure to the asbestos dust. This complicates matters because when the symptoms finally appear, in most cases, they are not associated with the disease. It takes very long time, sometimes even decades, for the symptoms to appear in form of obdurate cough, shortness of breath and chest pain. Initially, the unsuspecting patient and even his family physician associate these symptoms with common diseases like pneumonia. It is when the disease starts spreading to other organs of the body that the doctors apprehend and tend to trace the origin of the symptoms of this life-threatening condition.
The other symptoms that appear are weight loss, breathing difficulty, fever and difficulty in swallowing food. The voice pattern may also change and the cough may be accompanied by blood; there also may be swelling on the neck and face.
Other symptoms can be in the form of pain in the abdomen, loss of appetite, nausea, palpitation of the heart and vomiting. There may also be anemia and clotting of the blood. The best course of action is that a person should inform the doctor about any regular or inadvertent and short exposure to asbestos dust. Even acute symptoms of mesothelioma may be mistakenly associated with other diseases.
There are, however, some patients who do not show any important symptoms at all. Tumors may develop around the heart and can spread to other parts of the body. As the time passes and the disease grows older, the symptoms of all the three types of mesothelioma—pleural, peritoneal and pericardial—start appearing in more vigorous form. Even at this stage, the symptoms are likely to be confused with other diseases. It is important not to ignore symptoms that continue to persist over a long time. It is also necessary to know the symptoms of all the three forms of mesothelioma so that the disease can be identified in the nascent stage. The delay in identifying these symptoms may allow the disease to take firm roots in the system, and then it may become too late to treat it.
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