It took me three years of medical investigations and misdiagnosis before discovering that it was not stress. But the first signals, devious, had occurred for 16 years. We speak of a neuroendocrine tumor, and the story is that of Barbara Picutti, patient and now a counselor to Net Italy Onlus, one of the two Italian associations that deal with this type of tumors (neuroendocrine, or Net) that are rare because they affect fewer than 6 people each 100 thousand inhabitants, and to slow progression. Which makes it often very difficult to arrive quickly at the diagnosis.
The Net can affect numerous organs and in particular those that have a large component of neuroendocrine, such as those of the tract from the esophagus to the rectum and the area of the bronchus-to-pulmonary. The symptoms appear only when the tumour reaches a large size or compromises the functions of the organ. In the case of Barbara to be affected is the pancreas, and the key symptom, as is often the case, is diarrhea.
