Need More Than Medication

I lost my mother on my last birthday. I do not know whether this was a blessing or a curse. It was certainly a relief for my long suffering mother.

I did not know how to deal with her absence. I prayed for her to go to a good place. It was this time when I read a lot of haiku. It gave me solace. But not for long. On 17th of January I had to be rushed to Emergency of a Super Speciality Hospital with acute abdominal pain , motion and vomiting.

At first my family physician who is also attached to the same hospital could not connect the pain to the ailment. It was only after a CT Contrast that it was diagnosed that I had a perforation in the intestine/colon which had led fecal matters to spread in my stomach.

I was immediately referred to the surgical team headed by a very experienced and eminent senior surgeon who in his very gruff way scolded my sister that we had inordinately delayed the case which now had to be treated in three parts which implies three major surgeries. It was no time to explain that the fault was mine. I could not focus on my own health because of my mother’s decade old critical medical condition.

Immediate surgery took care of the draining of absecc, adhesions, infection and puss but a five day stay prolonged to fifteen days because my Total Leucocyte Count refused to come down below worrisome range.

I was discharged on 1st February. Since then every day is a fight for better, healthier , normal life. Somedays I cannot stand straight and have to be carried to the bathroom. Other days I console myself that sunnier days are ahead. My days are spent in prayers and I am learning to surrender totally to The Almighty.

Here I would like to mention about India’s medical treatment with gratitude. Yes, it is expensive. There are more patients that the hospital can handle at times. There are queues and sticking to system which takes time  yet the doctors don’t leave you midway. They provide utmost care so that you don’t have to come back again after leaving.

The staff is kind and sympathetic. The nurses  friendly and joke. I was the universal aunt. I miss their care.

I hope my next two scheduled stays will not be too painful and discomforting and less complicated. But the doctors counselled me well. The only thing is I cannot think beyond what will happen two months hence. Will I survive or succumb? My recovery graph is not very smooth.

Pray God be with me.

Inshallah!!!

Har Har Har Har Mahadev.