Home sweet home…. I’m back at home after three months. Exactly, two months and twenty days. I’ve got many experiences to share with you but let me start from the very beginning.
First of all for those my friends who don’t even know I’d been out of Kerala: “I had been at Vellore for the past three months since my father was seriously sick. For the past 2 years he had been having low grade fever every day and stomach problems on some days. We first consulted a doctor in our locality who said there was nothing to worry and prescribed some crap fever pills. But my mother being a staff nurse suspected that he has got some serious health issue and asked doctor’s permission to consult a doctor at a medical college. So we went to Kolanchery medical college and consulted an endocrine specialist there. My father was admitted there and through checkup was done. The doctor later told mom that he suspect of a liver cancer and Biopsy has to be done. Though this was unexpected, my mother didn’t break down. She planned to go to Amrita Institute of Medical Science, Ernakulam for detailed checkup. But before we went to Amrita, one friend of my father told him about a professor of Kottayam Medical College having a private clinic at Ettumanoor.
OUR GREATEST MISTAKE:
As we hadn’t recognized what papa’s actual disease was we went to Ettumanoor to see the greatest shithead we have ever seen. Having described the symptoms of father’s illness, that fool said this was an after effect of’ Chicken Guinea’ that father had an year before and there was nothing to worry. Then he prescribed some medicines which he said was for stomach pain (I still believe that those were vitamin tablets) and we returned home happily. For the next six months father’s stomach pain subsided to an extent. In the meantime, he started to lose weight; dark marks appeared on both sides of his face, hands and feet. It may be our bad luck; we didn’t realize that papa was showing the symptoms of Liver Cirrhosis.
Though my mom was a nurse, as papa was not alcoholic, she didn’t suspect of a liver serious damage. But the asshole doctor whom we consulted was a professor in the Endocrine Department. If he doesn’t know the symptoms of Liver Cirrhosis, what the fuck is he teaching his students?????
As his condition got worse and worse, we decided to consult an endocrine specialist at PVS Hospital, Kaloor named Dr. Mathew Philip. I think that was about a year ago. There we were told that papa was having Liver Cirrhosis. After that, papa had acites (fever due to the infection in abdominal fluid) twice and the fluid had to be tapped from his abdomen for examination. My uncle, who is a regular alcoholic, once told me and mom about CMC hospital, Vellore which had a very good Liver Clinic. At first, we didn’t take it seriously because he was an ‘I know about all the things on earth’ type. But when acites occurred for the second time, I and mother decided that we will go to Vellore.
We reached Vellore at the beginning of October. After two weeks of thorough examination, Dr. Eapen C.E. of the Hepatology Department told us the shocking reality papa has a serious liver damage. He had the disease called Chronic Liver Disease (CLD) which was a type of cirrhosis found in non-alcoholics and 70 percentage of his liver was damaged. We were told that 50% of the people who are having the same disease will not live more than a year. He told us our only hope was liver transplantation which would cost about 15 to 20 lakhs. He also added that the surgery has high risk and the patient will have to be admitted at least for a month at the hospital. He also told about controlling his diet and that he should take only 2gm of salt from an entire day’s food.
We told doctor that we would decide after discussing with our relatives. Being a middle class family, getting an amount of 20 lakhs was quite difficult for us. After returning from Vellore, we borrowed some part of the amount needed from our relatives and got some money selling the trees in our property. Papa’s diet was well controlled under mom’s supervision. In the mean period, I attended my arrear exams which ended by December 13th. Two weeks later, we left for Vellore for the surgery.
My mother had an abnormal growth around her thumb and was subjected to a minor surgery in early 2010. Though the doctor said that was a benign tumor (harmless), three four months after surgery, she began to feel pain as before. So when we first went to CMC, we consulted a HLRS (Hand and Leprosy Reconstruction Surgery) specialist and after doing MRI scan, he told us she is having GIANT CELL TUMOR (I don’t know where these crap diseases come from) and she has to undergo another surgery. She had told him about my father’s condition and told she would undergo the surgery when we return to Vellore for papa’s surgery.
Having reached Vellore on 28th December 2010, we began our stay at “Immanuel Home stay” which was a flat owned by a malayalee IPC pastor. We took appointment for mom to meet her doctor the next day. Father got appointment for the following week only. Doctor who went through mom’s checkup results said that the tumor has spread even more and surgery has to be done soon. She got surgery date for January 7th. But the surgery had to be postponed because in the pre-surgery tests, it was shown that she had “diabetes”. So treatment to control diabetes started and she began to take Insulin and tablets for diabetes.
In the mean time, papa’s blood tests were done and we met his doctor. Doctor examined the results and told us the glad news. Papa’s condition has improved a bit. If medicine works gradually like this, he may not need surgery now. In the next two months, we repeated the blood tests twice a month and the results showed a slight improvement each time.
After a month’s treatment including two doses of Insulin a day, mom’s sugar level reached normal level and she had her surgery on February 20th. A week later her physiotherapy started and after two weeks, plaster was removed. For the next three weeks, physiotherapy continued for both thumb and the right shoulder for which she had pain.
On last appointment of papa’s doctor, he told us to do regular checkups once a month at PVS Ernakulam and come back to Vellore after three months for detailed checkup.
Mom was told her tumor have a tendency to regenerate and that her hand has to be scanned after two three months.
And after three month, exactly saying, two months and twenty days we set back to Kerala on 18th March.
Whatever I told above was an introduction to what I want to say. Let me first thank all those who have supported me in these six months of difficulty. First of I want to thank all of my friends, who were there for me when I needed a help. Whenever I was in tension, I had mental supports of some of them. Most of them remembered my family in their prayers. I’m not mentioning any names here, but thanks to all of them. Then I want to thank papa’s co-workers who managed everything at his office, settled our telephone bills and so on. Next I want to thank all my relatives for all support they had given. One of my aunts was at Vellore with us and apart from she being diabetic; she managed everything including papa’s diet when mom was admitted in Hospital. Then thanks to my uncle and family who took care of our grandparents and home when we were away.
Last but not least, my little friend, Dona who helped me to get rid of my boredom. Dona is little daughter of Jacob Pastor who took care of administration of Immanuel Home Stay. The only thing at Vellore I miss at home is Dona and her love.
I have something more to say. This is a free advice to all those who know me:
When I was going through these six months, I was under great pressure. The pressure from the responsibilities was on one side and the pressure from my studies on the other. During these times of difficulty, I expected each of you, at least some of you to make a phone call. Just how are you dude? How’s your dad? How’s your mom? Hope everything’s fine. That’s’ what I expected. I’m a common human. I think that’s what the least every human expect from your dear ones when you are in pain.
It is not when a person is happy he needs the presence of relatives or friends most. But it is when he finds it difficult to get past some barriers of his life. If you are there when he is happy, you may make him feel happier. But if you are there in times of difficulty for him, you will always have a special place in his heart.
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