A cut, a nip and a tuck

It is the 1980s, J has not conceived even after repeated tests she does not know the reason why. Morose she leads her life.

Her vision gets faulty suddenly and she goes to the Ophthalmologist, he suspects something awry and sends her for a brain X-Ray. His suspicions come true. She has pituitary adenoma. A malignant tumor on the pituitary gland. She goes to Calcutta where a neurosurgeon cuts open her skull, the brain is lifted up and the tumor is removed.

The trauma is huge, the moment J comes out of the ‘why me’ stage, she is assaulted by her shaved head, the incision marks and the other effects.  Recovery is slow. It takes long to heal.

Though her eyesight becomes almost normal, she is never able to conceive. She discovers that she has trouble in remembering some things, sometimes she has difficulty to focus and her right hand is a bit… different than before. She has difficulty now to hold things with that hand.

Eventually she adopts a girl. Thankfully there is no recurrence of the tumor and she lives a satisfactory life with her daughter and husband.

 

 

Its 2004. R has not conceived and is undergoing some treatment to conceive when suddenly she has loss in vision in one eye. She is sent for an eye check up where in the Ophthalmologist suspects some thing and sends her for an MRI. The MRI reveals clearly that it is pituitary adenoma. She is advised to go to a neurosurgeon who specializes in endoscopic endonasal surgery. The traumas of opening up the skull and locating the tumor can be done with, with a small surgery even though the tumor is big.

 

And so she opts for it. She is admitted into the hospital the previous day for the pre-op check ups. The day of the operation she walks into the Operation Theater. She is given anesthesia. But as soon as the camera is inserted inside the surgeon discovers that there is a hemorrhage and there is heavy bleeding. He tries to arrest the bleeding and the operation is abandoned for that day. A CT scan is done which reveals that the tumor has grown further (from the day of the last scan) and has gone to another direction but the bleeding has stopped. And so the next day R is operated again and the tumor is removed bit by bit until there is not a trace left of the tumor.

R walks out of the hospital the third day.

She conceives later.

There is a recurrence five years on but because of repeated check ups the tumor is detected much earlier and it is thought better to opt for a surgery than radiation. This time the operation takes just 10 minutes-yes just a cut, a nip and  a tuck.

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As most of you must have guessed R is me and J was a neighbor in Bhilai I fail to even think of what would have happened if there were no MRI /CT scans and I shudder to think what if there were no endonasal surgeries. Thanks to modern science  what could have been a catastrophe was averted by breakthrough technology.

Written as a part of Indiblogger and Apollo Hospitals How does Modern Healthcare touch lives

 

What next?

I straightened my hair

With the promise

That I will use Sunsilk from now on

Though Dove does send me samples now and then

 

 

Then I went on a virtual tour

Of shopper’s stop

And shopped this and that

 

What next you may ask

Well I asked my man to shave

His stubble, and I say;

And while you are it

Can you write about it or should I

Well there is a trip to Paris, you know.

 

And while I write and write to Get published

While oohing and aahing at Vikas

I ask; What next??

Blog Mania

Siddharth put down the receiver and wiped his sweat. His colleague Aditya passing by noticed this and came near him;

‘What happened Sid, why are you sweating? All fine?’

‘Uhhh, yes’, replied Sid and gulped a glass of water

Seeing his condition Adi pulled a chair from somewhere and sat near him.

‘But you don’t seem to be fine. Come let’s go to the first aid room and check your BP.’

‘No, No need, I am fine really. It’s just that……’

‘What? You can tell me Sid you know I don’t gossip’.

‘My wife is a blogger-food blogger actually’, said Sid

‘That’s nice, which means you get to eat nice  food’

‘Not really’, said Sid gulping down some more water.

Mr. Iyer sitting in the next cubicle knew what Sid meant. His wife too was a blogger, albeit a fiction writer. God knows he was afraid to open his mouth in front of his wife lest she used it in her stories.  No office conversations or friends chats were conveyed in front of her. He had become so silent at home that his son had labelled him ‘mouni baba’ i.e. the silent sadhu. He himself had not known what mouni meant and had once asked its meaning from Sid itself. He knew what Sid was going through.

Meanwhile the conversation between Sid and Adi was going in full swing, Sid had finally broken his mental barrier and was venting his predicament.

‘And so she makes this weird dishes which have to be tasted and commented upon. But mind you before this a picture of her creation has to be taken with proper lighting and all. Heaven forbid if you taste it before its picture its taken’, Said Sid wiping his sweat. ‘I tell you sometimes it gets too much. Imagine reaching home after sweating it out in the office for 8-10 hours after battling the traffic and you are told to take a picture of something which she has created’

‘But what happened today that you are so nervous?, asked Aditya

‘Do you know Indiblogger?’, and noticing that Adi did not know Sid continued,’Its an……how do I say…..an association of bloggers, it’s an online community….’

‘So?’ asked Adi

“Bloggers post their posts, their rambles, their rants there and vote, comment there?’

‘So?’

‘Well Indiblogger comes up with all this contests in which bloggers can win prizes and now there is this Masterchef or something contest. Bloggers are to write about some unique dish and so my wife has decided that she will take part in it and so now I have to brace myself for it. And you know todays special…..Cabbage kheer’

‘Cabbage kheer !! exclaimed Aditya

‘Yes. I hate cabbage and kheer made of it. UGhhh’, and Sid sat down with his head in his hands.

‘Ahem,  I am sorry to interfere but I heard what all you said’, said Mr. Iyer.

‘Its alright Iyer, let the whole world hear, I am sick and tired of her experiments’, Said Sid

‘I have a plan in which we both can benefit. You see I too am in the same boat as you, my wife too is a blogger.’

‘Carry on’, said Sid

‘My wife has not seen you and your wife has not seen me. SO I will pose as a Doctor and tell your wife that you have  a severe case of stomach infection and you are not supposed to eat rich stuff only something plain like rice gruel…’

‘Or khichri’, said Sid brightening up, the world seemed a better place now for him.’

‘And you can pose as a doctor for me and say that I am stressed out and should not be stressed further…you know… like commenting on her stories etc’, said Iyer with a smile.

Last seen Sid gobbling down khichri and Iyer reading his newspaper. Both look visibly content in their conditions.