When you lose Health

 When you lose your health......

I was referred a 70yr man suffering from severe pain.

A CA Lung with metastasis.

He was a very successful, famous Advocate.A Robust and Dynamic personality yesterday. 

But that Cancer had made him weak and vulnerable. 

He had become a frail shadow.....

Another patient with Parkinson 's disease regularly visits for pain relief .

A retired Chairman of a Conglomerate. 

Both these people have been Dynamic personalities looked up on by everyone. They inspired youth by their enormous work and attitude. 

Today,though the Brain is very strong.....

The Body became weak and debilitating. 

They get emotional " Why me,Doctor?"

" Just look at me today.Yesterday I was energetic and always on the go.Today I struggle with pain.Tomorrow I may either be on a wheel chair or bedridden for the rest of my life."

Yes,it pains,breaks even a Doctor's heart.

We Doctors are taught not to be emotionally attached to the disease .We can sympathize the suffering but not let our emotions influence our treatment. 

A 20yr old girl came with A Ulcerative Cancer which had eaten up her entire Right Arm.

She was in excruciating pain and the growth was foul smelling and pus with maggots on the entire ulcer.

The treating Doctors empathized and sympathized her agony.

But decision of Amputation of the entire arm wholly from the shoulders was taken.

The 20yr old helplessly looked at me on Operation Theatre " Why me?"

When Health is slipping from the hand.....

It's painful to see our body become weak and vulnerable. Dependent. 

A Shadow.

It scares us.It scares even people around.

Doctors watch these debilitating conditions every day.

Empathy and Sympathy.....emotionally we do get disturbed.

But when we ourselves start aging.....the thought...." What if I happen to lose my Health?"

Shuddering. 

I read a book" When Breath Becomes Air" written by Dr Paul Kalanithi.

A Neurosurgeon who gets detected by Brain Cancer.

This book released posthumously.Dr Paul has written in detail his life after being detected with Brain Cancer.His emotions,his treatment, his pain,suffering and his Professional career post Treatment, the Chemotherapy, and Debilitating Metastsis......

Even in his most vulnerable situation, Dr Paul never gave up on life. 

I read a quote somewhere.....

When life looks impossible and dark.No Light...only darkness.....never stop.Just keep walking slowly. A step at a time.....you will surely reach end of the tunnel one day.

Health is indeed our biggest asset.

If lost it is like slipping sand.....uncontrolled and unstoppable.....just slips away. 

Lost wealth can be earned back.

But lost Health due a debilitating disease....is forever. Making us weak, vulnerable and dependent. 

But some Medical conditions are unpredictable. They are Idiopathic. 

They get diagnosed but their debilitating effect on our body just can't be cured ....

Why me?...... No answers.

Save me.....In nobody's hands.

One has to just keep moving slowly till the end of tunnel reached.

Whatever we have in Life.....learn to respect and enjoy....

Dr Tripti Milind Galgali 

Anaesthesiologist.