adding hospital logs

1 files changed, 18 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/blog4.tex b/blog4.tex
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4ce29b2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/blog4.tex
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+\section*{Hospital Log 4}

+\vskip 2pt

+

+When you are a leukemia patient, the world around changes a lot. You will find befriending lot of patients and will hear lot of amazing stories. In a world where names are irrelevant, one of those stories I heard was of her. She is of my age and till recently used to live right next door. I heard her story in bits and piece from narratives of her mother, sister and sometime herself. From what I gather, she is practically the complete opposite of me. Hardworking, god fearing, socially conscious and to top it all highly scholarly. In my short life so far of 25 years of most I spent in Kerala, still I am yet to see a woman not fearing opinion of others. May be the world is supposed to be so and manipulators and tricksters like me are an exemption.

+

+Anyway, when I met her she was in treatment for a relapsed ALL which took its toll on her during the final days of first year MBBS. It seems she used to complain about constant headaches and other issues but her parents dismissed it for her compulsive addiction to studies(If I wake up everyday at 4 and study like she used to, I guess I will be in bed sooner :)). Interestingly, she had to do blood smear(a pathology test) as part of her practical with own blood. She found blasts, but thought it was some mistake in the procedure. Later after the exams when she went to ancestral home in north of Kerala and fell sick only finally they figured the real culprit out. Without wasting time she availed treatment and for most of the second year she was in Vellore than in Thrissur. But unlike me, she spent the time reading her textbooks and wrote exams the same year. What to say, she came second in the class. It is quite difficult to get your head straight and think normally while in chemotherapy let alone studying for exams, that too for MBBS second year. 

+

+That just shows her commitment and hard work. In the very few conversations I had with her, I quite felt the confidence and courage in that fragile body frame(may be effect of chemotherapy). She is capable of bringing a difference to many in the society and I hope she end up doing it. I don’t know how much her MD in Anesthetics (if I guess right) will help her in that, but a good doctor could change a lot of lives. 

+

+That said, we were under going the same regime of high dose chemotherapy and both of us were scheduled for a Bone Marrow Transplant soon after. Our conversations often hovered just around treatment regime, hospital doctors, medicines etc. of which she is kind of an expert and for me it was all new. May be that deceived me a little. She rarely talked about her earlier stint in Vellore, but her mother and sister gave lot of details. I still remember how exactly she was diagnosed for the first time and all(if she knew I would write about it, she might have never told me any of these :)). But I don’t really know anything of exactly how the relapse happened, except that, I had called her just before the blood test result came to enquire about the details of chemotherapy. Nobody needs to teach me the art of survival, but seldom we find someone who survives catastrophes so elegantly that makes us look back into our whole life and feel ashamed.

+

+All my life as an adult I led a quite secured one. I made my choices on instinct and though doubtful about the paths I like to explore my family stood beside me. But for her practically her adult life started with ALL and it was all under shadow of one of the dangerous diseases in existence. I can’t really imagine living so let alone actually being in it. At least I got some 7 years of no worry and still have great support and help for being the people’s man I am.

+

+She once said, seeing lot of successful BMT patients during OP is comforting, likewise for me it was comforting to see, befriend and have some wonderful time with someone of my own age and superior scholarly attitude next door. To top it, seeing her successfully go through the BMT and the difficulties soon after is really helping my confidence too.

+

+Interestingly, meeting her first time made me write. I wrote a small monograph on the social relevance of hair for women and the untold laws governing how one should grow their own hair. The spark in her eyes when she showed her picture with hair made me write it I should say.

+

+\newpage