Life with swine flu around

hey all,

swine flu is rampant all around me mumbai, thane, pune, satara, mahabaleshwar, sangli, kolhapur. till now it has not reached me. but wait till ganpati. the hoards of people coming from mumbai will bring it with them, that too kilos and kilos of virus load. wanna see where I am! take a look below.

just started me thinking. schools closed, theatres, multiplexes, parks colleges, all closed.

okay. i can sit at home and still have a days meal for days together.

what about the vegetable vendor, the bhelwala, the milkman, the bhangarwala in mumbai.

for how long can they wait.

they cant!

they are still out there on the roads, on the open, doing their jobs and relying on god to protect them.

if they give in to the fear and stay at home, who will earn bread? what will happen to their wives and children.

for these people life can stop, but life cant wait, isnt it?

any way. take care.

c u soon!!

fear of surgery

any body would be afraid to undergo any suergery. Its natural. how ever minor it may be. i have under gone a minor surgery few years ago. inspite of being a doctor, i had had butterflies in my stomach.

in my practice i have seen many types of reactions to fear and anxiety. some patients keep on talking, and some remain absolutely quiet. some keep on eating, and some prefer to remain empty stomach. ( they are afraid their gut will give away due to fear.)

on the other hand, some patients are very cool about the whole affair.

there are two funny things that I have observed.

1) patients who claim to be mentally 'very, very' strong, and have an air of confidence around them, are the ones most likely to have cold feet while entering the operation theatre. they look as if they are heading towards the gallows!

where as patients who confide that they are hell a lot scared, are very quiet and calm during surgery.

may be, once the patient has confided with the doctor about his/her fears, he/she feels secure that the doctor will now take due care.

2) second amazing fact is that i have seen patients who were absolutely fine during the first surgery are scared much more during the second surgery. why?, i dont know!!

there was one 84 yr old grandpa, a retired primary teacher. his daughter is a practising dentist in mumbai and he stays here in Dapoli.

he was very cool and co-operative during the first ( right eye) surgery. even during the left eye surgery he was very cool, quiet, jovial and was in a good mood.

after 2 days he called me to his house for a cup of tea.

he showed me a note. he said that he was very afraid during the second operation, so much so that he was sure he was going to die while the eye operation was going on.

so he had kept a note in his pocket which said: " i am old and i am very much terrified about the operation. if i die during the operation due to heart attack or any other reason, please dont hold the doctor responsible. he is a good man and he has taken utmost care for my well being. please leave him alone after my death"

I still havent forgottrn that crumpled 'death' note.

now that grandpa laughs it off whenever he meets me.

but both of us will never forget the 'note'

Arrogant Ignorance

ignorance, many a time, makes the peson arrogant. i have seen this happening in my practice day in and day out.

i regularly get patients with corneal ulcers. a devastating infection of the clear part in front of the eye. if not treated in time the patient loses the eye. ( sometimes it has to be removed completely).

aggressive medication is the answer. with the advent of newer generation eye medicines, these conditions can be handled in a far better way than yester years.

i had one such patient. a village head man. uneducated. but the headmanship had gotten to his head.

" hey kid, ( i am 34 yrs old), can u treat this?"

"i dont want trial and errors ", he said, "can you or can you not?"

this old man had had this infection for the last 8 days. he had not seen even the village doctor, forget an eye doctor.
he had tried local remedies which included rose water, alum water, cows milk, cows urine, some herbs and shrubs. he had even gone ahead and put lime in the eye to 'kill' the germs. ask any eye doctor, what devastating effect lime has on an eye!

i told him that the only answer was complete removal ( evisceration ) of the eye as the condition was beyond repair.

"hows that possible, you fool. you dont know anything!"

"all the shrubs, cows urine etc. has damaged your eye sir." i told him.

"impossible", he retorted. " how dare you blame the age old remedies ? you cant treat with your chemical poisons. tell me that. you incompetent fellow. I will see how your practice thrives in this area. i am going."

some days later i came to know that he went ahead to mumbai. spent 10 thousand rupees and finally underwent an evisceration.

so why didn't he listen to me?

The answer is quite simple.

the fact that i came to practice in a rural area all the way from a mega city like mumbai, made him think that i dont know anything in my field, and thats why i was incompetent and have run away to a remote location.

this just shows an inferiority complex these village people have about themselves. they just cant believe that some body can come from a city and live them. how can somebody offer good service to them. they are villagers and not city dwellers.
they really have some funny kind of complex.

add to it the illeteracy and the innate arrogance, we have a nice cocktail here.

albeit, such intances have been rare, but they have occured.

C U soon !!

They are really Honest

Its been 6 years that I am practising ophthalmology in a rural setting. Peaple here may not be rich moneywise. but they are really honest, i mean most of them. u r always bound to find dishonest and mean creature any where on the surface of the earth. Its the percentage that counts.

this happened 4 years ago, when i was new in practice. ( i still am).
a friend of mine referred to me an old lady operated for cataract at a chritable clinic. she had got operated at a far off camp and could not go for her gkasses one month after surgery. he asked me to give some concession.

i examined her, and wrote down the prescription for glasses. "how much should I pay ?".

i asked her to pay just 10 rupees as a token.

she dug into her wallet and brought out a crumpled 10 rupee note.

but for that note, the wallet seemed to be empty.

she stayed 10 Km away from my clinic.

"do you have enough money for the bus ride back home ?" , I asked.

No was the reply.

"how on earth will you go home"

"walking". she replied as a matter of fact withou any qualms about it.

I felt shattered. that lady had given me all the money she had and was ready to walk 10 km ( approx 6 1/2 miles) back home.

inspite of her protests I returned her the money. she told me she would come back and pay me the next day. i told her not to worry. its okay, she need not pay.

2 days later, i was not even thinking of her, she came and paid me 10 rs.

i asked her, why she had come all the way again, when i had told her she need not pay. also she had spent 20 rupees on bus ticket to pay my 10 rupees.

the answer left me stunned:

" dear boy, for you it may be just 10 rupees at stake. but for me its my honesty at stake. i can go without food for a day, but cant have peaceful nights sleep when i know that i owe you some amount, however meagre it may be"

i did not know what to think, what to say.

They are really Honest, these village people!!

stumped

this anecdote was told to us in a meeting by a fellow ophthalmologist!!

he had an elderly village lady as a patient. she had advanced cataract in both the eyes. he advised her surgery in both eyes, for which, naturally she was not willing at that moment.
"lets wait till it becomes fully mature. thats how they are done. i know.", said the lady

my friend told her" no need to wait that long granny. now a days with advanced technique, we dont wait that long. u see, times have changed"

and guess what she quipped.....

" yes my son, times have really changes!!. u see in our times we used to eat at home and visit the loo outside the house. in ur times, u eat outside and go to the loo bang in the house!!. i cant come to terms with this!!. good bye."