Thus, I was cured of the deep chest infection
By JIRARA
© JIRARA, September 2022, Published by JIRARA on matrubharti.com
Disclaimer: It is the same as in my previous articles published in matrubharti.com.
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Preamble: Here (and may be in some future closely related articles) is my personal account of the health care that I and my BA (mother) have/had received from our family (and other doctors) over a period of more than last three to four decades. Here, I am going to mention the names of the drugs/medicines/tubes/drops (where applicable and based on my memory) used for our treatment/s, because it is very important to mention these for the sake of clarity and completion (and usefulness in the future); rather than hiding these names for the fear of adverse or over-publicity or being ‘dubbed’ as an advocate of the medicines and/or their manufacturers; and I want to ascertain here, that I am not the brand ambassador of any of these (allopathy or ayurvedic/herbal) medicines, and this story-article is not sponsored or suggested by any of the doctors involved in the treatment. I am writing a true story related to the health of some individual/s, and hence, it is important that I clearly and openly mention the true names of the doctors and the medicines without any hesitation; and I am not interested in any kind of my personal publicity.
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Dedicated To: My wife Smt. Virmati, and our son Mayur who had taken immense of care of me during this phase (2015); and to Dr. L. Prakash (medical officer NAL-CSIR health clinic), and Dr. Isaac Mathew, head respiratory/pulmonology dept., Manipal Hospital, Bangalore.
Acknowledgements: This story, and subsequent medical treatment related stories are profusely dedicated to our family doctors: NAL-CSIR doctors (in Bengaluru): Dr. K. S. Nanjunda Swami (CMO), Dr. A. Pranesh, Late Dr. Mrs. K. Lalitha (CMO), Dr. Mrs. Swetha Desai, Dr. D. Amaranarayan (CMO), Dr. N. Ramakrishna (CMO), Dr. L. Prakash, Dr. Ms. Malvika; and the physiotherapist Y. Nagaraj; who from time to time had provided correct diagnoses, complete prescriptions of medicines, and proper referrals (including health care aspects/suggestions/treatments) to other doctors and/or Hospitals in respect of me, my BA as well as all the members of my family for several decades.
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In fact, due the treatment that I had received, my health-index had been very high, and my life has definitely prolonged by some years.
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Note: As I have said earlier, we all are mortals, and we basically need oxygen, water, and food (hence lot of energy) to sustain our lives on this planet. Most of our food is plant based, and these plants ‘prepare’ food by absorbing energy from the Sun. Even though, the most non-veg food comes from animals, these animals also eat mostly plant-based foods, and hence their stored energy in some form comes to us. Now, if there is any contamination in any or more of these ingredients, in most cases we fall sick: breathing problems, food-poisoning, vomiting, acidity etc. Also, if there is deficiency in any or more of these, we become malnutrition-ed; the balance of food is always necessary for usual and normal life sustenance. We also fall sick due to: i) over work (get exhausted, and weak and our immune system becomes weak, and might lead to other complications), ii) some genetic problems inherited from our parent/s, and iii) in many cases due to bacterial and/or viral infections. There are other diseases/ailments: a) blood pressure (BP), b) diabetes, c) vertigo (Chakkar), d) cancer, and others. Also some problems are related to i) liver, ii) pancreas (diabetes Type I and II), iii) kidneys (stones, failures), iv) intestines, v) eyes, vi) heart/lungs, and vii) brain. There are many more minor or major issues (urinary track infection/UTI, allergies, eye-infections, and so on…), since the human body is a vast system in the number of components it has, and the continuous functioning of these sub-systems and their interactions are so involved that a common lay person cannot understand, except only superficially.
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The medical doctors, in my opinion, are like our own ‘relatives’, and true friends; and the correctly prescribed medicines are our routine companions.
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Thus, I was cured of the deep chest infection
It was in March 2015, that during one week, I had suffered a lot of coughing and severe allergy, and despite taking two courses (i.e. for two weeks, and from one more doctor from a nearby clinic to my residence) of the relevant medicines as prescribed by my family doctors, there was no sign of respite. It was funny, that I was able to drive and visit the NAL-health clinic under this severe condition of mine, but I was not comfortable at all.
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So, then my son took me to NAL and we met Dr. Prakash, and showed him the chest x-ray that was taken some days back (in the context of some other treatment related to my eyes, and was required to get certain medical tests done for further procedures to rule out if I had any internal inflammation; this story-article will be the next one), and the doctor advised that I must be taken to Manipal hospital and get the opinion of the pulmonology specialist, and if necessary, then I must be admitted to the hospital for further treatment; because I had deep chest infection.
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We then went to the hospital and the specialist checked the x-ray, and asked me to get another recent one from the hospital for the confirmation, which we did, and then he asked if I used to smoke, and I had said ‘no’, because I am a scientist, and he said so what; he had said that he knew many scientists used to smoke; I felt bad, what a question at this time?, but, I was not in a position to argue, he also had asked me if I had visited any patient (from my friends or relatives) in a TB sanitorium, or elsewhere, and at that time I did not recollect, so I had so no.
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The pulmonologist recommended that I must be admitted to the hospital the same day, for which my son got the letter for admitting me to the hospital from Dr. N. Ramakrishna of NAL health-clinic, and I got admitted to the hospital in the evening only; since there was no special ward vacant for me; since being in the very senior position at the time of my retirement, I was eligible for a single and a special room. In fact, my son had to go to his work, so, I myself first went to home by taxi, and when the bed was made available, I had again taken taxi to the hospital, and then got admitted in the evening, it was an ordeal for me, since I had gone alone to the ward receptionist and shown the receipt, and then she had taken me to my room. So, there was a time difference of nearly 7 hrs., between the NAL doctor had first diagnosed me, and the time I was admitted to the ward.
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Medical examinations and the treatment: At the ward a lady doctor came and put me on the oxygen, and then some antibiotics and allergy tablets. Every day twice, I was to inhale oxygen along with some antibiotics, I am not sure how it was done, I have forgotten this, it is now seven years past by.
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Next day I was taken to for a CT-scan and it was found that I had also, the condition of hiatal hernia, in that the upper part of the stomach bulges through one’s diaphragm into the chest cavity; so, further an endoscopy procedure/test was done for me under the anaesthesia, and another specialist’s treatment had started; because this condition might cause acidity, and hence antacid tablets were started.
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After a few days, the pulmonologist had told me that bronchoscopy test must be done, since it was not clear why the strong and the best antibiotics were not yielding the desired comfort to me from the deep chest infection, since the dry coughing was still persisting; also, he wanted to rule out if I had any symptoms of TB (tuberculosis). At this time, I had recollected that I had visited my cousin brother who was admitted to TB sanitorium nearly 40 years ago in Ahmedabad; who had then died of it, after treatment for several weeks; hence, I was so tensed of the outcome of my own bronchoscopy test which took more than a day to come by.
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Note (from the internet): Bronchoscopy can help the doctor diagnose many lung diseases, including infections from bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites, or tuberculosis; it is a procedure a doctor uses to look inside the lungs. This is done with a bronchoscope, a thin, flexible tube with a light and a lens or small video camera on the end; the tube is put in through the nose or mouth, down the throat, into the trachea (windpipe), and into the airways (bronchi and bronchioles) of the patient’s lungs; for example, to help make a diagnosis if you have a persistent cough or cough up blood and the cause is not clear. If you have a shadow (which was there in my case) on a chest X-ray or the doctor sees a growth or a strange-looking area in a bronchus, the doctor may take a small sample (a biopsy) during a bronchoscopy. The sample is then looked at under the microscope to help decide whether problems such as inflammation, infection or cancer might be responsible for your symptoms.
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Unfortunately, for me the test was carried out without putting me under anaesthesia, and it was terribly painful for me, I was trembling and screaming, and my chest was being kept under pressure by his nurse, while a long tube was inserted towards my lungs from the nostrils for taking the samples of the sputum.
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Fortunately for me the result of the bronchoscopy was negative, and hence after one more day of the observation, I was discharged on the 8th day after I was admitted, and with prescription of antibiotics, to be continued for next 15 days, and the antacid tablets for 45 days; and I was required to see both the doctors after one month, which I did and then I was declared fit; however, the Gastroenterologist had suggested that my cot (in my own bedroom at my home) should be kept inclined by nearly six inches, so it slopes down from the head to the feet so that my problem of hiatal hernia is not accentuated further; which we have done, but, I only preferred to do it by only 4 inches; and since then my acidity problem has reduced by about 90%. However, since my wife has varicose veins, she had to keep some pillow below her feet to at least level her body posture; of course, I also had to do the same.
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Later on, the NAL doctor/s had told us that if I were not admitted to the hospital in the time, the condition would have been fatal for me.
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An unpleasant thing: It was during my office-years (much before 2007), once, I had severe coughing situation, and an x-ray was taken in the NAL-health center itself, and when I went to collect it, the operator had told me that I had symptoms of TB; to this I was so worried, and perturbed, and I did not get the sleep whole night, and then next day, I met the doctor in the clinic, who examined the x-ray and I was told that nothing was there like that; then I had told the story to which he quipped how the operator can judge?, he is not a doctor; then he assured me that he would tell the operator not to judge patients’ x-rays and tell anything to them; whether the doctor had warned to that operator or not, I do not know.
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