Coughing Out Money for Cough! Sometime in mid-February 2024
Sometimes I wonder why the intensity of all health-related issues peak during night time! Is it because no ready help is available or, is it because all the clinics are closed and doctors have gone home. Or perhaps because there is silence at home and the mind begins to conjure all kinds unknown and unfathomable fears! Not having found an answer, I’ve settled for a mix of all three.
The issue gets more complex when the following day is a Sunday or a public holiday and no doctors are around. Like the old adage goes, “When something has to go wrong, it will”, I wish to add the word “certainly” before “will”. With the weather making a sudden change to hotter summer like days and cool winter-like nights, I developed some irritation in my throat on Saturday evening. Assuming that it could be an allergic soreness, I just took some basic precautions. However, by late night on Saturday, it became worse. I was in the midst of a full-blown throat infection, sore throat, soreness all around the body and severe dry cough that wasn’t allowing me to even catch my breath. I just couldn’t sleep a wink that night.
The following day being a Sunday, I was at my wits end…with no clinics open and no doctors willing to answer their phone, I did the next best thing. The great Indian Jugaad – self-medication; with an anti-allergic tablet, a mild pain killer and a basic level antibiotic. I hoped that the basic medication would arrest the runaway spread of infection in the lungs. By mid-afternoon the cough had gotten worse and my stomach muscles were groaning and writhing in pain, each time I coughed. I feared that the bouts of incessant coughing would tear the stomach muscles. After a 2nd consecutive night of no sleep, I went on Monday morning to meet our family physician. I kept him informed about my adventure with medicines. He just smiled…I was reminded of my Father’s very close friend at Durgapur, Dr Pal – Head of the department of pathology in Durgapur Steel Plant Hospital. During one of his friendly visits to our house, I asked him questions about what tablets should be kept handy for any emergency. I had come home from REC Trichy during our annual vacation and it was a pleasant coincidence to bump into this super friendly doctor. With a twinkle in his eyes, he said Beta, along with your engineering studies, one must also learn some doctory – it will hold you in good stead! Words of wisdom, certainly!
Over the years I have learnt to read the drug composition in the pharmaceutical name given to tablets prescribed by doctors. There was far too much congestion in my lungs and while coughing was meant to cough out the phlegm, it just did not. Instead, the back-to-back coughing brought severe cramps in my stomach muscles. Each time I coughed I would writhe in pain. It was a horrible experience and a much more horrible experience to the family members watching me this. They felt stressed out too. I was going to the doctor’s clinic twice a day for the nebulizer. While it is advisable to keep a unit at home for emergency use, I didn’t want to spend too much money on a piece of equipment that would be used only occasionally. The important thing the doctor or nurse didn’t tell me was that I should have purchased a mask with tube plus the medicine dispenser for myself. I used the one at the clinic and that may have caused more infection.
When the cough did not clear up even after a week of medication, I started to get the feeling that this could turn out to be pneumonia. I took the help of my brother-in-law (sister’s husband), 10 years my senior, both age and college graduation year. He advised me to meet a pulmonologist, known to him. This doctor, a fairly experienced person also wanted to rule out pneumonia and suggested I go for an x-ray. My family physician had already asked for a CBC where certain parameters were out of whack. Thankfully the pulmonologist did not ask for another CBC and based his diagnosis on the x-ray and the old CBC report. He concluded that pneumonia was ruled out, but added more medicines and respules to the nebulizer. One of the respule was a steroid; I asked the doctor for more explanation since steroids are generally given in extreme cases. He assured me that this was a very specific steroid and aimed at the lungs only to help in clearing the congestion. This was not harmful and even if this drug is abruptly stopped or withdrawn, there are no adverse side effects.
The combination of new drugs helped me vastly, but it took time. The whole episode lasted almost 3 weeks. While I am completely out from the drug regime, some symptoms remain and I understand that normalcy @ 100% will take some more time.
Come to think of it at one stage, I was contemplating to get myself admitted in a hospital to get continuous nursing support. But somehow refrained from taking a step in that direction. In my life span, I have been admitted in a hospital on a few occasions. The first was when I fell from a height and my left elbow hit a stone while crashing down. It was broken, and since it happened on a Diwali night, no doctors were available in the emergency. I had to return to the hospital the next morning for an operation to set the elbow right and put it in a plaster cast. It took 3 weeks for it to set and even after the plaster cast was removed, I was petrified to straighten my arm, lest it break again. It took a physiotherapist to force me to straighten my arms and drive home the point that all was well with the joint.
The next time I was admitted for a more severe problem. Suspecting something was amiss, my mom took me to a physician to check out if all was well with my throat. Difficulty in swallowing and slight swelling were the symptoms. While it appeared like mumps, the doctor suspected diphtheria and promptly had me admitted. I was put on an extreme penicillin injection 4 times a day for the next 4 days. An extra two days stay in the hospital ward and I was declared fit to return home and to school.
The next was during my third-year engineering at REC Trichy. After an early meal of vegetable biryani in our Mess/Canteen, I started to vomit uncontrollably. At some point I was extremely weak even to go to the bathroom to relieve myself. I had kept a mug by my bedside, hoping that somehow this would become normal and the problem would magically go away. It didn’t and by next morning, the dehydration was taking its toll on me. My friends quickly spoke to the college physician and took me to BHEL’s hospital, close to our college campus. This is a wonderful hospital and the doctor was amazed that I was still able to stand and that I had not collapsed. He got me admitted immediately and put me on various medication through drip feed. I was kind off knocked out for the next 24 hours, before the recovery phase kicked in. All the while my friends were constantly in touch with the hospital to check on my progress and when I would be able to return to hostel. After returning, I was extremely scared to touch the mess/canteen food, but once the stomach is back to its normal self and hunger pangs return, all what is eaten gets digested! There were a few other occasions, but I think it makes more sense to ignore them and move on…
Good health is the only ask from the almighty when we cross the mid sixties!!
