Jai Sree Ram

Jai Sree Ram                                                                                                                    31/Jan/2024

The year 2024 started on a pretty mute note, as I look back to the last day of the year that has just gone by. My brother-in-law had faced a medical issue at Mysore sometime during mid-December. Upon taking a 2nd opinion at Apollo hospital in Bengaluru, he was asked to be admitted on 30th December 2023 for a cardiac related procedure. 

What appeared to be a quick solution – angiogram and angioplasty with insertion of 2 or 3 stents; it turned out to be a non-starter. His blood sugar levels were high and creatinine plus potassium figures were also beyond the normal levels. The doctors admitted him in ICU and put him on a medication drive to bring these critical parameters under control. The angiogram was finally done on 1st January 2024. The outcome was scary in the beginning. His attending doctor reported multiple blocks with various degrees of blockage and one being 100%. He totally ruled out angioplasty and transferred the case to another experienced cardiac surgeon in key hole and robotic surgery. This doctor painted a very dark picture and gave the patient 2-weeks time to bring all the vital parameters under control and keep it steady for a week before proceeding further.

Our R E College 42nd Reunion was scheduled for the 4th of January 2024. This was a special reunion with more than 110 of our batchmates signing up to attend with their spouse at Ooty. It had the promise of a grand gala reunion since we were meeting after a gap of 7 years. Not knowing when the next gathering would take place and how many of us would be around, quite a few of us were keen to attend and catch up with folks. It was a grand 3 days function starting at 11 AM on 4th January and closing on 7th January 2024.

My batchmate from Minneapolis had agreed to join me and my wife on our onward and return journey by our car. We left at 6 AM on 4th morning and proceeded on the Mysuru – Bandipur – Madumalai – Masinagudi - Ooty road. Madumalai to Ooty was on the ghat section with 36 hair pin bends and they were quite steep as we approached Ooty. At times I was worried if the car would able to make the gradient as I had to drive in 1st Gear. The road is one way to the hilltop and it becomes a nightmare if there is a slow-moving vehicle ahead of you. That was precisely my problem on the last 20 KM stretch where the hair pin bends were steep. A diesel Maruti Swift spewing thick black smoke indicating that its life was nearing its 15-year term was ahead of us. We had to keep the windows open as the A/C was put-off to garner max power for climbing. The smoke was hazardous and the Swift wasn’t in a mood to give way to us. In spite of these setbacks, we were able to reach Sterling Fern Hill resort by 11:45 AM.

For the next 3 days we had fun catching up and sharing our stories with the ones we were meeting after a gap of 42 years. The food was good, the programs and activities organized were superb and it was like going back in time. We missed a few outdoor fun activities because of the overcast skies and the continuous drizzle. The thick dense fog prevented us from even going for a morning walk. However, the day we started on our return trip the skies had cleared completely and the sun shone brightly. After a prolonged bye-byes we started around 8:30 AM. Surprisingly, after descending to 4,000 feet or thereabouts we encountered a thick fog with visibility of just 5 feet. We stopped for a while thinking the fog would clear. It didn’t and we took a chance to restart. Luckily the road was two-lane but almost for the entire distance on the hills, culverts were mnbeing extended and the roads were dug up narrowing it to one track at each culvert and that slowed us down considerably. We stopped briefly at Gudalur for a coffee break and to our surprise found that all eateries and shops had their shutters down. We spoke to a restaurant owner to understand the reason – he said a couple a days back a Cheetah had mauled a 6 year old child to death and this was the only way the townsfolks felt would force the local authorities to capture and encage the wild cat. Thankfully, the restaurant owner allowed us to take a bio-break!

It was past 12 noon by the time we reached Mysuru and stopped for lunch at the same hotel Siddharth where we had breakfast while going to Ooty on 4th January. Post lunch we hit the Mysuru-Bengaluru Expressway and reached our destination by 4:30 PM. Post dinner we went to meet my brother-in-law to check for his health and updates if any from his doctors. He was scheduled to meet his doctor the next day and underwent an echocardiogram to check the heart’s pumping efficiency. The same day we spoke to our astrologer, known to us for the last 25 years to seek her opinion regarding surgery. She gave an all-clear signal for the surgery. But the doctors had put him on a strong medication regime to bring all his vital parameters under control. For the next two weeks it was a wait and watch.

Another event that quietly took place was my elder son his wife and son accompanied my brother-in-law’s twin daughters to Mysuru for a week to help them appear for their class examinations. These exams significantly contribute to the overall total marks in each subject as the marks for class exams are 30% of the total. They were away at Mysuru from the 7th to 13th. They all returned in time for my 2nd daughter-in-law’s 30th birthday on 14th January 2024.

Sankranthi was on 15th this year, and we celebrated amongst my wife’s three brothers and their families at Elita. Since the 1st annual Karya of my Chikkappa (my father’s youngest brother) wasn’t concluded we hadn’t celebrated any festival the whole of last year. The annual Karya was scheduled for 4 days from the 17th to 20th January and it went of extremely peacefully at his home. We seek his blessings from wherever he is, from his dimension of time and space.

During a routine follow-up check at Apollo’s Bannerghatta road hospital, the attending surgeon sprang a surprise by asking for a PET Perfusion Test. He asked for this to get a better handle on the position of the blocked vessels and check which process, angiogram plus angioplasty or Robotic bypass surgery would be more effective. The PET Perfusion test is normally done at the Cancer hospitals since it is a necessity at these centres. The following day itself on 18th January 2024, this was done at HCG near Corporation circle. The test required doing the scanning twice, each time with a different tracer. One of these tracers spikes the blood sugar levels and through insulin the sugar levels are monitored and when it reaches an optimum level, the scan is done. We read the report once it was completed but couldn’t make head or tale out of it. The concluding statement was vague – it said both options are possible. I guess this put the attending doctor in a fix. They tossed it amongst themselves for some time and later decided to refer to a different doctor at Apollo’s Sheshadripuram Unit.

In the meanwhile, the most awaited event of the century was about to unfold in front of us on 22nd January 2024. Ram lalla’s Pran Prathishtapana was scheduled to be held in the newly constructed Ram Mandir at Ayodhya by The Temple Trust in presence of our PM Sri Narendra Modi in Abhijit Muhurat of Pushya masa between 12:09 and 12:38 PM. The whole nation was watching the event from their respective homes that was telecast live. I sat glued to the TV and watched all the events associated with the installation, Prana Pratishtapana and Puja thereafter. It was 500 years of wait for the Hindus of this nation to see their Maryada Purushottama Ram get back his rightful  place in Ayodhya. We feel blessed to be born during these times to witness such a historic moment being etched on stone. The feeling amongst all Bharatiyas was of extreme elation – it was as if each had achieved something formidable; something none had ever dreamed about. 

On 24th January 2024, my brother-in-law finally met Dr Anand Subramanyam, an expert on open heart surgery at Apollo, Sheshadripuram. This Doctor spoke positively about the outcome from this open heart surgery and gave an assurance that all would proceed well and that he deserved a chance to get better and feel better. He also mentioned that PET Perfusion Test wasn’t necessary at all and that came as a shock to all of us. It had cost Rs 16,500. This doctor ordered for another test called Doppler’s test in the neck region around the carotid artery. We guessed this was done to check if the blood flow to the upper region was adequate. It turned out to be acceptable. The doctor suggested that we should wait for another week for all his vital parameters to stabilize with all the new medication plus some additional ones prescribed by him for controlling the Blood Pressure and Pulse Rate.

In the meantime both, my wife and I met an orthopaedist to talk to him about our issues. Mine is an old issue of knee Osteo-arthritis besides lower back pain, pinching of the sciatica nerves and numbness in the toe region on both my feet. My wife’s problem is right shoulder pain that is a result of the diabetes medication she has been taking for the last 15 years. While I have tried acupressure and acupuncture for the last 2 and half years, it has not reversed the condition. Acupuncture helps to maintain the blood flow to the nerves and nerve endings so that they don’t perish. The option given to both were supplements and not pain killers. These supplements can be taken for short fixed periods and cannot be continued over long stretches. Both of us took the decision to try it out.

Today is the last day in the month of January 2024 and it’s a month and a fortnight since the ordeal started in Mysore for my brother-in-law. We are still waiting for the doctor to call us and give a date for his operation. We hope he does so in the first week of February 2024 and gives him a new lease of life.  

Amidst all these activities, I had managed to be at the Varadanjaneya swamy temple everyday in the evening between 6:45 and 8:30 PM to chant Shatanamavalli in praise of Lord Rama and his closest and favourite devotee, Lord Anjaneya. I did this religiously till the 22nd January 2024 when the Pran Pratishthapana was done at Ram Janmabhoomi at Ayodhya.

Viswanath R Rao 

11:53 PM