It was supposed to be a regular week, in fact a less than hectic work week. Most of the team was going to take the day off on Thursday so I had planned to wind up a lot of work in peace and work from home on Friday. I had already called a friend to stay over on Friday and we were going to chill the weekend away. Sounded like a pretty good plan. But then, you know what happens to the best laid plans….
The week that I am now going through is harrowing to say the least. Confused doctors, a very obvious infection with no obvious source of origin. A battery of tests from Veinal blood tests to Arterial blood tests, X-rays to scans, MRI’s to Doppler scans to Heart Echo. An emergency surgery as the platelets and blood pressure dropped. Frantic searches for platelet donors and now just waiting for the tide to turn
As I sit in the hospital lobby by the café on the fifth day at the hospital, here is what I learnt:
- The best laid plans are bullshit…
- Don’t take your health for granted. Being healthy is probably the best gift you can give yourself.
- Quality medical care in this country is mind-blowingly expensive
- Word spreads like wild-fire on social media. 67 people (a lot of them were strangers) shared my Facebook post excluding posts that family and friends posted voluntarily. However, a lot of it can most probably be not true. At least 90% of the people who called to donate blood had information that he was an accident victim.
- People are inherently good and have their hearts in the right place. Almost a fifty people called to offer assistance. Absolute strangers drove in till 12:00 am offering to donate blood.
- We, as laymen know nothing about our own bodies. I have decided to spend more time to understand how my body works.
- Irrespective of what you think of yourself, when you need to come through for the people who you truly love, you will find strength from within. Basic stuff like sleep, food becomes just necessities to keep you going.
- When it is required, you develop gigantic amounts of patience and start to think on your feet. Fifteen donors got rejected for a match for one unit of platelets. One disappeared as it took too long and one got cold feet after being matched. Smile and start afresh. Giving up was not an option.
- Exhaustion is real, getting overwhelmed is real.
- Asking for help is hard.
The ordeal is still not over and every minute of my day is spent in silent prayer. I do hope that you will pray with me. I am still here and still learning something new everyday.
This ordeal needs to get over soon, real soon. I want to soon see him cracking those absolutely useless jokes.
Keep him in your prayers…Be well soon, my baby brother…Be well soon
Chaithali Pisupati 