216 seconds of your doctor's time.

Witnessing a doctor see 49 patients in 3 hours. I was the 50th cos I was a non paying goodwill gesture patient not in a queue. Waiting 45 minutes to see the doctor Is practically speaking not a wait given all things and other people actually being critically ill. 

The doctor's board reads physician and intensivist.  I google the word : Intensivist: A physician who specializes in the care of critically ill patients, usually in an intensive care unit (ICU). 

All I know is that he brought my wife practically speaking not to exaggerate "back from the death bed".

I have no problems in waiting.

That's 3.6 minutes to a patient including smiling and hearing and writing a prescription and measuring BP  and pulse, listening through the stethoscope.............

Life threatening and life saving split second alternate courses of medications reviewed and chosen all in the mind.  

For those 3.6 minutes of audience with the medicine man, there is a 2 hour round robin life circle of your own to manage and then the intake of the magic pill works or not is a hit out of the ball park or is it just a canter for a home run or simply strike one two and three.  Wham you are cured or you keep coming back in hope.

Courtesies exchanged.  

All good sir, 😊

BP reads 130/80 

Perfectly wonderful. 

Let's stick to this one pill and meet after 3 months.   In case you feel you want to see me feel free to come.   

Any thing I can do to get off this pill ? 

Nope ! Live healthy,  maintain healthy habits. Walk regularly and low salt intake. 

I curse and mutter under my breath and as always say "Thank you so much for your time sir. "

My share of 3.6 minutes ends and the doc smiles and takes off his reading glasses and packs up for the day ! 

I would not exchange my life for his, not for all the money and all the good things that life has to offer to anyone in the world because I would just keep wondering if what I did in those 216 seconds each time was the right thing or not and here was this man doing it day in and day out,week after week, month after month, year after year with a smile on his face. 😊

I still remember - Even when he said "sweetheart  admission is not an option."  He said it with a smile on his face.   

I like a man whose smile and shoulders are always fighting the existence of gravity. 

I guess that's how you choose a physician for life, someone who knows what to do when things go drastically wrong too and handles it with a 😊

Cardiac arrest

CARDIO PULMONARY RESUSCITATION 

Was reading about the CPR and everything simple associated with it.   Even if your heart stops beating the doctors believe the next ten minute window that the brain is kept alive, by pumping the chest it pumps blood into the brain. 

It is this critical window that can make the difference till medical help arrives. 

I really don't know why they don't teach such basics right from school.  

If Keats can be expected to be understood and addition and multiplication is progressed to trigonometry and calculus why on earth can't basic life saving techniques be taught in school. People should grow with this kind of knowledge and hands on practice just like addition and subtraction. 

A cardiac arrest occurs when the electrical conducting system of the heart fails and the heart beats irregularly or very fast. Soon after; the heartbeats stop, so does the blood flow to the brain.  As a result the person becomes unconscious and stops breathing. In such situations the victim can be saved within ten minutes because the brain remains alive during this period even when the  heart and respiratory system stop. In medical terms the victim is only clinically dead. 

Knowing what to do is critical. 

I was a silent hypertensive for how long even I don't know, for    someone who gets breathless by a simple activity like stepping onto an escalator is an expression in humour but my wife has been hypertensive for ever since I have known her.  

The insurance companies test you for your medical fitness before they insure your life and for that they run a battery of tests on you : blood, sugar and body fluids, you name it they do it,  then they make you run on a treadmill. 

Well, my blood pressure did not qualify : for me to be allowed to run. The new discovery that my perfect cool demeanour and perfect behaviour of the Mercury being rock stable at 120/80 all my life till now, now read 140/100 consistently for over an hour on 3 different machines on a regular Wednesday early morning. 

It did not sound too good, in fact the non acceptance of the fact as a matter of fact unlike all other things of life taken  as inevitable probably sent the Mercury in a tizzy at 170/108 at complete rest by the evening.  

The next day I was seated in front of a specialist out of turn as if the world could overturn. 

People live with high blood pressure and low blood pressure all their lives. My better half is living proof of it.  Beta blockers and pregnancy safe , , , infant safe all ring in the ear.  I knew the drill.  

3 days of pills and Sunday came and Mercury registered perfect readings for me to qualify to run on a treadmill.  

I have run and I have walked for all reasons all my 41 years but never had I imagined that  I would be running on treadmill with electrodes and wired up and a computer screen recording everything just like the Russian Drago in Rocky IV. Well here I was running for 7 minutes and the second upgraded incline and speed and I thanked myself that I had come wearing Nike air run free 3. 

I could handle this and run this damn machine down. At the fourth incremental incline and speed, I realised this was an unrelenting machine and I was not.  All of a sudden Drago's face of grit and determination came in front of my eyes and I knew there was pain involved here and I had no business to be running on this machine to prove anything to anyone leave aside to myself and I was no fitness freak, even my 7 year old son could out run me without even trying. I really don't know who humours whom when we run together neck to neck and tell each other "faster faster".  I was always a short distance sprinter even in school. The 80 meters sprint medal floated in front of my eyes. Not even 100 meters.  

 This was serious running I was running. Now I knew what it meant by "you can't get off a treadmill".   

Stopping was not an option, just not an option. I was beyond breathlessness, I was panting.  6th upgrade of incline and speed and I was actually running now to save my own life. I remembered scenes from movies in which the villains make you run on the treadmill till you beg them to stop, that you would tell all your secrets and passwords of life to just get off the treadmill.  

Proud man that I was,  so far running without holding the rails after all I was 75kg and 5'10" tall with perfect cholesterol and triglycerides. I asked ? Sorry I gasped " Bhaiya how many more inclines to go ?"  I heard one more to go, I saw my watch 18 minutes of this running business done so far. 

Calculated one more raise incline would probably mean 90 degrees. I would not be running against the wall. I would be running on the wall against gravity. My hands reached out for the rails.    Time left : 3 minutes.   All of a sudden my steely resolve to run against gravity disappeared and I gasped and blurted out "if all those printouts are good enough can we choose to stop now"  and the gentleman of a technician said "yes no problem, all good on paper " stop stop I did not want to sound like I was begging but In my mind I was.   

The damn machine slowed down and stopped.  I got off and now I realised what a blackout meant or would feel like.  I felt weak in the knees out of shape and out of breath is a mild way to put it.    But I now knew the feeling of what it feels like that - if someone were to stab me with a knife in the chest I would not feel a thing.  This was one of those physically numbing moments.   

I was only 41 and all of a sudden I understood what my father meant at age 50 by " screw the TMT, I am not getting it done ".  He was damn right.  I guess fathers are always right.  Ok let me rephrase it. Fathers generally are almost always right. 

The doctor said : well done, all good.  Go easy on salt, pickles, butter and ghee and you know the drill.  I wanted to tell him bloody joker can't you read the blood reports they are perfectly within normal range.  Even the good cholesterol to the bad cholesterol ratio was fine.  I just don't eat ghee and butter is a rarity.  I just wanted to get out of the place.  

I got out.  First thing I did was drive through McDonalds, one medium coke.   I was empty stomach. I wanted the sugar Rush.  Black poison went in.  I could still not think clearly.  My heart was still thumping so hard I could feel the thump on my smiley t shirt. My feet still could not feel the clutch properly.  Smsed to a friend about the test and the response was.  "Ya now we know what we mean by the expression PANTING LIKE A DOG with your tongue out." 😜👍.   

Went to the specialist the next day. 

130/80. Excellent. Changed medicine. Come back after one week. 

120/80.  Excellent. Changed medicine. Come back after one month.