Jaundice Days – Part 3 The Experience

At this moment as I sat down to write the third and final part of my ‘Jaundice Days’ I am rather glad to inform you that the last test has revealed that Bilirubin levels have fallen below one (0.5 to be exact),that is, technically I am out of Jaundice. However, the restrictions associated with it still remains. The entire experience has been a total revelation for me, giving me an insight how people in our country deal with diseases for which they have little understanding. Alexander Pope has once said ‘A little knowledge is a dangerous thing’ the quote aptly applies to what I have heard, listened and faced during these days.

Peculiar Disease

There are many unanswered questions in Medical Science, and Jaundice is one of them. It is still hard to believe that this widespread disease still don’t have any direct particular medicine. The treatment basically rests on prolonged bed-rest and regular doses of energy tabs. Unless you consult a liver expert. To add on to it you will find many people who know everything about the disease and can prescribe you a medicine for it, medicines which are not recorded in any proven medical journal of India or the world. Its peculiarity also hinges on what people do to deal with it, stop taking proper diets, living off fruits and top of all stop taking anything yellow. Why yellow? The answer what you will get that since your body has turned yellow, yellow is now poisonous. But note down the turmeric has anti-septic properties; they’ll just shrug it away. The more common this disease is, less people are certain about it.

Foolproof Medicine

‘Have you consulted the doctor? Is he on medicines? Listen usko jhaad bhi do(get him treated by a witch doctor)’ This is from one of telephonic conversation my mom had with our educated relative, and mind it, this is not the only one. It is very surprising for me that even in this age and even with level of education people believe that something purely internal can be treated by something external. I do believe in god, and I do believe there is something like budi nazar and all that, but how can a thing which have a proper medical explanation, but no straight treatment can be treat to so things. I don’t know the answer, I simply don’t. But strangely enough, many people, from our house maid to electrician to the fruit vendor everyone knows a foolproof medicine for this disease. The medicine which can cure the disease in the matter days without any hospitalization. One of the most convincing examples was given by our electrician; I would just like to quote him about what he said after thoroughly checking me.

“Are you on a doctor? I know a person who makes the medicine for jaundice. When I had jaundice I consulted five doctors, one almost send me to a nursing home, which could have resulted in loss of Rs. 25000 and many days. I got to know about this person, he was in government service. He diagnosed me and asked me to come in the evening, by that time he would have completed his medicines. Medicines which has to be taken twice (or thrice) a day, would be provided by him every day. Within 3 days I got well, and then he advised me to go to a lake in Jhajjar, Haryana where there is a pilia kund (Jaundice Lake) where on every weekend people came from various corner to take a bath and drink water from that lake, and get cured. It is almost full on weekends, just like village fair. And then when you get well, take some roots of a particular plant, it will increase your hunger as it will open up the stomach. Hardly in 15 days you would get well. Do you take paan or banana? Medicine can only be taken by that only. Now since the person has retired, he will ask some charge, otherwise it was free. But you have to stop your medicines that you are taking.”

Phew! My mom only got impressed till I scolded her for her stupidity. It’s with my liver, I told her. But one thing became rather certain, many will give you suggestion but it is your brain that you must apply.

Lectures, Lectures and more Lectures

One of the most enduring memories of this period will be the amount of lecture I have to endure and amount that I am presently enduring. When you are ill, almost everyone seems to know the reasons for your illness.

‘You eat out a lot’

‘Roadside food’

‘You young people don’t listen, every time you go outside do you need to have anything’

‘Have more pizzas, burgers, momos, go have it, shall I bring some more now?’

‘Outside, ufff!’

For the first fifteen days, I listened to them, almost to the point of agreeing. But water has crossed it limits, and I have to let it go. Jaundice is a water borne disease, I countered, and I eat only at good restaurants and most of the time we order mineral water, and outside eating is mostly a weekend affair when most of the friends have weekend off, and if it happened because it happened due to eating out, at least 2 more should have gone down with me because I never eat alone. After this, my mom picked up the gauntlet for me, telling almost everyone who raised that damn point again. Jaundice is water borne disease and water could have slipped into my mouth from any place, even my home. I had had my last eating out sometime in mid July, how can I get infected in mid August for something I did one month back? Well there are no answers; speculations don’t have a proper explanation. But still they continue, giving lectures from food that should I eat to amount of rest I should take.

Conclusion

Jaundice is water borne disease and one doesn’t have to stop eating everything. Proper diet, proper rest and proper consultation with a good doctor (a Liver Specialist) are the mantra. I have seen people giving me all sorts of lectures about what to do after getting well, some of them abstain from oil for more than a year and suppose me to do the same. Many didn’t have any spices, many lived on boiled. But these are not the solution these only aggravate the problems.

When I first consulted the Liver Specialist he told me to have everything, take a proper diet, less spices, less oil, but proper. When my mother pointed out about what elder say, he said these golden words which still echoes in my ears,” If you go outside my clinic you will see an Aggrawal Sweet Shop, ask the owner about a medicine for jaundice. I am sure he will tell you a nuska. But it is up to you whom you listen, an expert halwai or an expert doctor.” The doctors words got proven when on my second check-up I complained about the gas problem, and that I only had boiled stuff. He said that time, if I keep taking boiled things, recovery will take time as liver is not getting all things properly and he was right. I have to say, after seven weeks, whatever doctor said would happen to me, happened to me. The Jaundice followed the same course as he said. It increased, it got stabilized, it fell down and on last Saturday when I got myself checked he remarked it might be over by now. And it is.

All during this time almost everyone I know became interested in the color of my shit. Food I eat. Almost everyone has a solution. But a very few people talked sense. I had proper diet during my jaundice days, not oily but proper, I abstained myself from tea and non-veg, and I listened to my doctor. Now there is a piece of advice that I want to give you, whenever you have jaundice always, always consult a liver specialist, it is a water borne disease which severely affects the lever. And listen to him. Have a proper diet and never listen to anyone who wants to give you a nuska. It is your liver, and you have to take care of it.

PS: This is for the comments that I received for my last two posts. I was not negligent about my health. BP is hereditary; more was due to the situation, my result, my health and lectures. It never occurred to me that it could happen to me, since I passed out of my college and started working I seldom had anything from roadside. But it was just my destiny, just couldn’t change it. Yes, it was an ordeal and how I passed my time sleeping, reading and watching TV. More on that especially about TV on next entry.

Jaundice Day – Part 2

Morning was hot and sweaty as uncle accompanied me to the doctor. Doctor, a GP, got the hint when he first looked into my eyes, but when he saw my report he remarked,” How the hell this boy is standing!” Well how can I answer to a question like that, when even I didn’t know what I was enduring and ignoring; and it was from that day when I really felt something serious has stuck me. Instead of asking me to sit he asked me to lie down as he check my liver, it had expanded considerably, he said, and prescribed a sonography of the liver. There is no medicine for Jaundice so he gave me so energy pills and fat burning drugs. And then began one of the longest resting periods I’d ever have.

Next morning I got the sonography done. With report being available only in the evening I waited for the entire day. But the day was long; it was August 25^th, the judgment day for any CS student. Either it would be culmination of six months of my hard work or it would throw water over it. Well as it is said when bad things strike they just keep on striking, I failed. And if it isn’t bad enough, my training which would have started on September itself was now jeopardized. To add onto this when I visited the doctor with my report in the evening, it read something like this,” Gall bladder shrunk, liver entrenched, coats of fat on the liver, Presence of Hepatitis?” it might not be the exact words but it was something like this. This was the point where the doctor began to lecture me on my food habits (something I would listen from many people, more on it later), and checked my blood pressure. It was high, the reason for me was obvious, but he thought of deducing something, something supposedly from what I eat. However, he let me go after an injection. But the next day was one of the hardest. It was Wednesday and the entire day my fever didn’t go down below 102 degrees, and for most of the time it was 104. I couldn’t sleep the entire day. My mother had to phone the doctor for his advice. I visited the doctor next day with my mother.

It was Thursday August 27^th, I, my mother and uncle visited the doctor in the morning. Although fever had fallen down by few notches by then, but as usual for any mom, she was worried. She fired many question to the doctor; about the scope and the period to be taken. The doctor on his part took a sample of my blood to have it tested again. He remarked on my blood of being too dark, that it has a heavy presence of cholesterol; effectively ask me to debar from bakery products and red meat in future. He also tested my blood pressure which was a bit high, a borderline case (92-110); but that piece of information was taken by my mom quiet seriously. Anyways by the time we left the doctor, I was sure of one thing, what my relatives are going to hear from my mother.

It was Friday evening when my mother received a call from the doctor. By that time almost every relative knew what I was suffering from and I was having a ‘High BP’. Now after a brief chat with my mother, doctor decided to break the news to me, news that my Bilirubin has increased to 18.40, a totally unexpected thing. Seeing the expression of my face and hearing the words that I used, mother snatched the phone from me and talked to the doctor. There was a silent clamor in home. As my mom and dad rushed me to the doctor, or possibly to the hospital; the doctor has advised me to consult a liver specialist. Mom, dad, uncle and I rushed to the doctor. Worry was etched in their faces. But somewhere in me I wanted to laugh maniacally, I always wanted to laugh ever since I got to know about this disease. We reached the doctor within few minutes, he handed us the report and told us the observation. He referred us to a liver specialist. We were there within next 10 minutes. We were not alone there, mom as already called my ‘mama’ and he was there with ‘mami’. ‘Mama’ was cool, but it was usual for ‘mami’. We took the appointment and waited for our turn.

The Doctor has already received the call from his professional colleague. He examined me, pressing my tummy at different points and made few observations. He then explained the type of jaundice I was suffering from, Acute Viral Jaundice, reason either Hepatitis B or E, follows a time period of 8-24 weeks to recover, virus takes its time. This type of jaundice makes a curve, at first stage it increases at a very fast pace, at second stage it stabilized at a higher point and at third stage it falls. There was no need for hospitalization, and it was required only if there are five symptoms, one was vomits, second heavy dizziness, third swollen legs and tummy, fourth red colored rashes in the body and fifth very high fever on a continuous basis. Luckily, I didn’t have any. He asked me to get myself checked for Hepatitis B and E. The next day report came, and he was right, it was Hepatitis E.

Here I would end my second part. Because after this, it is only rest and lectures. But my observations will be listed on third part.

To be continued….

Jaundice Days - Part 1

I must admit on the very onset that I have never felt like this before, never in my life I have suffered something of this magnitude. But once it had stuck, certainly it had taken a considerable part of my life from me. Never in my 24 years of my life (I turned 24 on September 29^th) I had spent so much amount of time in the bed, laying up to 22 hours a day, day after day for almost 30 days. Never in my life I have seen people becoming so much interested in color of my piss and shit. Never in my life I have received medication and food advices from such different coterie of people. Never in my life I have denied (and am denying) myself non-vegetarian food for such a prolonged period. And lastly I have never thought that I would have to stop drinking tea. Timing would not have being so inappropriate, on the verge of September with oncoming festive season, I was down, with my liver and to some extent with my life.

It was mid August when I started to have problem with my stomach; indigestion and gas were the main culprits. I usually rely on homeopathy, so I did. But devil kept showing up with newer faces, sometimes with stomach ache and sometimes with a burning sensation whenever I eat something. It was August 14^th when my good friend first told me that my eyes were turning pale, I didn’t take him seriously at that time, why would eye? Because with the same breadth he came to accusing his office colleague being suffering from swine flu (which was only a rumor). However, I kept experiencing things I haven’t experienced before, for the first time I didn’t felt to relish a well cooked mutton on August 15^th. A week went, I did consult the homeopath, but it was Saturday August 22^nd when I felt there is seriously something wrong with me.

During the week preceding August 22^nd, twice I went down for a walk, but both of the times after coming back I crashed on the bed only getting up after at least half an hour of rest; a thing unusual of me. But it was that Saturday which really spilled the beans. I had to accompany my grandfather to his old office. He was really adamant with this; otherwise the old man was threatening to go alone. He is 86 years old, suffered three major strokes and is too frail than his previous self; but as it is said in old age you tend to act like a kid and he was doing the same, I had to go even if I was suffering from stomach ache. But the auto ride to and fro became the real eye opener. I almost lied down on my seat both the times, especially while I was returning could not move my hand from my tummy. After we arrived, I just collapsed on the bed. The very evening I called my friends so that they could accompany me to the market place. I just could complete the full round and returned half way. I was feverish and feeling too weak.

This was the moment when my good friend told my condition to his uncle and his uncle called me and ordered (yes, ordered as I do respect him a lot) me to get a jaundice check next morning. Next morning uncle and my friend accompanied me to the clinic for getting my blood tested. It was Sunday August 23^rd. I spent entire day on the bed. My friend fetched the report; it read Bilirubin has reached 14. Unable to decipher the result, I went to Tilak Nagar with my friend. An hour later I was back, by this time jaundice was proven, next day I have to visit the doctor.

To be Continued...

Happy Dusshera and Vijaya Dashami

First of all take my good wishes for Dusshera and Vijaya Dashami.

It's more than a month since I have last posted something. Jaundice has really taken me in. But now I will try to post more.

Thanks you all for your good wishes for my recovery. Biliruben is 3 now so it may me a week in which i will recover.

Anyhow I am still weak. But will get well for sure

Cheers and have a great festive season

Yellow Yellow Dirty Fellow

Yellow Yellow Dirty Fellow

Indeed the person in Yellow is a Dirty Fellow

That is why he seeped into me and made me bedridden for half a month atleast.

"Obstructive Jaundice" as the doctor have said, has being bothering me for two weeks now. Only able to detect it yesterday when a forced blood test prooved the biluremen levels in the blood is at 14 much higher than the normal range of 0.30-1.20

Therefore there would be no proper blogging for atleast 2 weeks.

God Bless You all

Yellow Yellow Dirty Fellow

Seeped into my blacky lever

Making me pale and mellow