Prepare for the worst

A leach bite on the leg which had already been under surgical knives 8 times, took a dramatic turn, when he could not even think of placing his leg on floor, let alone walking. The leach was kind enough to give back an infectious secretion in return for the blood it sucked. The toes swelled so much that it began to crack. The panic spread across the family, each of them tried desperately to hide it from one another. He maintained an impassive face as we waited outside the doctor’s room. It was his turn next and I accompanied him to the room. Picking up the doctor’s cue, the nurse unwound the crepe bandage. Doctor’s eye brows creased as he saw it unwound. A chill ran down my spine. He directed to get my father admitted immediately. We did. A team of doctors, comprising dermatologist, Orthopedists, general surgeon and a general physician took turns to adjudge the cause-effect. After x-rays and few other scans, they decided to administer high dose antibiotics as injections. 4 times a day. As the doctor prescribed list of antibiotics, I heard my father’s feeble voice. “Please write a sleeping pill too with that. I did not have sound sleep for a week.”Nobody was aware of him going sleepless as he never practiced sharing pain. As days passed, reddishness in the toes darkened and it spread till the calf. Situation seemed turning from bad to worse. The panic level in family touched a height that we found it difficult to pretend. He looked still calm and composed.

I inquired with the doctor and he said “We are doing our best. Don’t even think of shifting him to another hospital. We need to do a trial and error method to see which anti-biotic would take effect.” I went back to room. Took my laptop and ran my fingers through the Google home page to find out what was going on. It worsened my fear and I slid back the laptop into my back pack.

On the 7th day, doctor told me that he is reacting positively to the drug administered the day before and that they are planning to continue that for a week. A positive news for the first time in last 10 days. Few more days and signs of recovery were seen externally.

On the day of discharge, when he was alone in the room, I asked “How could you be so calm and composed, even when you knew that the infection was not getting subsided in the initial days?” He retorted “When in fear, think of the worst that can happen. In this case, the worst is infection spreading to such a level that they will have to amputate the leg above the knee level. In such a case, even a false leg won’t help. I will have to walk the rest of my life with crutches.”

All I could do was to listen and I did. He continued “One of the greatest depressions in life is the fear of losing an organ, once you overcome that, there isn’t any fear left. I overcame the fear on second day. If you are prepared for the worst, things can only get better – nothing can destroy you then”. The last line lingered in my mind as I drove him back home in the car and he was ever so calm reading a news paper, one of the headlines of which read “Low marks - student attempts suicide”. I wish the hapless knew - “If you are prepared for the worst, things can only get better - nothing can destroy you then”