I totally forgot this blog exists! Yes it has been more than a year since I wrote something and surprise, life already moved to another version. FYI, it's my bday (7 Feb 2018) and am sitting at some corner of Rajasthan in middle of Thar desert, a small town called Barmer. I feel less arrogant and yet more confident like never before, super conscious about my sleep and nutrition. With realizations that am not invincible and my body is just like a machine, if not fueled and oiled properly its bound to give me a hard time. Below is the story that will tell how everything changed.
The Story
At times life takes a turn which changes you forever. Tough
times are essential for life as they leave back many learnings, and if a time
comes when the life itself hangs on a brink due to your mistakes, your
realizations are stronger and stays with you every moment. Something am writing
down, not because I want to talk aloud of my so called survival story (actually
it would be too much exaggeration as I wasn’t even hospitalized for a day), but
my point is just to share what I learnt during this time.
First the background (you’ll know why it’s important)
In May 2017 I headed for Ladakh and was there for about 10 days surveying villages, I came back, 20 days later I was there again, then came back in June and then
landed again on 1st July. July first week I was taking guests to my
homestays, trekked to the Sumda-Chun village. Last 70 odd days were a rush, I was very
casual about my food, I may have skipped many lunches and not to mention the
amount of distance I walked on the streets of Leh to book cabs or buying stuff.
This all apart from the 3 treks I lead and what followed next was Global
Himalayan Expedition 2017 where we trekked for 130km over 15 days with 16Kgs in my bagpack (including a camera and a telescope :P). Again I remained casual about
food and this time sleep as well.
Time for the icing on the cake, after the trek we were rafting in the ice-cold waters of Zanskar river when we were hit by a rapid, our boat capsized and I was in that gushing river. After being sucked in and out of 3 more rapids, I was almost backing-out so I started yelling. Finally rescued 15min later by a kayak. It wasn’t less than a mental trauma (I was crying, certain of some casualties!). With wet suits on, sun shining above, I was still shivering, and breathing hard, really hard, I was choking infact. I got rid of my helmet and life-jacket, but that breath took an eternity to be normal.
Time for the icing on the cake, after the trek we were rafting in the ice-cold waters of Zanskar river when we were hit by a rapid, our boat capsized and I was in that gushing river. After being sucked in and out of 3 more rapids, I was almost backing-out so I started yelling. Finally rescued 15min later by a kayak. It wasn’t less than a mental trauma (I was crying, certain of some casualties!). With wet suits on, sun shining above, I was still shivering, and breathing hard, really hard, I was choking infact. I got rid of my helmet and life-jacket, but that breath took an eternity to be normal.
I wasn’t alone, 2 boats with 16 people went down that day
but against my apprehensions, thankfully everyone was rescued. And it was now time to continue, for another
30mins till we reach the island where we were to camp tonight. “No more rapids” is what the rafting
leader said, and honestly even I couldn’t take one more.. but minutes later our boat capsized again, in
that gushing stream and this time I was below the boat, as I didn’t want to
leave it, but I had to else I would have drowned. I was in water but on that capsized boat I
was pulled up with 4 others. Cannot forget that face of Ayush who was also
holding the ropes, the only lifeline we had on the boat, not a word exchanged. Every
passing rapid was scary as we didn’t had any control. In all that chaos we managed to shift to another boat, and finally it was over
and we were on the island.. We now gauged the damage, 3 people had hyperthermia, the food/camps boat was okay.. our paramedic was on his toes.. a fire was made, hot soups served, but it was an anxious night, everyone scared.. I had a fever
that night and next morning we had to do an unplanned trk across a mountain pass to reach the nearest road (no one was ready to raft). We stayed for a night in a random village that had a satellite phone.. our pickup arrived next morning and we were finally back in Leh, somehow in one piece. 10
days later I came back to plains, supposed to be back again in Ladakh 2 weeks later to lead another expedition,
but wait this life will change and all plans will fall apart.
The real story
I was in Punjab with my family, just here for a couple of
days before I head for Delhi. That night on 3rd Aug, it was about 3am, I had a severe
pain in my chest, I thought it’s a heart attack :P I could hardly breathe but I
did not bother anyone. It was only in the morning I asked my family to take me
to doctor, I couldn’t even talk. Our most trustworthy family doctor did the
right things I guess, first a chest X-ray and a blood test, but everything
looked normal. Assuming just a muscle sprain, he gave few painkillers. The pain
subsided, but was back few hours later. I held on it, applied ointments but I
had sleepless nights. 2 days later we consulted another doctor, he looked at
reports, some stronger pain killers, but what then followed was one of the
worst night of my life. Not going in details, but I needed proper diagnosis of
what was happening. As I caught fever now, this time we went to a pulmonary
specialist who suggested an ultrasound. I was finally happy, in a different way
though, to be diagnosed that something was wrong with my lungs. There was a
fluid there, technically it’s pleural effusion.
This doctor was a total a**hole. Though he was able to diagnose something, he
was too arrogant to tell me why that fluid was there and why I am on a 10 days
course of antibiotics. He did not even used the word infection, and worst he suggested
no precautions and diet (see my
review on Dr.Dinesh). His meds helped from day one, but I didn’t wanted to
walk on a blind path, so I consulted another pulmonary guy, this time from a
reputed hospital, SPS Apollo. Dr.Sikri was polite, young and told this effusion
is either due to pneumonia or TB or in a rare case, a tumor. He reviewed the
meds and asked me to continue for 1 week and then do another X-ray. A week
passed, I had no pains and I ate normal food. The new x-ray was better so he
suggested me to discontinue all the meds and I was happy with my recovery.
Two days later I had severe pain again in my chest, I called
up the Dr.Sikri but he said just take a paracetamol and rest. But it didn’t
help so I went for a check-up to Dr.Dinesh again and this time again in his
arrogance (which was more coz I went to another doctor), he prescribed his meds
for a month. Antibiotics for a month is the most ridiculous think I could get
from a pulmonary specialist, I know the harm it does and I was in contact with
a specialist in Mumbai (Dr.Karuna, grandmother of a close friend). She also
suggested, not to take so much antibiotics else I’ll develop resistance to it.
Still not able to figure out the reason of the pain plus it was getting worse
each day and I was losing weight (59Kgs I never saw in 10 yrs). Dr.Sikri, my
kind doctor this time suggested a CT scan which revealed a clot inside my lung
which need to be sampled. A small procedure (according to him), in which
they’ll put a needle in the lung and take a sample. The lung may deflate in the
process so I may have to be hospitalized for a couple of days till it recovers
back. I was again happy, in a different way though, that I have been diagnosed
finally and whatever it is, atleast can be treated.
At the brink
Before going through the procedure I had a call with
Dr.Karuna in Mumbai. When heard about the procedure, technically a needle biopsy of
lung tissue, she explicitly told me to leave these stupid doctors and meet
her known specialist at Bombay hospital. As per her suggestion it’s an
unnecessary procedure that may lead to lung collapse, also called pneumothorax,
and create a medical emergency.
So the flights were booked, and in that stress, especially
my family who were thinking what’s happening with their son, we were to leave
for Mumbai on 28th Aug. First to drive to Delhi, we woke at 03:00 am
and while I was still on bed my mom was getting the breakfast ready and father
was doing his prayers. That’s when I told, I can’t travel, cannot even move a
step, am too weak. My dad called our landlord uncle and he suggested to take me
to emergency of DMC hospital, one of the oldest in the city. I was apprehensive
as my last visit was not so good and had heard all kind of stories, all bad
ones. But here I met my savior, Dr.Sandeep Puri.
At last a good doctor
Funny developments as we entered the emergency of the
hospital and I was asked to lie down on a stretcher. The stretcher rolled in
and a bunch of doctors, mostly young students, surrounded me and checked my
vitals. They couldn’t find any problem and asked me what’s wrong with you? I
told my story and they said you need not to be admitted, you can just meet
Dr.Sandeep in OPD :P
A 4 hour wait and finally we got a chance to meet him. I loved
the way he dealt with me. I told my story and showed all reports. He did a
thorough checkup of my chest and abdomen with his hands and stethoscope and he
said everything is fine with my lungs. I told about my falling weight, fatigue
and chest pains, he gave meds for a week and recommended a few blood tests, and
most importantly the Mantoux test to rule out TB (why no one earlier did
that!). When I asked about the clot in my lung, and biopsy, he said no need to
touch that (I’ll tell later what was happening). Two day later when all reports
came, there were no complication added and the meds were to be continued for
15days before next appointment. A hiccup happened about 3 days later when
suddenly at night I was sweating and shivering, almost felt I’ll collapse. As
it was late night, parents called up our family doctor and he just asked to
have soda lime water and relax. It really helped and then we me the doctor
again who prescribed a different set of meds this time.
Again felt normal for a few days but some mornings were bad;
weakness, fatigue and shivering. Then I had these episodes weekly and this is
how September passed.
And it was October, never felt better during the first 15
days, so I DISCONTINUED THE MEDS (I still regret doing that). Then came the bad
days again, full day fatigue, sweats and shivers. Dr.Sandeep was surprised by
my decision to discontinue drugs (I couldn’t help, 2.5 months of drugs was
something I wasn’t used to). He had to increase the dose and this time I did a
research about the drugs I was own. Those episodes of shivering and sweats were
nothing but anxiety attacks and I was on drugs to help me out from that. It was
a setback for me as I never expected to be on such a medicine, and as I
researched more, the course may last for years.
So it’s 23Jan 2018, and am still on these drugs. The dose
have reduced and the next checkup is in March, but am happy, leading a normal
life. In December I did my first hike after months and about 75Km total
distance in my walks since Dec. No more anxiety episodes since and am able to
focus on my work, a different outlook and level of energy I can say. And yea, I
weigh 75Kgs now, I never saw that in life :P
And today is my birthday, somewhere it looked bleak
to reach here so I pledged a tree for each day i’ll live. Yesterday I planted 200
trees in Barmer (Rajasthan) with help of SankalpTaru NGO.
So what was happening (Long story short)
3 months rush of to and fro travel (from May to July)
between Ladakh and Delhi, add to it the irregular and random food, add to it
the exertion of about 200+ Km of trekking in the low oxygen of cold desert, plus
the stress of handling my tourists and running around in Leh to book cabs and
hotels. Icing on the cake was the double capsize in the extremely cold Zanskar
river. All in all, I was on really low immunity and my lungs took a lot of
stress, hence vulnerable to any infection. Bad luck it was Streptococcus pneumoniae
the most common bacteria that causes pneumonia (I may have contracted the same
bacteria on some other day and my immunity would have taken care without me
even noticing, but it was wrong timing).
Well pneumonia is serious stuff, the bacteria attacks the
lungs tissue causing the alveoli (oxygen-absorbing areas of the lung) filling with fluid. This
is bad news as you will not be able to breathe properly. In response our
immunity produces more fluid (neutrophils) further impairing of oxygen absorption
by lungs. In my case the fluid entered the pleural region causing inflammation
of the pleura membrane, hence the severe pain. If not diagnosed and treated in
time, things can go really wrong. Not going into details and the immunity
response is usually also accompanied by high fever, shortness of breath and
cough which didn’t happen in my case.
If you contracted it you should really just rest and let the
antibiotics do its work. Any workout is detrimental as your immunity is low
already fighting a serious infection. Even if you try, the chest pains and
shortness of breath will stop you. I was diagnosed but was not told anything
else (in fact the word pneumonia was not said). After just 2 days of
antibiotics and painkillers I was feeling amazing and walking for about an hour
everyday (I guess 4-5Kms). Since I was on strong pain killers (read about
voveron), there was no pain hence I was not aware of the damage I was doing to
myself.
A week later I was out of pneumonia, so need not to take any
more antibiotics. But since I left the pain killers as well the pain came back,
this time worse and not limited to only the inflamed pleura, in fact the entire
chest and upper body muscles.What was needed now was just rest and some painkillers. But
what my very knowledgeable doctors prescribed was
Dr.Dinesh: Another month of antibiotics! L
Dr.Sikri: a needle biopsy of lung! L
But the CT scan did showed a scar in my lung, so Dr.Sikri
was right? No! scarring in lung can happen after pneumonia which will diminish
with time and lung functioning will return to normal.
And the last bit, the anxiety episodes I was having I could
only relate it to the mental stress I was through, especially being a
no-medicine person and a workout freak, who was forced to be on bed for a first time and take so many meds, that too for months (that's too long for me) plus these docs prescribed for biopsy and shit. The mental trauma was too much for me I guess. Still
no complete answer to it, but good news is I feel perfect now. Last 3 months
have been amazing and frankly speaking I now think it wasn't a big deal, just a disease that can happen to anyone, just that I was consulting some amateur and stupid doctors :)
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It's 1 July 2018, am in Leh since a month now. I am no more taking any medicines. Geared up for another expedition this month.. :)
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It's 1 July 2018, am in Leh since a month now. I am no more taking any medicines. Geared up for another expedition this month.. :)
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