@PMR

   

 It was a "HARTAL DAY";Well,hartal day is as common as a sunday or monday in our state.(one of the reasons why it is called God's own country)no rush on roads,all shops closed,children celebrating a no-school day,office-goers relaxing-an unexpected holiday is always always  welcome!!
But that 'hartal day' was very different for me.For the first time ,i woke up early on a 'suppossed holiday'.And one thing to be noticed here is that I was very happy to do that which my mother observed was rather unusual.There comes the importance of P.M.R-Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation -A department which helped patients with disabilities to return to a normal life as far as possible..Only during our fourth year we have clinical postings there.And for the past two weeks I found it was most probably the best posting we ever had.The teachers were shockingly sincere that we decided to attend the class even on that Hartal Day..Each class was special,somehow the place was very dear to us.

When i reached,most of my friends have already come.A few dayscholars were absent  owing to the transportation problem.And that day we were very eager to see cases as our two weeks here were about to end.Sudhakar sir was explaining about the conditions and difficulties each patient had as we accompanied him.we reached the last bed of male ward .A patient was sitting there  on wheel chair.After enquiring about his health and prescribing some physiotherapy exercises sir turned to us.Let me show you a case of "SUDEX OSTEODYSTROPHY"Well,we have heard that difficult term during ortho posting many times but have never understood it fully.
"The patient is mentally not quite stable..a slight disorientation.so we didnt get a proper history.Anyway look at the peculiar position of his hands "sir said ,we turned towards the patient.His right paralysed hand was comfortably placed on the arm of his chair.On top of that hand he placed his left hand as if to protect the former..Then sir tried to separate his hands and the patient screamed -even a small touch could cause excruciating pain..!!
"It's one of the symptoms of sudex osteodystrophy" sir told us..our minds were filled with stories of all those people..life is strange...
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Next day morning Dayscholars arrived..They cursed the hartal day. "Oh we missed it ,a P.M.R class",Salwa
whimpered..Inside the dark scarf her beautiful face reddened..i could spot a tear in her lovely eyes..It was
tea-break. Shwetha and rest of hosteliers went to canteen..Dayskies were too sad to accompany them-I told all four of them(salwa,swapna,shikha and sitara)-surely it was a great loss for u..i dont know if it increased their sadness.Suddenly swapna jumped-i have an idea-"shreya,pls do us a favour.Before next session ward class begins,pls take us to the ward and give a brief account of yesterday's class."ok",i agreed.
we entered the male ward..i was leading the still  sad dayskies like a professor..we reached the last bed.there he was; sitting there  on wheel chair.His right paralysed hand was comfortably placed on the arm of his chair.On top of that hand he placed his left hand as if to protect the former.
"separation of hands will cause excruciating pain.Peculiar feature of sudex"i told my classmates..i even went on to deliver a shortlecture on sudex..i could see tht my classmates were really impressed..

"O.K we dont want to touch him ,we will just ask him about his discomfort"shikha said..she is always a very active girl."ok.Go ahead" i gave them permission..dont know why i acted like a teacher then.

"What's your discomfort,bro"swapna asked him softly  ..she always has a sweet voice..
"i cannot move my left shoulder" "What "- the girls cried in unison..i was not surprised..why should i?recollecting sir's words i smiled and told them that the patient was not mentally stable-"a slight disorientation,history was not proper"I hushed..repeating sir's words.

"oh..you have difficulty in moving your right hand also,ryt"swapna was gentler this time and more to the point."no,no, no problem at all and patient waved his right hand at us..This time I WAS SHOCKED...

After getting back to my senses i asked him slowly-"are you not Gopalakrishnan?"
No, madam..im Appukuttan,Gopal has gone downstairs for physiotherapy.."
Then only i realised my' handicap'-i cannot remember people's faces precisely..after all that i have said,the lecture,the description of patient's peculiar positioning of hands..i looked at my friends..those unfortunate ppl who witnessed all these..
My goodness.what happened rest,well you can imagine!!

The Insect,Shwetha and Me

It was April..The times when you look forward to in your school life,yes.. the summer vaccation!But it's not the same once you enter into college.Especially the medical college where you tend to forget what vaccation  means.. Time can never stop..It shall never rewind too..All we can do is to silently watch the happy childhood days slipping away from our lives..Its sad..but we can help preserve the little child within us..And its true that often the naughty little thing jumps out of your mind and make you do funny things..havent you ever noticed that?

So that April,we were having our gynaecology posting 2nd year..We had a separate  building for gync and paediatric sections-The place for all mothers and babies and we fondly called it the Mom-Babe hospital(MBH).One afternoon as usual after clinics i was walking down the corridors of 3rd floor with my friend,Shwetha.we could hear the MBH clock strike 12.it was lunch break.we had to go to college at 1pm for afternoon lecture.To save time we decided to go by lift.people rarely use the lift in this part of the building.We entered the lift and pressed 0.It slowly went down.I loved the feeling of weightlessness as the lift descended.After reaching the ground floor the lift opened and we stepped out.Suddenly shwetha screamed"There is something inside my dress,some insect..ouch!! its biting me..oohf!!!She tried shaking her dress but it didnt work.She jumped,squeezd her dress..i think she even did a few dance steps but in vain!

Suddenly i noticed a small dark room to our left.i asked her to just get inside this room and shake her dress properly."OK"relieved she stepped inside."oh!it's so dark here.I will switch on the light for you."i offered to help her."No, No,its ok yaar..let me close the door"shwetha was in a hurry..But i didn't like the idea of Shwetha alone in a dark room.So i pressed on the switch.and to our shock an ALARM went off ...The entire hospital  shrieked..We didnt know what to do..We could hear footsteps coming closer and closer..
Shwetha grabbed my arms and ran towards the lift..we entered  into it and pressed 5.It took us to 5th floor..we didnt get out.we again pressed 0 and went down.This process continued for a few minutes.By that time we have removed our white coats and put them in our bags along with stethoscopes.we even pleated our hair and disguised as ordinary people we stepped out once again as our lift reached the ground floor after it's tiring journey carrying two idiots up and down..!

As if nothing had happened we started walking towards the small room.We could hear a great amount of noise even from a distance.People were gathered near the room"someone had pressed the ALARM"The security was telling his chief.An old lady recollected seeing two medical students near the room a few minutes before..Who said old people have poor memory!!We tried to put an innocent face and moved slowly through the crowd.When we reached the scene we threw a stolen glance at the room..Alas!it was closed..In fact  a red ribbon  was tied to it..!!

Somehow we escaped from there.Once outside the hospital Shwetha started laughing..I did not know whether to laugh or not..
"What about the insect" i asked..
"It's GONE" she smiled

  Sure, things like this can happen because it was APRIL..!!

Is it Strange??

"It's strange."I said. Shwetha looked up from her pathology record,her eyes dazed by sunrays.We were on our way to pathology lab after a hectic afternoon lecture .A bit irritated she asked."What?Patho exam?"
"Everything is strange..Friendships,relations,This world and its people "-i replied."You are mad ,All poets are mad" and she laughed "im not a poet", i said slyly."You write some stupid poems,so you are one of those crazy people,now c'mn ,describe the histology of fatty liver.".I kept silent.The sun shone fiercly upon our white coats .maybe it radiated some anger to Shwetha too.She said"Listen final year is fast approaching and  I have heard it's not that easy.So we need to be a bit more serious about studies".I nodded and asked her to tell me some important points for the exam.I liked the way  she described things.We made up stupid stories and funny mnemonics to memorise even the most difficult medical terms.
Having a best friend is one of the pre-requisites to study medicine,i said to myself.

"Shreya..."i heard  someone calling my name.It was Susan standing there at the corridor of patho dept.She waved a hand at us.she was the most intelligent and hardworking girl in our class."your friend over there"-shwetha sneered.She always loathed my friendship with Susan.Too much girlish, but I liked to see her frown everytime Susan comes and talks to me .

And this day was no different from other days."Hello shreya,Hello shwetha,finished everything??"Susan came running as soon as we reached there.I smiled at her and to myself.I havent even completed half the portion let alone finish it!"Hello Susan"I heard shwetha's voice.It had an undue harsh tone whenever addressed to Susan."I guess this is your third revision" shwetha's sarcasm.Turning towards me she hushed "I will be waiting  downstairs.Do come fast for the last minute review of diagrams".I agreed."All the best Susan" she shouted before vanishing downstairs

I looked at Susan .Her rounded face was pink.ears were red.! It's strange how even the topper is tensed a few hours before exam"Shreya im really afraid..I haven't studied anything.This time i will fail "She was saying her usual anguish.I dont remember how many times she had told me the same thing even though she always won the Topper's medal for all the subjects every year.Really the world is strange with it's strange people.

With a light smile i held her hands and told her not to worry.I reassured her that her topper's medal was not going to leave her even if she wished to.It is addicted to you.I said and she laughed.After reading a paragraph from our text book -Robbins( which always brought the image of a lovely bird and nothing else to my mind whenever i think about it),i waved goodbye to Susan and rushed downstairs to meet shwetha.

With Shwetha the next 15 minutes were of intense study.Even the most difficult topics you can drive straight to your brains if it's just before exam.With loads of topic pending,hearts pounding we heard the bell."Do well"shwetha squeezed my hand as we asembled before entering into the hall."I hope your strange feeling is gone now."I simply looked at her.Sometimes You can never say how you feel..

Somehow 2 hours rushed past me.Finally I was out of the exam hall ."I got one of my spotters wrong."someone was saying..I was wondering how many spotters i could identify.i walked slowly towards the corridor.Shwetha was waiting for me there.Susan rushed past me.She never talks to me after an exam ..And that was another strange thing about her.As soon as she saw me Shwetha shouted "Could you identify the fatty liver""yeah,thanks" my eyes gleamed..
"Oh..Thank God,I thought  you were in a strange world when i was explaining that to you,my poetess".she said happily

Well,we all are in a strange world,Shwetha"-i smiled while we walked back from College
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a warm welcome 2 u ol.....

Unlike my other blogs this one is not for my poems :-)Rather its where you can hear stories ,most of which have characters which show a glimpse of me somewhere in them..but not always..:-) Here u can come across various shades of me..sometimes  in white coat and steth ,sometimes your own stupid little sherin who is mad about friendship,sometimes a very spiritual  person detached from worldly desires ..At other times an ordinary citizen, a child of this world with wonder filled eyes..Yet often u may also find the emotional ,,and sentimental being cuddled up in a world of her own ,caressing sweet memories....Each sherin is different yet the same..yes they are all me..!!So let me take you for a light walk down this lane of thoughts..ready?