2002
Jan
Fever stayed. The medical team continued to diagnose. Dr.Subbha Rao gave an extraordinary care to me and referred to the infectious disease specialist Dr. Bala Subramanian. He tried various possibilities for the causation of the fever but could not diagnose and therefore instructed me to undergo a Bone Marrow procedure – a kind of biopsy result gives reason for the blood disorders: if cancer or infection had spread to the bone marrow.
It was 5th Feb. The Surgeon carried out the procedure. He asked me to lie on my abdomen to a prone position, removed the skin, cleansed the area; injected a local aesthetic to numb the region. Later, he inserted an aspirate needle through the skin until it abutted the bone, applied a twisted motion; he advanced the needle through the hard outer layer of the bone into the marrow cavity, sucked out liquid bone marrow – took out a minuscule amount of bone, a tiny amount of fluid and cells from inside bone.
He had performed the twisting motion during the aspiration. The entire procedure took 30 minutes, and he sent the sample to the pathological lab. After the procedure, he asked me to lie flat for 10 minutes to provide pressure over the procedure site. The team observed some bleeding and therefore advised to lay another 30 minutes.
After that the Surgeon asked me to get up and go ahead with normal activities, but, I could not. I got a worsening pain, swelling and bleeding and became horribly sick. A kind nurse pat on my hand and forced to get up. She helped me to stand, assisted to walk and arranged for a quick discharge.
Following day was a dialysis day. I went to the hospital, but, could not step on the stair case to the upstairs. I sat in a wheel-chair and the hospital ward attendant pushed me to the dialysis unit. “I became a disabled man,” I guessed.
I felt severe pain in the hip; could not lie down nor sit on the cot. On dialysis, I requested for pain reliever. The team did not provide because I was with enough pain pills already.
I developed a negative thought that pathologist would come up and say, “It is a kind of cancer and perhaps the cells are gone berserk,” so that I could end up my life sooner and therefore I was anxious to see the histopathology report. I thought that I end my life in a natural way and so my people will be relieved from the misfortune. But, the pathology results seemed normal. In the meantime my sister came to Chennai again to complete the remaining tests relevant to the kidney donation.
She finished all the related tests, including nuclear renal study. It was a full match. However, the team advised not to undergo transplantation at the time of fever. Nephrologists explained the postoperative care complications, risks, fail ratio and organ rejection. The team asked me to wait, because, the fever was not settled. My sister went back to Coimbatore.