Medicine madness

Ya so right after I posted about my husband’s illness, my son fell sick. With cold, high temperatures and an ear infection. He recovered enough to celebrate his birthday and as if on cue got another infection the very next day. He was on anti biotics for 3 straight weeks. When he got better it was my turn for high temperatures. We are a close knit family you see, we do everything together. In sickness and in health.

I don’t want to jinx it by declaring we all are well now. I have not completely recovered yet. So there…are you happy now viral? are you? are you? Are you loving it to see our misery? I am sick and tired of making calls to the hospital and taking anti biotics.

Reading has taken a back seat and I have a huge pile of books on  my stand. My parents have spent most of their time here nursing our illnesses with very little time left for site seeing. Nothing good has come out of the past month and it is perhaps the worst month I spent here in Edinburgh. Hopefully summer will be better with better weather and better health.

Unofficial emergency – the Cold war

We have a dire situation at home. Hubby has got common cold. In such situations, I am a witness to gory sights which I have never witnessed before.

When hubby catches common cold, the situation is alarming and it usually results in undertaking extreme and desperate measures to control the awful (!) illness.

The mucus turns into solidified rocks which blocks the two openings of the volcanic mucus mountain. Frantic measure are then undertaken to make this mountain erupt.

I try to take a deep breath and will myself to be calm. Perhaps I am being insensitive and I do not understand the gravity of the situation. I just think he has got cold. In situations when he catches the cold, the otherwise calm, resilient and macho Buddha turns into a touchy, vulnerable, noisy stranger.

Every few hours or is it minutes? the stranger sniffs, growls, uses swear words and cries mummy. Literally. He has long given up on tissues and handkerchiefs and is now using the fleece baby blankets that I had got 2 years back for my son.

This is a disaster of epic proportions, mind you. The invincible macho-man, Saint, as I usually prefer calling him has turned into a giant-cry-baby.

And this is not the worst part of the situation. The worst part is I am not supposed to laugh at the comical drama that is unfolding.

Alternatively, medicines, Ayurvedic and antibiotics, home-made soups, steam, vicks, sleep and phone calls to mumma dearest will help him traverse the rocky lava journey.

PS: On reading this post I am not sure who will fire me the most…hubby or FIL. Nevertheless, I couldn’t help posting it.

Today I am..

 

Can it get any worse?

Health updates

I have been dying to get to this post for the past couple of days. The son is fine. Well, almost. The endless crying sessions have stopped ans so have the no-food-for-entire-day. He is not yet up to his complete diet but is catching up on it pretty fast.

The colour is back in his cheeks and also the lustre of his skin. Our appetite is directly proportional to his, the more he eats, the more hungry we feel. This is going to be a short post as I type with my right hand and hold him with my left.

So long then. Have a healthy new year!

All is well

This blog is not dead and I am alive and kicking. The lack of posting is due to a bad attach of virus, on me, not the computer silly. But I am up again now and will be posting up more delightful details about my christmas and new year’s trip. The house is in a mess given my ill-health and now am nursing hubby and son back to health. Yea, they caught the flu too.

So pray for us. Many thanks.

PS: Happy new year to you all!

One hell of a weekend

So much has happened over the weekend. The mind is exhausted and me needs some serious sleep though I have slept through the night for 10, no 11 hours straight. Anyway, in my last post, when I was typing away to glory and patting my back in between sentences, I forgot to mention that hubby had informed me that the guest won’t be having dinner on Friday since he would come late at night and would have had food on the way.

Wrong! so so wrong! Late Friday evening, hubby announced that the guest would be having a full meal. The next 10 minutes were spent in arguing of course. Hubby was adamant that he had said so specifically last night and I was sure he hadn’t mentioned it. As I rushed to the kitchen and started banging opening shelves to check if there’s any leftover food that I can cook, hubby sheepishly admitted that he had forgotten this small little detail. Now I know why MIL asks him the same questions 101 times to make sure his answers are the same. Anyway, hubby was pinned down with angry sideways glances the whole time I cooked. Luckily, for me, when the guest arrived, he was quite famished and gulped down whatever I had cooked.

On Saturday, they both went out – boys day out I guess to roam the all of Edinburgh and feel the autumn. Another day for me with Shantanu, laptop and the toys. And it was sunny for most part of the day! Yay! Funny how seeing the sun shine brings a smile on my face. Anyhow, all was well and me had lots of time to cook and clean.

Wonder how you do some things instinctively? Or is it the sixth sense. I prepared some huge quantities of food all that I cooked, most certain that it wont be consumed in one meal.

Sunday started with a very cranky Shantanu. He usually isn’t cranky except when he is hungry or sleepy. That’s it. He had his morning feed quite reluctantly, which is surprising. And then for the next hour he kept crying and crying and crying. He just won’t stop. This was very weird and the last time he did this was when he was four months old and had his vaccination. He didn’t cry much during the later vaccinations. After crying for this long, he got exhausted I think and went to sleep for another couple of hours, which is again weird. Then when he woke up, he refused to have his feed. Very Very weird. And then the fever got him. Before rushing him to the doctor, sometime in between, I prepared breakfast from the left over food last night. Remember, the sixth instinct?

Till the time we made an appointment with the doc, both hubby and I were on the phone, almost all the time. He with the hospital doc and me with the ghar ka doc. Not that I really needed any moral support, it’s just that in situations like these, common sense takes off and you don’t think of simple things. Aunt, grandma and mom suggested a couple of things, and yes, I need to call all three and when they suggested the same things and gave the same advice I decided to follow it.

The doc assured us that it was only viral and we shouldn’t be worried, just had to keep him on paracetamol and let them know if the fever doesn’t subside. He slept till evening and wouldn’t take any feeds. Only at night when he felt a bit better did he have some food. He slept through the night without any temperature and is back to his normal self since morning now.

Did I not ask you god, not to jinx it since I mentioned what a wonderful child he is? Anyway, we shall deal with that later. As Shantanu slept for most of the day yesterday, the drawers in the kitchen stayed shut, the toys weren’t punched, the wires and switches lay still, the papers were not torn to pieces and the house was quiet, very quiet. It was then that the dullness of it all hit us with force.

I keep wishing that Shantanu grows up fast so that all this mess would stop. Not anymore. All this mess is what my life is all about now. And from today morning, the order in the chaos is restored.

The day I had a heart attack

Image Courtesy: http://www.gettyimages.com

I obviously survived it since am here to tell the tale.

You somehow know it when the time comes. It happened yesterday afternoon. After two weeks of having “me time” while kiddo slept, yesterday I finally gave in to the temptation and decided to nap with my son. Loaded with an entire week’s tiredness, I fell into deep slumber the moment my head hit the bedpost pillow.

It must be after about an hour’s sleep that I felt heaviness in my chest. I dismissed it from my mind and went on dreaming about paani puris and vada paavs that I am missing here. But the pressure only kept increasing. 

Suddenly I found it hard to breathe. I started sweating in my sleep. I found it hard to wake up maybe due to excessive hogging. Alarm bells sounded in my head and I wondered how would I contact my husband and who would take care of the kiddo till that time.

I had also become immobile. I was not able to shift to my side, nor raise my hands. Was it a paralysis attack? I shuddered in my sleep.

When I got a tight slap across my right cheek I let out a contended sigh imagining it must be the emergency medical team who had come to my rescue miraculously. Afterall it’s UK, must take much less time to travel than in Mumbai. Someone from the team must have slapped me wake me up. They must be using some emergency medical procedures on me to restore circulation of oxygen and blood to my system.

I would be alright again in some time. I sent up a silent prayer. Somehow I couldn’t hear any commotion. Isn’t there like a whole big team coming across in such situations?

Only after the second resounding slap across my right cheek again, did I open my eyes to see Shantanu sitting on my chest with his hand raised to slap me again. 🙂

Vent

It was one of those days that I want to take out from my life. It was pathetic. It was depressing. It was horrible.

I reached late at office.

I had to attend an impromptu client call, which lasted long.

I left late from office.

The traffic was unbelievable; add to it, loud honking, pollution and hot air coming through the window.

I reached home at 10 by which time I was dead-tired, famished and irritable.

There was shooting pain in my back. I took medicine but no effect. Guess my body has become immune to those pain-killers by now.

My husband had a client call from 11 to past 12; I don’t know how long it lasted that kept me awake past midnight.

I woke up today still half-asleep tidying up and trudging along like a zombie. I have dark circles around my eyes.

My condition now is such that am not fully aware and not asleep; am stuck somewhere in between.

I have a terrible headache and body ache.

I have loads of work, which I have to deliver today.

I am feeling annoyed with anything and everything.

My brain has turned into a ticking bomb, which at the slightest provocation will go off, and whoever is in front of me will be at the receiving end of my uncontrolled temper.

I hate the world and everything in it.

I need therapy.

Net-a-dicted?

Do you wake up at 3 in the morning to check your mails? Do you get depressed if none of your on-line buddies are on-line? Do you have this obsessive compulsive urge to be on-line all the time? If yes, then don’t be shocked to find yourself diagnosed as an Internet-addict.

An article says that compulsive e-mailing and text messaging could soon become classified as an official brain illness. The American journal of psychiatry says that Internet addiction such as email/text messaging, excessive gaming and sexual pre-occupations is a compulsive impulsive disorder that should be added to psychiatry’s official guidebook of mental illness. Like any other addiction, the symptoms include urges, cravings, withdrawal and tolerance which can be satisfied with only better software and more Internet hours.

Some research says that Internet addiction is in its infancy. However, how do doctors evaluate when the normal becomes obsession? This addiction would be more prevalent in the educated and the introverted who tend to spend most of their waking hours alone glued to their PCs or laptops.

The more important question here is, does this spending of long hours on the net affect your life and if yes, how? If the so called addicts do not get their expected dose of the net, does it affect them mentally and emotionally? How are they likely to react then?  

Though I believe most of the time spent on-line is unproductive. It is spend predominantly in checking mails, chatting, and browsing websites. However, there is no fixation on one thing entirely. The attention of the on-line user wanders and excess wandering can very well lead to ADD.

In today’s frenzied world, we have come a long way from the one-thing-at-a-time to multi-tasking. By and large, the outlook of man has also changed. The carefree and laid back way of doing things is replaced with multi-tasking. The whirlwind of activities that one is required to complete in a day has led to low attention span and hyperactivity.

To shelter from all the stress, anxiety, tension, worry, strain, pressure of performance and competition that one faces in everyday life, one seeks refuge in the secluded world of the Internet where one can loose himself entirely and even anonymously.

The positive side of travelling

Yesterday evening, I again spent 2 and a half hours travelling. It was pure torture. The constant honking and the pollution was getting on my nerves. To add to this, the driver wanted to listen to the radio full on which further added to already rising anxiety.

Finally, I plugged in my iPod, tied my favourite scarf and tried to get some sleep. Sleep…aah, how very relaxing that was. The only good thing that I find in all this traveling is the amount of sleep I get to catch up on. It’s not like the deep slumber of night. It’s light, often interrupting but alas..it is sleep!

Now, I look forward to the traveling in the car to get some sleep while listening to the soft songs in the background, and gather my thoughts for the day and make up my mood. After marriage, life had become suddenly fuller with no time or space for me. This traveling time is time alone with me; to reflect on the day that passed, to muse, to feel serene, and to take in the morning sunshine, to feel the cool air, to just relax and be me! I like it most when one of my favourite songs plays on the radio channel and I keep humming along. It is pure bliss!