Thread by @hyderabaddoctor

#reallife #story

1990: I was hospitalized with severe upper & lower back pain. Pain was so severe that I was bed-bound. It used to take 30 min to get down from bed & enter the washroom (no family member could attend on me).
I had just completed my first yr MBBS.
#MedTwitter

2. Doctors had started 4 different types of pain-killers, which were still ineffective in relieving my pain. To make matters worse, no definite diagnosis had been made. A senior Orthopedic surgeon was consulted to explore the option of giving steroid injection in affected joints.

3. He advised to wait for another two days for pain-relief to begin (15 days had passed without pain relief). Failing that, he would proceed with injections. As per his expectations, pain relief started on day 17.
In addition, HLA B27 returned positive confirming the diagnosis.

4. The cause of pain was #ankylosingspondylitis. With more pain-relief, I was ready for discharge after spending 23 days in hospital. Throughout hospitalization, no one from family could visit me (due to poor financial status of my parents). Moreover, I didn't inform them either.

5. I wanted my parents to spend that money on my younger siblings' education (what would have been spent on travel & hotel stay, if they had visited me).
I missed my family but that was not the most painful part of hospitalization. Doctors & nurses were excellent. What pained me>

6. The senior MD Medicine PG registrar who took care of me advised me to quit MBBS & consider alternative education/job, because as per his predictions, I would become severely disabled due to ankylosing spondylitis, making me unfit to take care of patients as a doctor (later on)

7. But I was ready to fight the disease (& disability), even though I was only 18-yr old then. I responded that the disability in AS is only physical & brain remains unaffected. I would do hospital rounds on wheelchair like Dr Mary Verghese, who was paralysed due to spinal cord+

8. injury. Dr Mary started the department of Physical Medicine and rehabilitation at CMC Vellore. I could not personally see her as she had passed away in 1986 (3 yrs before I joined CMC Vellore), but had heard about her inspiring story from my seniors.
@cmcvelloreoff

9. I continued to struggle with repeated back & joint pains, and inflammation in eye (uveitis), related to Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS). However, I was determined, and successfully completed my MBBS, MD Med and DM Neuro from CMC Vellore. I joined the neurology dep't as a faculty.

10. Fast forward to 2001:
During one of the morning ward rounds, I saw the same resident (who took care of me in 1990) come to me- "Dr Sudhir, do you remember me? I was practicing as a physician after MD, but now I want to sub-specialize and needed some training in Neurology"

11. I responded: "Yes, I remember you well & it would be our pleasure to train you in Neurology".
I also asked if he remembers his "advice" to me (of 1990). He smiled. I jokingly pointed out that I was much junior to him, but I could complete my DM before he could.

12. Moral of the story:
*Strong will power and positive frame of mind can help us win over disease or disability.
*One should avoid giving negative prediction about a disease, as the future course of the same disease may vary between different patients.