Two recent disruptions to my 'normal' life



I don't really consider myself as a 'patient'. I lead a pretty normal life - I work full time, I swim every day and I travel quite a bit. Apart from the nightly dialysis I undergo six times a week, seven hours each night, I am what you could safely call - normal!

But from time to time, issues do come up. That's how kidney disease is. Mind you, I did not say, 'that's how dialysis is'. Kidney disease is the problem, not dialysis. Dialysis is a partial solution to kidney disease! More on this in another post.

Coming back to the original point, kidney disease has this nasty habit of affecting every other organ cell in the body. So, time and again, something pops up that will bother me and need me to get it checked and possibly, treated. At these times, I need to become a 'patient' again! There are no two ways about it - I absolutely abhor those times!

A few months back, I had an itch in the left ear. I took a earbud and rubbed the insides of the ear. My hand however lost balance and the earbud went and hit the ear drum. I had intense pain for a few minutes. But I could feel that something had gone wrong inside and asked my aunt (who is a doctor) who recommended I put an antibiotic ear drop. I did that and the symptoms subsided only to reappear after a few days. I repeated this a couple of more times changing the medicine. No permanent relief. For the last couple of months, I have a crackling sound in my left ear. It can be very disconcerting! Also, it becomes very bad after I have skipped a night of dialysis.

My nephrologist, Dr. Girish Narayen, suggested I go and see an ENT specialist. So, I visited the clinic of Dr. Mohan Reddy, underwent an Audiometry and then the doctor concluded that I needed a week of antibiotics - Amoxicillin Clavulanate. That wasn't so bad. That drug has now become like my staple food. I take it so freakin' often. The bad part was that he asked me not to swim for a week! Gawd! How could that be possible, I thought? I mean, would I be able to live through the trauma? :-)

Well, that was that. The ear problem, hopefully, would be taken care of.

Then coming to the more bothersome problem - sensory motor peripheral neuropathy. Basically neuropathy is a common problem on long term dialysis patients. I will complete 17 years in a few days. That is l-o-n-g! So, neuropathy is to be expected. I would have expected it to be mild given that I am on daily nocturnal. However, it started off in 2008 mildly. My feet had become slightly numb. But six years on, my feet have started paining. So much so, that I find it difficult to walk freely. I consulted my nephrologist and he asked me to see a neurologist.

I went to meet Dr. Srikanth Jawalkar, at Yashoda Hospital, Secunderabad whom I had consulted in 2008 and he asked me to get my Nerve Conduction Studies done - a test to determine the condition of the nerves. I had a really tough time getting this test done. First, an unpleasant lady managing the test area, then the waiting for two and half hours followed by some senseless test technicians who shook their head and hands like there was no hope on seeing the monitor that showed the nerve conduction! I expected some bad results so wasn't worried but these dopes could kill an unsuspecting patient with their mindless actions!

Next day, I collected the report and met the neurologist. He confirmed that the nerves had quite a bit of damage. Nothing could be done about this. He did give me some medication however which he hoped would reduce the pain. He will review after three weeks.

So, again, that's that!

More than the actual diagnosis and treatment, what bothers me is the waiting, the dealing with the staff, the chaos at the hospitals, basically the entire 'patient' experience. This really needs a lot of patience. Whoever chose the word 'patient' to describe a sick person probably foresaw the future!

Comments

Nisha said…
Kamal...I quote he confirmed that the nerves had quite a bit of damage. Nothing could be done about this...this is really worrying.... Hope the medicines helped you ...in reducing the pain..