I as a person am an atheist however I am very religious in following certain things ...those days it was being fit and Not having a paunch.....it was towards October end in the year 2000 when I thought that I was putting on weight rapidly...ergo I took out my tummy trimmer and would very religiously exercise every evening ....there was a district party coming up and I did not want to look bloated during Diwali time when we would be going to the in-laws place ....or I would get to hear loads about losing weight ... nothing seemed to help ....winter had set in as the TEs have a lot of tree cover and since it was a very remote place with a huge river near the bungalow ...it was very cold ...specially early in the mornings .... ergo the car would choke up and I would push the car to start it ...that took a lot of energy and I was doing so to expend the energy ....I even took to walking in the bungalow compound soon after the help left for the evening ....to lose the paunch ...
usually I lose weight as fast as I put it on ....not this time though .... and I was beginning to get worried ....I told the senior factory assistant's wife about it and she asked me if I was constipated ....I told her I never had any issues of that kind .... she had advised me to go off the pill in August as I was beginning to get worried about the effect those pills were having on me .... those days I had just come to know that my elder sister was having a baby in May end 2001 and I had planned to go to Pune then ...to be with her and help with the new born ....
on the Diwali party day while dressing to go to the club which was at quite a distance from the estate.... I was wondering if I had some illness as my neck had turned darker than usual ....I wondered if I had some hormone imbalance due to the pills I had taken ....when I voiced my doubts to the senior assistant's wife ...she said do not worry the effects if any ...will go off in a few days and she forbade from taking them ever again ....to and fro from the club I was getting strange cramps in my stomach ....I had never got such weird cramps before .... then I realised I had started liking 'dal' specially with lemon juice and I wondered What was wrong ....dal is something I used to not like one bit ...I rarely ate dal and made it only because it is a very traditional part of the meal in Assam ..... when I started feeling nauseous in the mornings and puked three mornings in a row ....I sent the husband to town to buy 3 pregnancy kits ....all 3 came positive and the husband freaked out ...as he was sure he did not want a baby just yet ...
on the Diwali party day while dressing to go to the club which was at quite a distance from the estate.... I was wondering if I had some illness as my neck had turned darker than usual ....I wondered if I had some hormone imbalance due to the pills I had taken ....when I voiced my doubts to the senior assistant's wife ...she said do not worry the effects if any ...will go off in a few days and she forbade from taking them ever again ....to and fro from the club I was getting strange cramps in my stomach ....I had never got such weird cramps before .... then I realised I had started liking 'dal' specially with lemon juice and I wondered What was wrong ....dal is something I used to not like one bit ...I rarely ate dal and made it only because it is a very traditional part of the meal in Assam ..... when I started feeling nauseous in the mornings and puked three mornings in a row ....I sent the husband to town to buy 3 pregnancy kits ....all 3 came positive and the husband freaked out ...as he was sure he did not want a baby just yet ...
on 3rd Nov 2000 ...the day I turned 29 I went to town for a treat and to get a blood test done as I was not sure about things ....the town the husband grew up in was close to the estate and we decided to go meet the gynaecologist who delivered the husband ...he is a very kind gentleman and an excellent doctor ...he checked me and confirmed the news and gave me a few blood tests to run .... the roads in the Tea Estate are kind of non existent and travelling to town meant a lot of jerks and bumps due to a mud road battered by constant and heavy rains ... ergo I used to go to meet the gynaecologist rarely ...my BP was checked by the tea estate doctor ....
I had developed an insatiable craving for all things sour ...lemons, pomelos, pickles and all things savoury and salty and could not stand non vegetarian food ...in Assam, there is a belief that if a lady is carrying a girl child ...she tends to like sour food ..... along with the sour food I was taking in quite a bit of salt too ...one day I decided to cure an earthen vessel for cooking and was squatting for quite some time ...I was 5 months pregnant then and developed terrible spams in the evening ...the garden doctor and the senior assistant and his wife and the doctor's wife all reached to check and help ....my BP was normal however the garden doctor said I should go for a blood test in town the next day ...I was also consulting a gynec in Pune my hometown .... the next day when I called him from town ...he insisted I get my BP checked ....that was my first Mega Scare ....my blood pressure was at danger levels and the minute the doctor in Pune heard it he asked me if I was eating something different than normal and I told him about my diet...he said stop eating excess salt and cut out pickles .... and he put me on a drug for my blood pressure ...he told my husband how both the baby and I could have had a major brush with death if I had been even a day late as I was displaying quite a few symptoms of being a borderline case based on what he had discussed with me ....since nearly a month ....that was a like a cold water wake up call
I started eating moringa leaves on a daily basis from that very day .... choosing food wisely became very important to me and I stopped eating potato chips totally ....have never gone back to eating them like I used to .... the garden doctor put in an order for a new BP checking device....however I remember discussing how the ladies who plucked leaves on the estate .....Never had any complications like the wives of executives seemed to have ....ergo we were so very Fragile compared to them ...
when I came to Pune the doctor insisted I join the ante natal class as I had no clue about anything ....that helped me quite a bit ...however in the 8th month I developed rashes all over and I had to go through all kinds of tests ...starting from German measles to the Rh factor ....nothing showed up ...my childhood neighbour told me that she too had this rash during her pregnancy and that it was harmless in her case ....what I missed totally was the fact that Aunty is hypothyroidic ...and checking my thyroid levels is one test my gynaecologist missed too ...
my baby was due on 30th June and on 3rd July a girl from my antenatal class decided to go in for induction and I asked my doctor if I too should try that ...he told me what it involved and then agreed as the husband's leave was getting over and he had to leave in 10days time ....I went in for induction on the 4th of July however that day since I was in the air-conditioned labour room ....from 8am in the morning by 3pm when the doctor went down for a smoke I had my second brush with Death.....
and it was by far the scariest experience on a hospital bed for me ....the cold of the air conditioning got to me and I started something that is called Rigor which is a sudden feeling of cold with shivering ...however in my case it was just like a scene out of a horror movie ...I was shivering sooo very much and so hard that I was levitating off the narrow delivery bed ... the matron who was there for a round got so scared she called for blankets and came and held me down ....that moment I got this feeling ....ohh this is IT ...maybe I was not destined to see my baby or live anymore ....I decided to Breathe in the way ...they taught us in class ....slowly my body temperature started becoming Ok with the hot water bottles on me along with the blankets ...
and it was by far the scariest experience on a hospital bed for me ....the cold of the air conditioning got to me and I started something that is called Rigor which is a sudden feeling of cold with shivering ...however in my case it was just like a scene out of a horror movie ...I was shivering sooo very much and so hard that I was levitating off the narrow delivery bed ... the matron who was there for a round got so scared she called for blankets and came and held me down ....that moment I got this feeling ....ohh this is IT ...maybe I was not destined to see my baby or live anymore ....I decided to Breathe in the way ...they taught us in class ....slowly my body temperature started becoming Ok with the hot water bottles on me along with the blankets ...
after a bit when everything was back to normal ...the doctor walked in and decided to take me off the drip and medication I was having for induction ....plus he made me eat .... I was Ravenous and talked only after I had half the meal ....then I was laughing about the exorcist sort of scene which scared the Matron too ...and I too thought this was IT ...the husband was crying and my parents guilty that they were not there when something scary happened ....
the next morning I was taken in for induction again with two blankets on me ....by 5.30 pm ...I was delirious with pain as the gaps between contractions were nearly not there and all I could do was howl in terrible Constant pain and hunger too ...as in the last 48 hours I had had ...only one meal which was an early dinner the day before .....the machine reading the pain levels was going into hang mode too ....plus the most scary part being ....the machine monitoring my baby's heart beat started worrying the resident who called the doctor and after a bit he ordered an emergency C-section ....
there on the operating table I remember feeling sooo awful as I thought I had urinated in my pain ...I started apologising to the doctor who told me ...chill that is your water bag bursting and I thought ....faux pas et moi !!!!!!.... then the spinal epidural would not take effect ....(even GA wears off faster than usual for me) .... they could not wait as the baby was in distress and at 7.26pm when they poked me and asked which feet that was ...I moved the relevant feet and I could hear them all gasp ...the paediatrician had reached and was sounding very worried about my baby ...the gynaecologist told me the risk to my baby and said he is going to start the operation and not to scream or move too much as I might have some sensation which would go off in a few seconds or a minute at most ....I could feel the blade touching me and the feeling of being cut open ....then at 7.30pm the excitement of seeing my baby for the first time was exhilarating !!!! ....I saw him pee on the paediatrician and it was in a fountain form and remember feeling happy and weird too ....by then my body had started twitching Involuntarily to the pain and since it was getting difficult for the team operating ...the last thing I remember is the doctor telling someone to start GA and in some time I was totally off ....
there on the operating table I remember feeling sooo awful as I thought I had urinated in my pain ...I started apologising to the doctor who told me ...chill that is your water bag bursting and I thought ....faux pas et moi !!!!!!.... then the spinal epidural would not take effect ....(even GA wears off faster than usual for me) .... they could not wait as the baby was in distress and at 7.26pm when they poked me and asked which feet that was ...I moved the relevant feet and I could hear them all gasp ...the paediatrician had reached and was sounding very worried about my baby ...the gynaecologist told me the risk to my baby and said he is going to start the operation and not to scream or move too much as I might have some sensation which would go off in a few seconds or a minute at most ....I could feel the blade touching me and the feeling of being cut open ....then at 7.30pm the excitement of seeing my baby for the first time was exhilarating !!!! ....I saw him pee on the paediatrician and it was in a fountain form and remember feeling happy and weird too ....by then my body had started twitching Involuntarily to the pain and since it was getting difficult for the team operating ...the last thing I remember is the doctor telling someone to start GA and in some time I was totally off ....
when I came to ...it was late night and I could see that my child had wrinkled skin like an elderly person and a spot on his head which had a bit of hair in a matted way with blood congealed to the hair ....and I was later informed of how my baby had gone into distress due to lack of space for him to manoeuvre himself from below the pelvic bone and the matted small spot was his head hitting the pelvic bone ....his parameters were all perfectly fine and he had this really awe struck look everytime I spoke ....he would stare at me with the strangest expression when I spoke .....and everytime I spoke he would turn to look at me ....the doctor explained that babies lose weight from their due date in the womb and all post mature babies tend to have wrinkled skin due to weight loss in the womb ...
ergo during my first pregnancy ...even though I had a very good book with coloured pictures telling me of the weekly progress my baby might have been making in the womb ....it did not warn me about the dangers of going overboard with sour and salty food ....nor did it warn me of what could have caused the scary measles like rashes I got ...no book ever talks about Rigor either ....however those 3 brushes with near death taught me to be calm in a troubled situation and Breathe and count stuff to be cool ....
when my baby was 6months old my brother got married and that is when I noticed something really wrong with my skin ...when I went to meet the gynec he wrote out a few tests along with the thyroid function test ....he was shocked with the result and made me go to a different more advanced lab for a repeat of the test ....and when that too came positive for hypothyroidism ...he guided me about the problem and sent me to the endocrinologist in the hospital who explained the problem in detail and asked me to make a few changes with food and water and general care ....ever since 2002 I have been very carefull about my food habits ...initially I took my exercise schedule very seriously too ....however later I became complacent about it ....
in hindsight I used to always think how ...only when we have access to medical help do we seem to develop so many complications ...the poor workers on the estate would rarely have any complications ...they would be plucking leaf till the 9th month and would be back at work soon after delivery....
when I was carrying my second child ...3 other women from different estates nearby were also carrying ...of which two women lost their lives ...one was a haemophiliac and not enough care was taken during delivery and another passed away due to a minor mistake on the part of the doctor ....the third lady lost her baby post delivery and I remember thinking how we the educated and cautious are so very Fragile compared to the sturdy women from the working class ....life is not fair most of the time and I wonder what is the process behind the natural selection that seems to be at work ....
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