Surviving a Nasty Scare..

Last weekend was a horrific nightmare. In the recent times (read - last 2 weeks), I'd been lazy in calling up home and my phone call frequency decreased steadily from twice a day after I came back from my sister's marriage to once a week (last week). So, to make that up, I called up home again on Saturday.

Talking to family always rejuvenates me and I feel charged up for the next couple of days atleast. This time it wasnt so. After talking to Mom and Dad, I felt I should be with them. I felt I should just shun everything here and just go back home.

I knew that Mom wasnt feeling well the whole of last week. Actually she has not been feeling well since my sister's marriage got over (last 5 weeks). She got sore throat, chest congestion and dry cough which subsided a little bit. Then sometime (3 weeks) back she got some kind of ulcer in her mouth which resulted in an inflammation and it become so bad she wasnt able to open her mouth to talk. That got cured and then the cough started re-occurring. The whole period I used to call up regularly.

Now, after 3-4 weeks when the cough did not subside, she went to her son-in-law (my sister's husband, who's a chest specialist) who advised her to take some X-Ray. The report came and my sister's husband (I'm still hunting for the relationship word) told my dad that something might be wrong here and he advised mom to take a CT scan.

I got to know of this last Wednesday when I made my usual call and I pressed for them to get the scan done ASAP. I called on Saturday to find out about the CT scan report and Dad told me that my sister's husband is suspecting Tuberculosis. I was shell-shocked! I didnt know what to say. Also, dad told me that mom doesnt know about it. I'm all the more flabbergasted. Dad said that the report will be shown to the senior doctors on Monday and further details would be available then.

I spoke to my mom and she spoke to me coolly and I was treading on a knife-edge here...in complete two minds whether to mention this to her or not. On one hand I know that she is a very very strong lady - she has shown immense resilience to overcome all hardships, but on the other hand I dont know how she'll take this news. Ultimately, my discretion prevailed over my valour and I kept mum.

I was eagerly waiting for Monday to come. I spent two sleepless nights on Saturday and Sunday just praying for everything to become normal. I called up again on Sunday to speak to her and she was coughing badly and I told her to take a rest. I couldnt help but think the ominous. Call me a pessimist, call me negative, the thought crossed my mind. I searched about TB on the internet, its symptoms and it seemed to fit. I was scared.

I've never waited for any morning more eagerly than Monday morning. I called up dad at 05:00 am EST and I wasnt able to get through to him. Dad had already told me that nobody at home knows about this condition. I tried my sister but she wasnt reachable either. I was getting restless. Reluctantly, I got ready to go to work. I tried dad once more and I could reach him. He told me that there was nothing to worry and the senior doctors have said it cannot be TB. I WAS RELIEVED!!!!

Apparently doctors said that its just some bacterial infection and they're keeping mom on antibiotics. I spoke to mom and her voice sounded angelic (if there's such a word). I've never been happier speaking to her. I told her that the doctors were suspecting TB but they've ruled it out. She said to me that she was confident that it wasnt TB.

I was stunned!! I asked her how did she know and she said some 10 years back when she had such a bout of cough she went to our family doctor and told him to perform a TB test which finally had come out negative. So she said she was suspecting the same thing now, except that it lasted longer than that time. I was in 7th heaven hearing her voice being almost normal. Mom told me that the new cough syrup which the doctors prescribed is more effective than the earlier ones.

So, finally, after a couple of days of despair and insecurity, I'm rejuvenated again. I just hope and pray that my mom gets over her cough and her infection soon. May god bring her back to good health soon. Amen!