The Miracleme Story 03-Amitabh Bachchan

Voices.

I heard voices around me. Incoherent at first.

Was I sleeping,  awake or in a trance? I could not fathom.

I vaguely heard them. They were addressed to me.

“Pallaviji, saans leejiye” (Pallavi, breathe )

“Saans lo” (Breathe)

“Saans kyun nahi le rahi ye?” (Why is she not breathing?)

I felt light slaps on my face.

I thought I was breathing. However, I tried again.

A few more slaps and a few more requests to breathe.

I caught the words, “pata nahi kyun saans nahi le paa rahi hai?”

“Amitabh Bachchan”

“Haan, Amitabh Bachchan”

Really? Were they discussing the Bollywood superhero while, I, lay on the operating table?

Slowly things were coming back to me. I was getting conscious. I last remembered being taken into the OT around 7 am for my C-Sec. Oh, I was to deliver my baby.

Good Lord, in this banter of theirs I forgot that I must have delivered already! Instead of telling me it was a boy or a girl, they were discussing films !!! I spaced out again.

Next, I remember opening my eyes in a huge room with a nurse beside me who said…”Congratulations, ladka hua hai!”

She asked matter of factly, what happened to me in the OT? I asked her the same question in return. What happened in the OT? She informed that I had difficulty coming out of anesthesia. To know about the implications of anesthesia in Myasthenia Gravis, click here.

Since I felt fine then and was enthralled at the arrival of our son, it became insignificant.

I was finally,  introduced to our baby a couple of hours later in the private room. He came in a peach colored dress we had bought earlier.

I took a while to take him in my arms from the nurse. I had this slight lingering suspicion looking at this extremely fair few hour old baby if he was actually my production!!! Born and brought up on Hindi films, I wondered if they exchanged babies in the nursery by mistake!!

He had so much hair on his head I could plait it instantly.

It was only when I saw his big fat nose that I heaved a sigh of relief. That’s my creation! He had the same nose as mine.

We came home 2 days later. My father-in-law, now graduated to being a grand-father merrily made poori and halwa in pure ghee!!!

Our room was spic and span smelling of Dettol and phenol and lemon grass essential oil all rolled in one.

The TV was blaring in the other room. Now that we had a baby at home the volume needed to be lessened. I went in to do the same. And who do I see on the screen? Amitabh Bachchan in the movie Deewar.

I was once again reminded of the voices in the OT. Amitabh Bachchan….

REWIND TO THE DAY DR. SURI SAID I HAD MYASTHENIA GRAVIS

When he mentioned the term in his room that day Rahul and I obviously had no clue what it was. Yet it sounded a bit familiar.

On returning home I told Amma (mother) what the doctor had said. Her first reaction was….Amitabh Bachchan. He had Myasthenia Gravis.

And that is how I realized I have some old connection with the angry no-longer-young man of the Indian Film Industry!!!

REWIND TO THE DAY MY TRANSMISSION GOT DISRUPTED

(To know how the transmission got disrupted click here)

I had to go back to Apollo Hospital to meet Dr. Suri. The medicine was not helping efficiently.

He increased the dose from Myestin thrice a day to One and a half tablet thrice a day.

15 DAYS LATER

The symptoms of Myasthenia Gravis kept coming back even before those two hours ended.

Dosage further increased to two tablets every two hours.

The speech would be better on some days but a new thing happened.

My left eye started to close on its own.

Like the shutter of a shop.

One eye normal and the other flap down.

It looked weird to others and made me- shit bricks.

Back to Dr. Suri at Apollo Hospital. The extremely long wait that day. Eventually, he said I would have to be put on steroids. Wysolone 40 mg. And for that, I had to be hospitalized for better scrutiny. For 10 days.

Since the symptoms were deteriorating, breathlessness being one of them, no chances could be taken. Also with steroids came in a number of other reactions that needed to be monitored and so the hospitalization.

I was dejected. My love for my child did not allow me to think any further. I could not imagine myself in the hospital for 10 days while my child totally dependent on my feed would be home.

I was told I could express milk in the hospital and send it home.

I howled, I cried- as I whispered a goodbye into the tiny ears of my month and a half old baby.

In the hospital ward, there was only one TV for about 6  to 8 patients.   Luckily or unluckily it was right next to my bed.

As the nurses explored my hand and wrist for the vein to put through the Canola, I blankly looked at the TV screen.

What the **** !!!

The news channel was amok. After a dry spell of days, it now had the biggest BREAKING NEWS that would last them for days.

As the needle went in the blue vein, on the TV screen I read in white fonts….

AMITABH BACHCHAN ADMITTED IN LEELAWATI HOSPITAL.

That’s when I understood we had a connect.

A soul connect.

Except, he did not know.

Not yet.

 

TO BE CONTINUED….