8:30am: tension in the morning; planned to visit doctor Malhotra
10:30am: condition worsens every minute; plan to get injection at home but late for medication
11:30am: get the injection but it isnt effective
1:30pm: take medicines and get some relief
2:00pm: Poo visits; I was still struggling to breath; they try to give me some food, but I'm not able to eat.
6:30pm: situation worsens after I try to sit. Goes really breathless, and I couldnt stand or sit or lean. Injections, medicines, nebulisation, and even oxygen supply didnt work well to improve my situation
7:30pm: Poo's parents come to visit. My situation is critical. They talk to the doctor and decide to shift me
8:00pm: Poo's dad drives me and my mom to Metro hospital.
9:00pm: reached Metro Hospital. Joji uncle and family waiting there. Initial reading not so good. Immediately shifted to ICU. There were 7nurses, 2 docs and 2 attendants waiting there to handle me. Doctor Sharad and Doctor Kanak(he's also male!) were guiding me to approach the situation. Nebulised, then put in ventilator, Oxygen was constantly supplied. The situation was just like that we have seen in Discovery channel.
9:30pm: by this time they had checked my ECG, sugar, blood, sputum, urine, BP, O2 etc.. everything was being constantly monitored. Doc Sharad brings papa mummy to the ICU room and shows me. Then he takes then to the other room. Soon the Xray is also done
10pm: had enough of nebulisation and now was put fully in ventilator. I tried to sleep but couldnt. there was still a lot of difficulty in breathing(only abt 15-20% relief). There was a clock rite in front of me... so all i was doing was to check the time, look around the room. I could see the Noida city from the windows rite in front of me
4th May 2011
12am to 2pm: Situation calmed but there was still a struggle going in. There were 4 nurses to attend me and all of them were sitting right in front of my bed. 3 names I can remember are: Shins, Reshmi and Jismy. Nurse Reshmi was my main incharge(Bed no:2). For once I could remember her spelling out my name: Jishnu Krishnan, and after a pause, she hummed and asang the tune 'Krishna nee begane'. I dont know why, but that felt really special. It was at that point that I turned up to see the nurse's face(till then i was mostly keeping my eyes closed). Though the nurse's face was covered with the mask, I could see the eyes, the long eyebrow like a 'mayilpeeli'(as if those were Sree Krishna's mayilpeeli). There was something in that moment that made me feel happy, as if there was a divine intervention. Sadly though, the silence of the night was gonna be broken soon.. some bad news was on the way. Some strange swelling started building up on my neck
4:30am: Doc Sharad comes up and checks my BP, it reads 80-60. and gives a firing to all the nurses for their ignorance. They removed my ventilator and I started breathing heavy again. Doc brings in papa mummy to the ICU room, it was then that mom notices the swelling at neck. Doc immediately asks for a CT scan. Ambulance was sent to call up the technician. They then started pumping me with small doses of Nitrous Oxide and Oxygen.
5-6am: Undoubtedly, CT scan was 'the biggest struggle' of life, i would say. I was breathing really heavily, and really struggled to even move in the bed and in the stretcher. Doc Sharad, an attendant boy, Shins and Reshmi nurse accompanied me to the CAT scan room. Those 5-10min were a nightmare. first of all, the journey to the scan room was hell, then I was asked to lay straight!(which was really difficult to do). During scan I was made to stop my breath for 25 seconds.. for a moment, i felt I wont be alive till then, but the left everything on the docs and took a stopped my breathing.. hoh.. and if i thought the bad was over, then i was wrong, coz Shins mistakenly opened my Oxygen cylinder so quickly that the water came up with the gas and went into my mouth and nose. This time, even the doc and the nurses got scared! Within seconds the CT conclusion was made, I asked the nurse and she confirmed that there are ruptures in the lungs.
Back into the ICU room, they supplied me with O2 in full saturation(as I'm writing this, its 1am on 8th May and even now I'm supplied O2 in full). No more ventilator.
11am: Docs kept coming and going. The senior doctors also arrived into the scene- Doctor Deepak Talwar and Doctor Vipul Mishra. Now my situation was better than a few hours ago. New nurse came- Sheeba. Docs came up and told me that they're going to evacuate the gas deposition in my chest and neck by creating nick in the chest. They said that there's no need for a major operation. At that moment when life and death are at balance, even the news of my chest being cut didn't 'scare' me. infact i was eagerly waiting for the docs to start the procedure s soon as possible. They gave me anesthesia and started the tearing process, i could still feel the blade moving thru my skin. the pain came only when they pressed out the gases, whoa! that was painful. I could see the blood oozing out and hear the sounds of air bubbles bursting from the cut. Around 15-20 full pieces of cloth were fully soaked in blood. It was a full on 'bloodshed'!
1-3pm: It was the time for the next procedure, called the 'centre line'. A slit was made at the neck for the intake of glucose and other liquids. In electrical terms, it looked similar to an extension board. multiple sockets points for medicines. Infact I can apply the Kirchoff's current law into it.. The worst was now over...
Evening: Dolly aunty, Thomas Uncle, Sugu mama, Usha aunty, Srikant, Binoy, Rinu etc came to meet
5th May 2011
The day was all about resting. I finally managed to get some sleep at night(3am to 6am) . The day was calm and I got my mobile in the morning via Shins bhai. I called up rems and asked her to inform the RSKZ abt it. I also informed Mayank about all that happened. And as always, I didnt want to let the situation go.. I took some snaps of the ICU and a video too. As expected, in the evening I got many visitors, Elsa, Vineet, Abhilash, Prashant, Mayank, Gaurav, Shiljith, Sooraj, Deepak, Vipinlal etc. My incharge for the day was Soumya Nurse. At night, mom bought my 'Neural Networks' book and a few minutes of reading was enough for some good sleep.
6th May 2011
At noon, I was asked to sit and relax. Doc gave me a newspaper to read. The big news of the day was the kiling of Osama bin Laden. At 1pm, Poo came for a visit. Later in the evening, Raizada, Rahi, Gaurav, Akshay, Satheesh and Jithesh came. It was the day I was given some diet- a soup... wow.. it tasted heaven. Never ever in life has something tasted so wonderful before!
7th May 2011
Out of the ICU day: The good news came in the morning that I'm now clinically stable and ready to get out of ICU. Had a chirpy little nurse called Liya for company at noon. She was of my own age, so was better understanding me and helping out. I was supposed to be shifted into ward at 2pm, eventually it was at around 6:30pm that i was shifted to room 315. Soumya nurse and the attenders helped my out the room. I saw Bindu, Sundhu aunty, Raju , Sudheer Uncle waiting in the corridoor. Transition from ICU to ward was a bit uncomfortable, i started feeling some strange pain in chest and the docs had to be called up. Nothing serious
8th May 2011
It was a sunday, so obviously some visits were expected. Morning companion was Shiljith. Soon Aji mama and Sugu came, and then Unni uncle n family followed by Shakti Uncle n Thomas uncle. Around 11:30am, Jithesh, Satheesh and Nithin came, folloewd by Raju bhai at 1pm. The five fingers(Shiljith, Sooraj, Deepak, Vipinlal, Kiran) and Abhilash came at night
9th May 2011
Peaceful morning, it was the day I got my first solid food diet- upma. Srikant came at 6:30am to accompany me as papa mummy went home to freshen up. Mom got my digicam and soon Sudheesh came up. It was photography time. In the evening, Joji uncle came, and just as he was with me, Poo's parents also came in.Later in the evening Shiljith and Sooraj bought the netbook.
10th May 2011
This day I was shifted to another room: 319. At 4pm I had what is known as the '4pm Disaster'. Some strange feelings and uncomfort in breathing, it was only after nebulization that I felt normal again.
11th May 2011
Doctors came for the routine checkup in the morning and said that my situation's good and I can leave the hospital tomorrow. Gaurav came to meet me in the noon, and moments after he left, PK turned up.
12th May 2011
It was the day I discharged from the hospital. Prashant and Vineet came in the morning to help us in the various formalities. Aswathy also came to meet me in the noon. Finally at around 8:30pm we left the hospital. Sudheesh and Srikant were waiting at home with the arrangements. Had the dinner and they left at 10pm.
Summarizing the whole event, I had never ever even imagined myself getting admitted into the ICU like this, or getting 60-70 injections per day... Biogenetic law states that 'Oncology recapitulates phylogeny'. Likewise, I am learning to do everything once again- breathing, feeding, walking, talking etc... It was an all different experience in life. Just like seeing from the other side of life.
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| at ICU |
