The Superheroes - Part 1

Life is full of surprises and shocks. Sometime back I was diagnosed with a kidney stone and since it was bigger in size operation was the best option given to me by my doctors.

Being an overthinker that I am, the mere thought of surgery started giving me sleepless nights and I lost my appetite. Constant crying alone in room happened when Mom confronted me and told me she knew what I was going through. She did her best to console me and make me understand that there's nothing to be scared of.

"A surgery is just a medical procedure for the betterment of one's health. Women undergo surgery when they have babies and that's the most beautiful moment of their lives." - She said.

Just a few consoling words from a loved one eases a lot of stress and a few quotes online were also there to push me to stay positive and have faith.

But you know what restored my faith more?? The Doctor.

Let me start from the beginning, I had a severe ache in my waist and back, which lasted for two days. Thinking I sprained my back, courtesy recently started skipping we consulted an orthodontist specialist. On checking he said there seems muscle spasm but if it persists you should get the ultrasound done to rule out kidney stone.

I had the same thought in mind as my brother had stones and at one time even he complained of pain in the similar fashion. Though my pain subsided in 2 days yet my father insisted on urine culture and it had traces of blood and crystals. We went for sonography and it came out as 1 (but a huge one) stone.

The sonography doctor mentioned a renowned M.S. to us. When we met him, as it was the first time we were interacting with him but had got many references for him from several people the meeting made us anxious. The meeting was brief and the description even briefer. There was no small talk, no consolations just three surgical methods thrown around.

When asked what should we do -

Answer - How does it matter? We can start with the topmost, if we are unable to break down by that we'll move to second and if again fail we'll go for third. An urban family who has mediclaim how does these things matter. (My family doesn't have a mediclaim- don't judge, we'll talk about it later and you can surely leave your responses below)

I understand doctors or anybody in current secenario is pressed for time. I don't even expect one to spend hours with a patient but again you are talking to a patient not a customer. I am a marketing professional and I work on customer connect first and sales later. I for one do expect some, very minimal, connect. You are not even ready to listen to my problem, when my father was telling him what all I experienced the answer was - "Sush!" And you want me to just pick up one thing off your plate.

Already there's so much negativity we listen and read about doctors all around and such people just make one more fearful. Then thoughts like medicine becoming a business just keep knocking on your head.

Well we asked for some time from him and kept on asking people around. Took some homemade medicines and homeopathy pills but the pain persisted. We came to know about another doctor and my father could relate to him. He is also an experienced urologist and had operated my grandfather for prostrate.

We met him and as previously we had done the sonography and X-RAY so he asked for - CT URO scan. Again something as goes the saying around - all doctors want you to go for various tests because that's how they ear for the hospitals. So be it.

You know what made us stick to the second doctor? After the reports we waited for him for about an hour and yes again the discussion was of barely 10 minutes and he told us the same 3 methods. But, he brought us to zero onto one method as per his decision.

A patient is a patient because he is unaware of what all goes around. It is expected that the doctor, the specialist will let you on towards the best possible outcome. Aakhir log doctors ko Bhagwaan bolte Hain na (people call doctors God.). It is the quantum of trust one lays in the doctor.

Of course here we didn't know anything and he explained the method which, by default, we googled to be sure of what we were getting into. Somehow the interaction increased our level of trust on him.

He asked us to take our time as the stone was in kidney and won't be much of a trouble to be immediately addressed. We were suggested PCNL - mini PERC and on thought, we decided to go with it.

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