The Beginning of a Journey

Life is always full of challenges. Imagine a life where you are not challenged by a task or someone around, I am sure it would be very boring and monotonous too. I have also come across so many challenges in life. Its not that I have become an oldie. I was just 24. and I came across the biggest challenge in my life till date , a medical ailment. I was up against Chronic Renal Failure and in layman’s language, my kidneys, both of them, have stopped functioning.

Let me elaborate now. It was the 28^th of April 2008 and I was in the USA studying my Masters in Electrical Engineering. I was walking to school which is just a 5 minute walk. After reaching school I felt so weak that I had rush to find the nearest sofa and sit there for a while. Boy, this feeling was weird. I have been a sports person all round and feeling fatigued after a 5 minute walk was something crazy. I ignored it saying that I might be tired as I had played 6 hours of cricket on the previous day. The next day, it was the same issue. Now I thought the something is medically wrong with me. On 30^th April, I went to the Health Care at my school and that’s when everything got started. They checked my vitals and to their shock as well as mine, my blood pressure was recorded as 170/110. They asked me whether I was taking pressure medicines and I said “Never”. So in order to investigate further, they took a blood sample and sent it for a CBC test.

Next day i.e. 1^st May 2008 at around 9am , I beneath my comforter sleeping nicely when I get a call from the Health Care saying that my hemoglobin level is 8.2 ( its has to be around 13-18) and they were scared to death. They told me that there might be an internal bleeding so I have to get admitted to the Emergency Care as soon as possible. I never thought what I am getting into. I woke my roommate Rohit and told what’s going on. I then called up Bharath to drive me to the Emergency. Since he had a meeting to attend, it was Shiva who came along. I had never ever been to a hospital for myself ever till that day. I told the attending nurse what I am going through and there is when they took my vitals again. To their shock my blood pressure was recorded as 210/160. Unbelievable but true. They immediately started administering drugs to get the pressure down. They asked me whether in my family anyone had a history of High BP. I told them about my father and grand-father undergoing kidney transplant and also having High BP. That’s when they got a direction to investigate. I was told that I would have to stay at least for a couple of days before I go back home. In the night they did an Ultrasound of my Abdomen. I was curious so I asked the technician who carried the test about the result. She said that it’s the doctor who will tell as she is not entitled to do so. These goras follow the law and rules a bit too much.

The whole night went as a night full of curiosity. In the morning, a Nephrologist, Dr. Rakesh Gupta came to see me. I was so pleased to see an Indian doctor treating me. I felt that now I am in safe hands. As any other doctor he asked the whole episode as to what I felt and why did I come to the emergency care etc. He then said one line and I was zapped out of my wits. He said “I am sorry to inform you but you suffer from something called as Chronic Renal Faliure”. Hearing this I was shocked for a minute and then I started digesting the fact. Immediately all the flashes during dad’s kidney failure came in front of me and I was knowing what next step is to be taken. Kidney Failure-Dialysis-Transplant. So I was mentally tough and prepared to go through this tough ordeal. Shiva and Rohit were there with me and they were completely shell-shocked as anyone would be. I told them to be positive and take everything in its stride as it was not the end of the world and we did have a cure for this ailment. Dr. Gupta was kind enough to talk to my parents and make them understand the situation, console them also. Most importantly he spoke to Dr. Gandhi, my family's nephrologist. They both discussed the plan of action and I was at peace then. Definitely the question was there in my mind “God, why did you choose me” and that’s when a very dear friend of mine, Divya, told me that God only chose me because he knew I was a Tiger and tough enough to face this setback. I always felt “You only get bogged down if you want to”. I had decided from then on that I am going to be positive come what may as positive thinking will let you do everything better than negative thinking will. I had friends coming and visiting me everyday in the hospital for the 5 days I was admitted. A chaos was created every evening. Since there were no certain visiting hours funda, my folks used to come in shifts so that I have company throughout the day. The staff at the hospital used to be dumbstruck seeing so many visitor's in one patient's room. Glad that I had a private room. Money didn't matter, as I was not paying a single penny from my pocket. Insurance took care of everything...WOW..else I would have to sell everything that I had to pay them off.

I owe my sincere gratitude to all my friends back in the USA and my uncle who flew down from LA the same day, because without their support I would not be able to face this challenge in my life. I was given a certain set of instructions during my discharge from the hospital regarding the kind of food that I can have, amount of water I can drink in a day,etc. My roommates and friends around actually searched the internet to find out what’s good and what’s permissible for me to eat. I was put on a strict diet by my friends. I know how disturbed they were seeing my state, but they always used to cheer me up. The night before I was going to leave US, I met so many people from my university. Some whom I’ve not interacted on a day to day basis also came over to wish me good health and a speedy recovery. I was amazed and deeply touched at the same time. My whole gang came to drop me off at the airport. Final good bye and hugs were going on. I was almost on the verge of a breakdown at the airport when I was leaving for India as I was leaving behind a beautiful set of friends, friends whom I thank from the bottom of my heart and whom I miss quite often. Love you guys, I know that your good wishes are always with me!!

In the end, I just wanna quote:

“Life's challenges are not supposed to paralyze you; they're supposed to help you discover who you are and get the best out of you.”