The most important lesson I learnt..

During one of my the peripheral postings of internship, i had to report to local leprosy control center, which was located in a retired police officer's house. I was dot in time,the office was still closed. The octogenarian police officer welcomed me and offered a seat. His equally old domestic hep was moving around . I noticed he had varicose veins and edematous legs. The officer wanted to know how the varicose veins can be treated.I was fresh with my recently acquired knowledge started blurting out all the surgeries that be done for it.The old officer simply laughed and said "see for him the treatment is to tell him that he has to learn to live with it"..And after so many years i still hold it close to my heart that it was the greatest lesson I learnt in my entire medical career.Many a times that is the only valuable treatment people need, which we ourselves should understand and help them understand that they have to learn to live with whatever ailments they suffer from..

The Loser...

Mithu is desperate to have a child . She is married for 11 years now.Her first child was affected with thalassemia and even after lot of struggling through tests and blood transfusions they lost her at age 5. Testing revealed her to be heterozygote of Hb- Lepore and her husband beta thalassemia trait. She became pregnant almost immediately after losing her daughter.Almost at 7 months ,due to threatening advice from some one against trying to produce one more sick child ,the couple decided to terminate the pregnancy .The painful experience of an affected child was strong enough for them to decide against another pregnancy.As the years passed Mithu became a victim of of painful remarks for being childless ! She lives stranded between guilt and despair and now desperately trying for another child for quite some time .I assured her that it may just happen and not be worrying too much , and had to explain about the need for prenatal diagnosis .After a few months she did return with a positive pregnancy test ...

Why do people take desperate measures impulsively..!..Is it not due to ignorance and letting some body else decide for them. If we follow our hearts and listen to our soul, conscience will guide us to choose the right path. The result may be anything, but we will definitely be saved from life long guilt.