The healing leg and a loose plaster!

The healing leg and a loose plaster!

The plaster was put for 45 days and now 21 days having passed it was feeling better.  This was a time of retreat and rest as nothing could be done once one is immobilised with pain and prescription for bed rest with the plastered leg on pillow. Of course there was the direction to keep moving the toes as otherwise they may go stiff due to non-movement.  From time to time I moved them and felt better but there was no walking which was a strict no no.!

All the same after a week or so into the hard  plaster, I started sitting up and slowly moving around with the help of a crutches.  A fairly good equipment in good quality aluminium with medical rubber handles it was a treat to be expected for in such a condition.  With that crutches it was nice to move around limping on one leg, holding on to it!  I heaved a sigh of relief.  The long hours on bed, turning from side to side, when the leg with the plaster weighed heavily on me and I had to put an extra effort to move it!  My leg felt like a ten kg weight is bound to it! 

As days passed by, the swelling on my leg started decreasing and I felt the leg loose inside the hard plaster.  The thing that would hurt most will be our being out of social circles and communication.  Even though all connections on phone, net and tv are there, talking to anyone of our choice or love give us a kind of happiness which moves the day faster.  But no, once one is bed ridden, and if you are an elderly person, one is for a night mare.  There is no one to talk to except one’s husband or wife.  Children are away mostly and the nephews and nieces are normally not there at all, if not for an occasion of celebration and the disabled in plaster is not expected to be there. 

It is where there is an adventurous friend or relative one is take out and into social circles.  Mostly it is thought of as an unnecessary disturbance to the recuperating in the social circles are middle or low income groups.  All the same, it is not all that bad, as with one reason or the other there could be a chance, a relative or friend came by!  Especially, those who have to be paid, may come for their payment. 

I had been ordered forty five days of plaster.  Had my break in the bone had been minimal, it should have been 21 days. But as I was not that lucky, the break was on the higher side and I got forty five days which was fast getting filled up.  As it is, I have another twenty days to go and presently I am feeling much much better from the initial plaster days. 

This experience have given me an insight into the lives of other people who are temporarily disabled but can improve their lives with a help for mobility and interaction with others, instead of spending too much time in bed.

A reminder from Jesus!

A Reminder from Jesus!

We were told from old that the pain of being on the cross with his legs fastened on the bottom of the cross makes it difficult to breathe was only a phrase we heard but never felt. But when I fell into a canal uncovered due to lack of a cement slab over it brought the thought all over again and made me feel the truth of the matter.
I suffered badly but took it as a reminder from Jesus!

Falling into the canal due to lack of attention as my attention was somewhere else took only two seconds!  It took five minutes rest on the edge of the canal and help from others to get out of it. Luckily for me, as the rain is absent this period of the year, the canal was dry and my landing was clean and without dirt.  But the immediate reaction on my right foot was instantaneous and it started swelling. Also a feeling of tightness coupled with pain made it worse.  I tried to limp my way to a stadium nearby where a Bon Natale program was in progress.  Every step made it difficult to breathe as there was something catching in my lungs! A ligament inside my leg below the right knee pulled at every step I walked.  The swelling could be arrested when a bottle of chilled soda water was poured over it slowly for a time. But the breathing difficulty was there for quite some time.  If this is the breathing difficulty on a small little fall, how much more would it have been for poor Jesus when he was thrown over and over and ultimately pinned on the cross!  Compared to the suffering he underwent my suffering was just a reminder only!

A few days of extreme relaxation with plaster on leg made me thank Jesus for his tremendous consideration for us, for me!
What a great generosity! 

The fall and the plaster!

The plaster on my right foot was smiling at me.   I am told to put up my leg on a pillow and see I don’t put it down !  The directions came after I visited the Doctor to get relief from swelling and pain developed after a fall!

The Bon Natale show and the ensuing evening music show was a dearie in the Thope Stadium of Thrissur.  As we reached late, due to distance and peak traffic we scrambled for a little space for parking and we found it a little father from the stadium.  Once that was over, we were walking back to the stadium, very happily watching the Christmas cribs in various wayside houses to the detriment of looking forward !  The road was heavily used by all kind of vehicles including trucks, buses and cars not to mention the two wheelers!   Naturally we walked on the extreme side of the road where the water effluence canal was covered by cement slabs.  Alas after a while there was no slab for a distance and this is where I walked blind into the canal two feet deep. 

The landing was like jumping from an aircraft or falling from a tree branch but not knowing where one is going!  The landing was too good to be expected by any respects.  A landing on two legs without touching the sides of the canal is good balance but the front step by the right leg was the first to touch ground and that is what took the brunt of my hole weight !  The leg felt sprained and a swelling started to form with an intense heat on the ankle.  A bottle of chilled soda put on it arrested the swelling and decreased the severity of the pain!

A limping walk for a furlong to the stadium did not unnerve any one as it was presumed the injury was only a sprain!  The song party was a success and we all enjoyed it till the end when a limp back to the car was undertaken in jest and laughter!  A slow drive to the house twenty kilometres away did it!  Pain started at home and the foot had swelled up well ..!

That is how a hospital visit was undertaken the next day where the doctor examined the pain, x-rayed the part and put a temporary plaster with the direction to keep it up on a pillow for five days and come back for re-plaster after that! A six weeks rest and recuperation was also advised! This is being undertaken in all its meaning!

After six days once again a visit was organised to the local hospital. The doctor opined the swelling has remarkably come down and it was good time for a regular plaster cast. The old temporary cast was cut out and a stronger one put in its place. I was advised to wait for it to become dry in another six hours! Another one month's rest may be needed to the full healing of the bones!

Travelling by bus in OMR, Chennai

On an early morning, I was going to Adyar from Kazhipattur in the southern suberbs of Chennai.  Chennai climate is pleasant due to the closeness of the hurricane Phethai these days, but no rain came down except cold winds.  Mornings were sunny and this was one of those mornings!
The bus stop of Kazhipattur was sunny and one could not stand there without suffering the direct morning sun.
Of and on vehicles passed and the private mini-buses who helped those on small journeys passed from time to time.  A school girl waited for a long time ultimately took a mini bus as the government MTC bus did not come for a long time.  A group of Bengali labourers were waiting for some bus.  A young lad was sleeping on the bench meant for the travellers without any problem of the morning sun on his face.  Every vehicle passing brought up a small could of dust which died down before long.
In these settings an MTC bus came and I got in.  On checking with the conductor, he said it would not go to the stop I wanted and I requested to be dropped in the next stop which he obliged.

The stop I got down was in front of a college and it was past the morning shift start and the stop was empty.  My wait at this stop became useless as no buses which now started coming was stopping for me.  Soon it dawned on me that the buses passing by this area would have stopped if the students were out in numbers only.  Here I am standing alone and there was no point in continuing to stand there.

Alas, I decided to walk to the next farther stop half a kilometer away.  I passed the Sipcot junction with alacrity as it is a busy place where there is a T point for vehicles and vehicles these days are not the old time stuff.  They come at good speed and at times mindless of the walkers by.

Once in the new stop, buses from the joining Sipcot road started coming. But, most of these buses were only for small distances, a number of them to the near by Sholinganallur, we dearly called 'Sholielur'. or Tidal Park.  Now, Sholielur would do for me, as I have to get a bus to Adyar or further to Broadway so that I can get down at the Jayanthi stop where I wanted to reach.  But that would require my catching two buses which I decided not to take.  At last a bus to a station near to where I wanted came named Thiruvammiyur.  I can get down at a point where it would divert from my route and walk up to my Dispensary.   The bus was a wonderful Deluxe bus, in which I got a breathing space, even though I had to stand for a while.  This for the time being, settled my journey.  After the Indira Nagar Metro station, I waited for the next red light stop where I got down to walk to my Dispensary which was a soothing walk, even though, among so many vehicles and walking other folks!

A train trip to Chennai.. To

Katpadi was approaching. The early morning cold was pleasantly cool. The train was slowing down to make a regular stop.
The journey all through was among the greeneries of Palghar and Coimbatore.

Now it made the stop. At eight thirty in the morning there would be a number of every day travellers going for work. All got in and we are on the move again in two minutes as our train is already delayed.
We had started yesterday near midnight. It is a ten to eleven hour journey from Thrissur to Chennai Central.

Most of us sleep through the journey as it is night travel. Now most of the travellers are up and about. Some are talking and many are at their mobile phones, including me.
There will be an occasional beggar or sellers of wares as this is a general compartment. In air conditioned coaches they won't enter. But generally no body objects to them. Rather, many give them something considering their plight.
Journeys in trains have become more pleasant and convenient with the passage of time. The coal train changed to diesel and diesel gave way to the electric engines.
An occasional long bridge over a river on the way is a great experience.  There are water bodies on the way, but many a time filled with hayacinth and it's flowers. Water birds and white pelicans are lovely to watch. Occasional green fields are always a joy.
The train chugged on fast to make up the lost time.!

Getting late for the morning mass!

Getting late in the morning!

I many a time get late for the morning mass.  I have an option to miss the mass or get up earlier and start early to reach on time for mass.  Once at the church door either I can enter on the side gate and get noticed by all, which is naturally boring or go to the end door where many may not see.  But most of the inside people’s heads will turn towards to any late comer which is only natural.

The only diversion one get from the prayer is the occasional late comers or the permanent late comers. Another diversion is little children around if there is any.  Those who do not see around will either be in ardent prayers or in their own thoughts.  Once settled, first is finding fault with most of the arrangements in side the church which will go away once one settles down in prayers and the words of the sermon slowly start to sink in wherein one become neutral.

Once the thoughts come to the neutral mode we see around the large helicopter fans moving slowly giving a little cool during the cold mornings, an occasional led light blinking from time to time as it about to fuse out.  A double tray carrying prayer books and novena pamphlets stands in the centre and another large collection box, well made out in good teak with brass bracings also stand out in majesty. 

The fathers sing naturally but the support singers’ mike make us jittery with the huge blair making it difficult to the part takers to say their prayers.  The peace giving ceremony make it a point not to allow us go into reveries as the peace giving is a process which starts with the priest down to the last person present.  Two of the alter boys will first touch their hands with the main celebrant and then walk down the aisle touching the hands of  those at the aisle side wishing them peace and these people will turn around giving peace to the next one standing next to that person.  No body will want to be left out and all will be attentive to take peace and further give peace., one of the best acts in the morning mass. In less than an hours time the mass comes to an end and all disburse and are free to go their own ways for the day!

The end of Life!

No body I know believes in the End of Life. This may be so with many others too. But the truth is many in the world think the end of Life will be as per the Bible. Seventy or seventy five. If the advance of medicine is addef eighty to eighty five. Hospitals and docs know it pretty well.

I was visiting my dear in Lissy Hospital, Katcherpady, Ernakulam. My dear friend breathing heavily beyond any body's capacity to take it. After a hectic life breath and breathe hard for dear life. One can only pray to God to give life!