Woh saat Din!

 

Journey - Corona! 

(A day before Corona)

I somewhere read that the entire corona virus in the world collected together can fit on a single tea spoon. Wonder what quantity of it was in my throat? The quantity was enough to trigger a disturbance in my family on 21^st April 2021.  Although my family underwent strict precautions since the inception of the social distancing protocols, we were not averse to the possibility of Corona residing in bungalow number 11, my house. The challenge was in its timing!!!

This was a tough time as we hardly had come out of the shock of the sad demise of Deepak, my brother in Law who passed away on 18^th of April 2021.  A very lively, Jovial and Fun loving guy went walking on his own to get admitted but did not come back after that. Fifteen days was too short span for him to give up. But fate had in it!

 Late (actually too early) Deepak Kale

In psychology there is a concept called “Availability Heuristics” which highlights the behavior where we start wearing helmets when our friend dies by head injury. It was this phase that made my Covid scary.  Although aware, I was still scared. My family took immense precautions for two member’s viz. Revo my daughter and Dad.  Revo is delicate and Dad has had heart issues. The Fear Test -2 for me was in the form of facing the fact that both Revo and Dad were infected by the relatives of the virus in my Throat.

They say that the recovery happens well if one stays cool and optimistic. But trust me it wasn’t easy! Two days went by and my body temperate escalated to 102^o F.  I was still optimistic as my friends shared their experiences and advised me to be patient. Ajay Deokar was giving constant intimations of the next body problem, so I was ready in a way to face all that happened.

I got a big tip when two friends counterintuitively suggested me to be very cautious. Sunny Marwah and Nitin Jagtap. Both these guys are otherwise very casual towards the do’s and don’ts in life. Nitin who is scared of none, called me at least ten times just to advice that this virus is not to be taken lightly by any means. I got a big clue through this.

When all this was happening the three Family members, My sister  Dr. Manjusha Atkare, Jijaji Dr.Anand Atkare, Dr. Swati Tai and Dr. Santosh Jadhav  were with a birds eye view on me and my family.

As usual Manju took a proactive step! She wanted me to get admitted in Aurangabad Hospital. She sensed that I might need hospitalization and Nasik was looking out to be one of the worst city in India to get admitted in this second wave.  Nasik was grappling with the problems of Medicine shortage, Oxygen shortfall and in fact in some cases no doctor to look around. Vijay Jijaji took no time to quickly be my side. He is a trouble shooter. He came along with me to Aurangabad. He kept on observing me and my problems, though not much, in the entire journey.  Shifting to Aurangabad was the best decision taken by us.  

 Vijay Jijaji - The trouble shooter…

Reached Aurangabad’s Hedgewar Hospital on 24^th April which was my third day of infection. By now the virus had come closer to my Lungs. My persistent temperature was the biggest challenge for the doctors. With no delay my Sister forced the doctors to pay attention towards me and we started the T-20 equivalent super over of Remdesivir six doses!

When I checked my mobile on Sunday it was a shock. My friend Prashant Bhabad passed away! After Deepak, the sad demise of Prashant was in very quick succession for me to digest.

Along with Deepak Kale, I was equally worried for my friend Prashant Bhabad. My worries had already grown when he stopped replying to my messages back, when I was in Nasik. I remember, the over enthusiastic dinner plan we had made to celebrate his showroom Mahindra XUV.  Felt shattered. Cried all alone. Both Prashant and Deepak were always in a hurry and even this time they went finally in a hurry. L

 Late (should’ve been Later)  Prashant Bhabad

Revo was in deep pain and the so was Anu. Revo was shivering at 102^o F. In a very dramatic step Anu one day wrapped herself with extra coverings, since she wasn’t infected till then, reached Revo who was quarantined, rubbed her body with a cloth soaked in cold water to try and reduce her temperature. Came out of the room and kept looking at her from the door. That’s typical motherhood!

Anu who has always been scared of all this, turned out to be quite strong, at least while talking to me on phone.  She has cultivated this art of hiding her tears. She hasn’t completely come out of the shock of Deepak and she got forced to handle a mentally very tough phase for her. My worries were growing along with the mercury in the thermometer. 

 Anu

Another chapter in this story was that of my friend Hitesh Ramdasani. Like mine even his family was down with corona infection. His mom was showing less improvements. The C.T- score from 0 to 15 in 4 days with depleting oxygen saturation was a cause of concern. Hitesh was on constant phone calls and was following my instructions.  For me it was getting tougher. How can I advise him, when I am myself scared and worried? I had to control myself and wait for bad time to pass. The mom of Hitesh got admitted with some push and pull in efforts and we shifted our concern from availability of bed to a proper treatment for Aunty in Nasik.

In between all this, Naman and Anu also turned corona positive. So the tensions were at peak along with my body temperature. So the count till now was 5 out of 6 members. My Mom was the only member not infected by the virus. My younger sister in Nasik, Anju who did not bother about infection getting passed on to her, visited my house regularly to supervise all the things. Jay my bro, has been a superb help to my family in getting anything and everything that was demanded by my family in Nasik.

AnandJijaji , Manju and Swati Tai took really good efforts to make the medicines available for me, take the follow ups and react timely. Swati Tai, kept following the doctors in the hospital, made the remdesivir available on time. Anand Jijaji, who is otherwise a quite reserved personality never kept me alone. Phone calls, messages, personal meets in hospitals with 20 feet gap between us are still in my memory. Manju worked the hardest for my trouble. Managing my food, her Radiology practice, sending car driver to Nanded to fetch Remdesivir and then managing three patients with their scared mentality in Nasik were not the tasks any ordinary person can do simultaneously. She is a Rockstar !!!!

Dr. Manjusha Atkare Dr. Anand Atkare

 Dr. Swati Khonde

Dr. Santosh Jadhav a god figure for all of us, has been taking similar efforts relentlessly to take care of my family members in Nasik. Sitting in Nanded he has been monitoring all of us regularly. I am blessed not just to have these four high profile Doctors in my family but also blessed to have their immense desire to pull all of us out of disorders. Hat’s off!!!

 Dr. Santosh Jadhav

Finally the ‘Acche din’ came. Wednesday morning the 7th day my body temperature did not rise high. Also the four infected family members in Nasik started recovering strong.  Now I need to vacate the bed for someone else who is in the waiting list.

That’s the Journey that I Pray, should be done by none – The journey – Karo na (Corona)

 

Ciao…

Vinay Wagh