It all started with a niggle on the right knee

It was a wonderful new year day. The winter sun was blazing with all its glory driving away the Chennai's December chill. Here comes an wonderful day and a fabulous year ahead. As the day progresses, he felt a small niggle in the right knee. He ignored it and went ahead with this routine only to regret later in the night. The pain has slowly but steadily increased through the evening.

He went to bed with a hope that the morning tomorrow would be much better. As the cool winds started blowing he started shivering. By that time, the leg started feeling very heavy and he couldn't get out of his bed. What is this? Never felt like that before in my recent memory. Took some help to drink water and go to the toilet and managed to sleep with a thick rug protecting him from the winter cold. The harmless Chennai winter looked to him that day as a Himalayan cold wave.

The morning was much worse than he expected. He couldn't get up from his bed though he was slated to play basketball. He thought initially that atleast he would go and handover the ball to his friends eventhough he couldnt play. He got up struggling to stand and soon realised that his legs are no way going to support him stand leave alone the fact to drive. He has to call off his idea of handing over the ball and felt sick. He called up his Doctor Uncle to find out what it could be having had a black out few minutes back. It was terribly annoying how suddenly things would change in less than 12 hours. He was advised to take a paracetamol and went back to bed.

He knew and others at home also knew that it cant be ignored any further. Arrangements were made to visit the family doctor. The busy Doctor comes to the hospital at 9 in the morning but the patients starts queueing up from 7.30. Managed to get a token which read 11 and safe to be there by 10 AM to see the Doctor. After the examination Doctor explained that it is viral fever with symptons of Chikunguniya, caused by male mosquitoes. The only solution is to take heavy duty anti-biotics if he intends to recover in a week's time.

His agony didnt end there. For the next two days, he could hardly take a step without support. He walked with umbrella as a walking stick around the house after being helped to get up. He writhed in pain whenever he tried to get from his bed. He couldnt turn from one side to another and the whole body felt like as if he had laboured in a prisoner camp for months. The food was tasteless thanks to anti-biotics and rasam sadam for all the 3 times of the day did no good. After 3 days of rasam he got fed up with Rasam and vowed not to touch Rasam for few more days to come. The fourth day was a sembelance of recovery with the swelling on the knee joints, finger joints on the hand and the foot receding a bit. The shivering and the occasional fever had gone and able to stand up and walk on his own.

Fifth morning he nursed ambitions of going to office but was strongly advised against that. Decided to follow the saner advice since he himself felt that he is still atleast 30% to go for full recovery. There are stories of relapse and prolonged agony of joint pain by several people also forced him to stay indoors. Five days without seeing the outside world.. He hasnt done it before.

Will he go to office on the sixth day?

In probability it looks like that I will go to office tomorrow as I have already been out of it for 3 days this week. An agonising first week of the year.

Ten Commandments for prevention of diabetes

Diabetes is a silent killer and is believed to be spreading like pandemic in developing countries like India. It has several implications for the health care system in the developing countries because this condition is associated with metabolic and vascular complications which increases the mortality and health care costs. It is therefore important to aim for primary prevention of diabetes particularly in countries like India, where there is high prevelance.

Thanks to Dr Vijay Viswanathan, MV Hospital for Diabetes, Royapuram, Chennai for these commandments:

1. Adopt "Eat less and walk more" principle.
2. Aim for ideal body weight.
3. Minimize sugars and sweets.
4. Avoid food rich in fats and oils.
5. Eat plenty of vegetables greens, grains and fruits.
6. Those with sedantary jobs can include at least 30-45 minutes of exercise daily.
7. Minimize TV watching and spend leisure time in activities like gardening or exercise.
8. Check your blood sugar and blood cholesterol levels if you are in the high risk group regularly.
9. Practice yoga, meditation and other relaxation techniques for stress control.
10. Those at risk must be more cautious and aim for healthy habits to prevent diabetes.

(Reproduced from an article which appeared in The Hindu, dt 01 July 2009)