Dard-e-dil, dard-e-jigar: The Indian Hospital Experience

As I type this post, I'm sitting comfortably at home in Lucknow, having returned more or less intact from a week of constant hospitalization. I can't express my gratitude to my friends, teachers, AIIS leaders, and doctors who helped me through this - if you read this, please know that your love and support made it all bearable.

This sorry state of things entire began last Sunday, when I woke up with a splitting headache that I assumed was a migraine brought on by a Saturday night spent at Zero Degrees, the hip Lucknow club where we had a good time watching young people our age awkwardly dance as they were accompanied by their parents or some aunties and uncles, who in their salwar kameez and kurta pyjamas looked to be having a much better time on the dance floor than everyone else! Anyway, I took some painkillers, went and saw Love Aaj Kal, the biggest new Saif Ali Khan-Deepika Padukone hit (which I actually enjoyed, especially Rishi Kapoor's role and his real wife's cameo appearance at the end - I always think of his and Neetu Singh's scenes in Amar Akbar Anthony when I see them together, since the chemistry was real enough for them to get married after shooting the movie). At this point it was evening and the "migraine" still hadn't abated, so I started to get mildly concerned and told myself I'd go to a doctor in the morning if it wasn't any better.

Middle of the night, I start vomiting uncontrollably, and by the morning it's clear that I need to go to the hospital. Sandeep-ji drives me to the Sahara Hospital, which is a gleaming edifice of sanitation and modernity, and I see a neurologist who also discovers that my neck is quite stiff and painful, and so they immediately admit me and run an MRI, CAT scan, and do a lumbar puncture (spinal tap) and put me on antibiotics for fear of bacterial meningitis. Side note: when they do lumbar punctures on House and you see the actors screaming in pain, it's actually because it's definitely one of the most painful experiences I've ever had. Absolutely excruciating, and then you have to lie perfectly flat for four hours afterward. I also found out later that the antibiotic I was given was the mother of all antibiotics, an atom bomb set off in my system that destroyed any and all bacteria that could possibly have been living in my body.

So on a Monday afternoon I was admitted to Sahara Hospital, and I stay there until Friday afternoon, being given constant rehydration and antibiotics via IV while the doctors attempt to arrive at a diagnosis. Since I didn't die within 24 hours, bacterial meningitis was safely ruled out, but each day the diagnosis flipped from viral meningitis to tuberculer meningitis to a possible small brain hemorrhage to typhoid, until both Ahtesham-sahab (the head of the Urdu program) and I became increasingly unsure of the quality of care at this hospital and after some discussion with Purnima-ji (the head of AIIS as a whole, based in Delhi) we decided that I would be transferred to the East-West hospital in New Delhi. Time in the Lucknow hospital wasn't wasted, though; I read my Urdu newspaper aloud to the delight of the nurses and orderlies (best nurse quote: "Please, supine ho jaae") and had a stream of visitors from my program (time for heartfelt shout-outs to Cayley, Jessica, Hasan, Christine, Alisha, Nida, and especially my wonderful, wonderful roommates Ranjanpreet, Beenish, and Sehris). In my spare time I tried to think of verses that had to do with sickness, medicine, or healing. As Ahtesham-sahab said, the most dangerous drug is that of Urdu poetry.

On Friday night they flew me to Delhi (an unpleasant flight - the pressure caused another killer headache) and checked me into East-West, where I was given a very nice private room and the kind and communicative Dr. Chawla to look after me. There the IVs continued, as well as a second MRI and CATscan to ensure that there was no further swelling of the meninges (lining of the brain). After a weekend there, I felt much better, was more mobile, and was released this (Wednesday) morning with diagnosis of a viral meningitis that had at this point run its own course. The care in Delhi was excellent, and I'm also very grateful to Purnima-ji and AIIS for having taken care of all of this for me. I flew back into Lucknow early this morning, wearing my surgical mask lest I catch the swine flu currently endemic in India, with no lasting damage except some bruised and bandaged arms and a surprising weight loss which I will do my best to reverse by eating excessive amounts of jalebis and kebabs. Only about a week is even left in the Lucknow program, so I have to finish up my poetry-translation project and live up the ash-o-ishrat before moving on to Amman!