The Diagnosis

I promptly returned home. I quickly had some food. My mother said I had not eaten any food at all. She was very much worried by my lack of appetite.

Myself and my wife both went to the hospital.One of my wife's relations had some back problem so he searched for orthopedics for more than three months. They switched from one doctor to another, finally found this doctor. My wife, in her worry, had called up all her relatives for some advise and this persons offered the advice.

We sat at the reception area waiting for the doctor. Suddenly, the relation(actually the sister of my wife's mother) appeared. She said they were in this hospital for the last one month or so.

After some time, the doctor came. We went to the consultation room. I told all my symptoms. He made me lay down on my back and examined my reflexes. After the examination, he said that a nerve had been pressurized at some point and further tests are needed. He wrote out an MRI test in which he prescribed cervical, dorsal and lumbar spinal areas to be scanned.

He also told us to check weight. After checking weight, I bumped into a low entrance and looked like falling down. But I recovered myself.

In the meanwhile, my wife had called up her father who was away in another city. She told him that we were seeing the doctor. And he was also worried and started by Airplane and came back by the evening.

All sat down and discussed. The total MRI would cost upwards of Rs.17500/- in the nearby hospital. I said I was not going to accept this MRI. I said I would take rest for some time and I would be okay. My wife was very angry.

The next day morning, one other quotation was obtained for the MRI. It costs around Rs.9000/- at another hospital. But, being so low on cost, there was a wait list. Hence, the scan was fixed for the next day evening.

In the meanwhile, I went to my office to submit the working papers I had with my self as I had returned from the Income Tax Office direct to home the day before. My senior observed me walking like a drunken man and asked about it. I told him the problem and said I would be taking rest for the next ten days and also, that a scan was required. With this, I returned home.

I was unable to walk even to the bathroom. My wife said she would arrange a tumbler for urine. Emptying of bowels was of course, ruled out because the inability to do so was the main problem. But, I ruled out any tumbler etc., But, my wife arranged a tumbler full of water for my brushing. I had my brushing at my bedside, had coffee etc.

We went to for the scan. My wife did not come with me. The scan lasted three hours. During the scan, the doctor performing the scan asked me if I had any fever. I said yes. I asked him what was the problem. He said we shall discuss later. But, he did not meet me again.

It was 10 pm by the time the scan was over. The people were angry because at the time of booking, we told the reception that three scans were required. But, the reception people did not pass on that information to the scanning people. But, they anyway did the scan.

At the end, they complimented me by saying that sir, we did not thing you might cooperated the way you did because you looked so diseased.

The Agony

After I had told my wife about the problem of loss of urge to urinate and inability to empty my bowels, I was actually able to empty my bowels once. I was taking homeo medicines and I thought it worked. I was going on taking painkillers. I was also taking paracetamol to reduce the fever.

One night, I woke up with a bad dream. I wanted to take the homeo medicine. I also wanted to empty my bladder. I was unable to take even one step. I felt pain all round my body including chest. I thought it might be heart attack. But, it was not. Each step I made towards toilet exhausted me. By the time I reached my bed again, I was as good as dead.

The next morning, I told my wife about the incident last night. She was worried.

One day, I was going to office and went to see my mother who was put up just at the end of the street. She told me that my trousers are not good. I went downstairs and to my house to change my trousers and got fully exhausted.

I was unable to cross the road properly. If any vehicle was on the horizon, it meant that I should not cross the road.

One day, I had to go to the Income Tax Office. I could not climb the stairs there. I had altogether stopped taking any sort of food at all.

One day, my wife tried another remedy. She brought hot water in a bucket and made me sit upon a stool and made me put my legs in the bucket. And she brought another vessel filled with hot water and put a cloth in that hot water and rubbed my back with that hot cloth. I felt some sensation in my legs and took them off the hot water bucket. My wife said nothing to worry because the sensation is still there in your legs.

One day, I went to the Income Tax Office. My wife called me up there. She said appointment had been fixed with a doctor in the afternoon and I should return immediately.

Neglecting the disease

After I woke up the next day, I was ready to go to work. The pain killers prescribed by doctor were only to be used for 15 days. Daily two doses were to be taken. I worked for the 15 days well. But, after that I stopped the medicine. The next day the pain returned after a full day's work. Again, I took to the painkillers.

I had a bad feeling. I knew that what I was doing was wrong. Probably, if I was well advised, I would have changed the doctor. But, one thing was that I was ill-advised. Another thing was that I was stubborn. I sticked to my own views and beliefs. Yet another thing was I was in the midst of auditing and was running against time.

All these things coupled together to prolong the agony for me. I again started to use the painkillers. But, I used only one dose per day. Also, along with painkillers, I also used painkilling ointments and balms at work. All these combined together gave a false sense of security.

I had met my deadline and had finished all the audit work. One day, while sitting at office which was near to my house, I got a call from my wife. She requested me to bring some homeopathic medicines for her. On that day I got a mild fever. I told no to her. But she persisted saying that she was unwell. The medical store was around 1.5 to 2 km from my office. Normally, I know that I can walk any distance. I started walking. Midway, I found that I was tired. After reaching the medical shop, I felt that I had exhausted myself. Nevertheless, I returned home by walk only.

At that time, I did not realize that my legs are weakening. But, I told my wife what happened. She got worried. After two or three days, I recognized that my legs are slowly losing sensation. The feeling of touch was mild. I was walking like a drunken man. My steps were not firm.

My second daughter, 2 years old, sometimes used to fall upon me while I was laying in bed. Sometimes, she would fall upon my private parts which used to bring me a lot of pain. When I was losing sensation of legs, one day, my kid fell upon my private parts again. Then, there was pain but it was not immediately felt. I told my wife about that.

I had some homeopathic books at home. I studied some of them and found that if pain is there at the center point of shoulder bones, it can be T.B. I started to use my own homeopathic medicine apart from Feverol.

Again, we went to the doctor. I told him plainly that I got T.B. He said since there was no cough, there can be no T.B. He again prescribed some tests. Among them was blood test. Normally, I had good blood. Any time a blood test was performed upon me, blood used to come fast onto the syringe. But, at that time, I had to endure much pain because blood was not coming onto the syringe fast enough.

I was thinking that I got some neck problem. After the tests were over, we wanted to go to the doctor. He was busy for two days. I took some antibiotics. Finally, when we caught up with the doctor, he advised us to see some general physician because the problem was not with the bones, but with the fever.

My wife asked me whether I would like to see a general physician. I replied that I needed only an orthopedic.

In the meantime, my appetite had gone fully. Also, I did not visit the lavatory for 15 days. The urge to go is always there, but when I sit there it is not at all coming. Also, there was no urge to urinate. There was no full bladder type urgent calls to the bathroom. I was only visiting the bathroom routinely and emptying the bladder. I told my wife about these two additional symptoms.

Symptoms-2

After the end of the day I was tired. I had no option but to board the bus again.I had no money to pay for auto. In the meanwhile, my appetite slowly started to diminish.My wife used to scold me for eating such small amount of food.

After one month is over and I took my salary, I started to go by auto only and stopped boarding buses altogether. But, I think the damage was already done by then. Fever had not subsided and was mild enough to avoid but sitting posture got me a big trouble by back pain. I changed the doctor. The new doctor told me that I got only a respiratory tract infection and gave some medicines. I did not tell him about my back pain.

In my hometown, there was a good family physician. There, I normally used to have viral fever at least 4 or 5 times a year. He used to give an injection on the first visit with fever and used to prescribe tablet Wikoryl which mainly contained paracetamol in addition to some other compound. He used to prescribe along with Wikoryl, any capsule containing Amoxycillin compound. Fever used to stay for three or four days and used to subside.

With this background, I always thought that this fever was a viral fever and this doctors are not able to prescribe a good medicine like the doctor at my hometown did. But, the back ache perplexed me. So, even when I changed my doctor, I was not happy at his prescription. In consultation with the chemist, I changed the medicines to what my hometown doctor used to prescribe.

But, no respite. In vain, I even tried Homeopathic medicine called Feverol. I thought it had some effect on the fever. Whenever the work is over, I reached home and laid down on bed.

One day, I went to work normally and came back early. That day, the back pain was high and fever was also high. By evening what happened was an eye opener for me. It had shattered the myth that the problem was the fever.

The place at my back where two shoulder bones converge i.e., at the central point ached heavily. Whenever I lifted or moved my hand, the pain at the back was miserable.Even the movement of leg had the same effect. I told my wife about this. She immediately suggested that we should see an orthopedic. My father in law also came with us. I could not walk. The problem is not with the legs as such but whenever I put a step forward or backward, the vibrations touched the central point at the back and it used to ache heavily. Even I could not sit in the auto. Somehow we reached the hospital. My wife had a disk degeneration problem which arose at pregnancy. She was under treatment with the same doctor.

The doctor wrote medicines and prescribed an X ray. He asked whether the fever was first or whether the back pain was first. I was not sure. After a detailed examination, he prescribed medicines.

At home I had some light food. When I wanted to sit up in bed, I could not get up. I took my wife's hand as a support and pulled it hard to sit up. I had such a pain that even now, I am afraid of that incident. I cried loudly and said some thing was wrong with me.

The next day, I woke up well without any pain. I thought the medicines worked well without realizing that they were only pain killers. My fever was also gone in two or three days.

The Symptoms

Normally, we know Tuberculosis which is popularly known as T.B. From childhood days many people know that it is caused by Tuberculosis Bacillus. Many people know that the symptoms would mainly be cough. But it may not always be so. This is why this blog is written about T.B. In medical parlance it is referred to as Koch's.

This is a true story of someone who has suffered from T.B of Spine. I am writing this blog because nobody should suffer the same fate. This person is not myself but someone close to my heart. But, for simplification purposes, I shall tell the happenings in first person only.

Now, the background: I was a medium height and thin person. I could walk any distance without fatigue. My health was okay. I loved travelling. Whenever the opportunity arose, I used to travel.I had a good appetite but not used to eat much at mealtime. I used to eat voraciously in between meals,any snacks that are available at home.

I worked in one city whereas my family stayed put in another city. I used to travel all the way for over 700 kms each week to see my family. Each week, Friday evening I used to catch a train and reach my family's place by next day morning. Vice versa on Sundays.

My family members were quite worried that it carried on for a period of over one year. They convinced me to seek a job in the city that my family were in. So, finally I landed up in here, resigning the job in the other city. But, the pay was less here. I thought okay.

The nature of work is audit. On the first day of work, I had to go by bus to the auditee's workplace. The bus was heavily crowded. I felt a wrong sensation that I have made a mistake by joining in the new job. Moreover, there were too few buses that I had to walk much distance for the bus stop which is situated at other centre so that I could get bus in short time. But, the first day's work went well but physically I was tired. In the bus I was smothered. Outside the bus I had to walk. With all these, at the end of the first day, I got pain in my back.

I worked for over a month with difficulty in bus travel. At the end of the month I got fever. I thought it is only an infection and went to doctor and told about the problem and also told that my back was aching. I took medicines and the fever subsided. Without taking rest, I again travelled to my workplace by bus. This trip was nothing short of hell. I was really squeezed and I regretted my decision to board the bus.