It was one day of spring time in the year 2004. As the dawn crept secretly in the sky shedding it off of its darkness, the city of Delhi waited for the new day to begin. For most of them , it was like a just another day for most of them except Varun. He stayed in the heart of the city of New Delhi, a little bit closer to west Delhi. It was not just a day for him but a nightmare had come true. As a child he had been always played in the close vicinity of his parents, tagged as weak and scrawny kid in school, he took all the abuse with a broad smile on his face.
In the night time, he would curse himself for being so weak and tiresome all the time. Many a times he suffered from a broken hand or a broken leg. Till the time he was eighteen, he had suffered a multiple fractures. The day was when he was getting ready to go to Pune. He had taken admission in engineering college in Pune. The only problem was tht he was not ready to accept to the fact that he is going to stay away, in fact far away from his parents. It was not that much of a big issue, but it was going to happen for 4 long years.
Dressed in a white tee and blue denim jeans, he ready to face the world for the very first time. Deepak, his father, a man with strong principles was very happy. He was the one man in his whole family who had earned his bread all by himself. Being a self made man, he was stubborn, but not selfish. He was extremely happy to send Varun to pursue his dream. From outside he was rock solid, from inside, he was worried. How he will be able to cope up? Still he was content to have his son sent to do engineering.
Varun's flight landed at the pune airport. He was happy and sad, both at the same time. But he didn't let it show on his face. Staying satisfied was the only thing he had been taught. Both the parents left Pune the next day as Varun's classes had begun. The ultimate fear came along with it. The fear of ragging which made even the worst nightmares of the students even more worse. But luckily Varun was able to get along with it quite easily. Staying out, he had to eat outside food at the restaurants quite frequently. The problem was obvious, stomach upsets, diarrhoea, nausea and many other sorts of troubles which usually happens in an old age.
After eating many medicines for a long time, he literally wanted to commit suicide. He ate more medicines than food. Life became a horrible roller coaster ride which made him fall prey to the medicines but succumb to the outside food. Everything went alright till the four years with his health facing highs and lows every second day of the week or so, but all he could do was to ignore the symptoms. He blindly took medicines and kept on moving forward.
It was early December in the year 2008. Yes he had made to the final year of his engineering. He was sitting, excited about the life after engineering that he would see. Holding the book of Bio Medical engineering, he was busy revising for the upcoming exam to be held the next day. A ring of the doorbell distracted his study. It was a guy who was around 23 years old. Holding a pen drive in his hand, he offered one for a mere price of Rs 2000 which was worth 4000 in the market. Being a technology lover, it was difficult for him to ignore such a deal. He immediately fumbled with his wallet and handed over the lump of notes totaling Rs 2000 to him. The guy being so happy, left the place.
Like a curious kid, Varun sat below on his knees to insert the pen drive in the system as the port was at lower height. Raising himself up was not usual as any other day. He heard a cracking sound and he was on the floor, lying, holding his right knee. It became impossible for him to even stand up. After some time, he was shocked to see his right knee was swollen to almost double the size of the left one. He had no choice but to give exams in that condition only. The doctors had requested an MRI scan. It revealed a tear in the ACL, the shock absorbers of the knee or in layman terms, he suffered from a ligament tear.
As he arrived Delhi the next week, he rushed to the knee specialist. He was a tall man with gray hair, but a pink shining face. As other doctors demanded, he ordered me to lie on my back. He performed all his tests on his legs, asked many questions. The conclusion he drew out from the discussion was that the MRI report was wrong. Varun's jaw dropped. He stood agape at the freaking old man. The doctor quickly wrote down a few tests on his prescription and told Varun to get them done as soon as possible.
The very next evening, Varun found himself again in the same room with the doctor. The news that came as a shock to Varun was his Thyroid profile. He was suffering from HYPOTHYROIDISM which was probably the cause of his all the health problems and the only thing that led to his knee problem. After that day, with proper diet, proper medication and slight changes in his lifestyle, he is leading a normal life again which he could have lived earlier if he hadn't ignored the SIGNS.
My worthy request to all you out there, there is only one life. Let's strive to make it healthy, therefore worth living. So the moral of the story is, never ignore even the smallest signal given by your body. Listen to it carefully.
This post is written for the campaign "Moral of the Story is............" organized by Indiblogger. Do check out the link My Healthy Speak Blog
