Been there, done that!!

Let me start of by saying that I am writing this stuff down coz I find it funny. Funny things are to be shared with the world, so here goes…

Being in a car crash 12 years ago, I’ve had to live my life trying to almost always see the sunnier side of things. If I hadn’t done that, I would be depressed and frustrated and without a meaning in my life..

Over these past years, many well-wishers have helped me through my struggle to be something. I want to leave a mark on the world, I want to be famous!!!
These are a few incidences where my well-wishers have tried to help but have ended up giving me a good laugh.

Once I was out of hospital after 11 months, I got home to live with my dear grandmother and my younger sister. A few months after this, a friend said that one of our neighbours had heard about our accident and wanted to meet me. Apparently, this man was a physiotherapist and my grandmother thought I could only benefit from his visit. We invited him over. On examining me, he said, “ I have a solution that can make her walk”. I am paralyzed chest down with a spinal cord injury and all the possibilities of me walking have been turned down by the best doctors. So, now this gentleman is going to give me a solution and make me walk!! Cool or what? My grandmother could not have been happier and we wanted to know how this was possible. He then suggested, “get her legs amputated from above the thigh, we’ll get artificial limbs made for her and she will be able to walk with them. Good God! I was totally shocked. I had lost my parents, my dog and my life just about a year back and he wanted my legs to go too!! My granny was outraged. She told him he had absolutely no sense and asked him to leave. I had never seen her so angry before. It was like she had been asked to get her own legs amputated. Some people!!

There were many more. A friend visited me one day with a couple of his cousins. I was up on my wheelchair and my legs were elevated onto another chair to avoid swelling which I often got. After awhile, one of the guys asked in a soft voice, “May I ask you something, hope you don’t feel bad”. I said sure go ahead and ask! “Do your toenails grow?” Huh!! Excuse me I said… What makes you think my toenails don’t grow?? Well, he said, “you can’t feel anything below your chest so I was wondering if your toenails still grow”. Oh yes the definitely grow buddy!! Why wouldn’t they?

A neighbour and a homeopath asked a friend of mine who lived in his building, “Can I meet Sanam?” I was once again eager. Knowing he would be a professional and might be able to help, I said yes!! After checking me, he gave me some sweet tablets, the usual homeopathic medicine. What he said next almost threw me off my chair… He said, “Take these and please try and stand up everyday, try moving your toes and then legs and stand. It might take a few days but you have to try”. I had just spent half an hour explaining to him that I was spinally injured, paralyzed chest down, with no sensation whatsoever and he wants me to move my legs and stand up. Now people reading this, I don’t want to sound pessimistic and negative, but you must understand that what I have are severed nerves and that "can’t" be treated without surgery. There are a lot of stem cell treatments now, but all in the preliminary experimental stages and that too with no guarantee. So, this man being a doctor should have known better, don’t you think so??

My recent visit to the hospital really made me mad. I was wheeled into the x-ray department for a x-ray of my left leg. My husband accompanied me as always and was trying to shift me from the stretcher to the x-ray table. The technician wanted me to turn a little on the small table. We explained to him that I was paralyzed on which he said, “I’m sure you can move just a little”. Hello!! "NO", I can’t move a millimeter on my own. He still would not understand. I mean if there was some depressed person instead of me, they would have broken down completely. Atleast hospital staff should be able to relate to the patient. A few days later, I was advised a chest x-ray and the same technician attended to me, this time in my room. After placing the film behind my back, he said, “Madam, could you please shift to the left” Gawsh!! How dumb can he be!!

To sum it all up, I’ve tried it all. Allopathy, homeopathy, ayurvedic all gone down my system with no results. Yoga, spiritual healers and astrology… been there and done that!
Still waiting for the right surgical treatment to get me back on my feet!