It was pleasant, shiny morning in last August. Continuous jogging for 30 minutes, followed by 15 minutes of brisk walk. It is time to do some stretch exercises. I finished that too. Took a deep breath, felt so good. Checked in my calendar on the mobile whether I completed all items as per my work out schedule, oh man, I forgot the warm up exercise before jogging, doesn't matter, I can't do much about it now. How convenient life is now a days? One can have the calendar on his finger tips. During my younger days I had to run from one end of the house to the other to look at the calendar. Those inconvenient random runs saved me from the current well-planned, forced workouts though !
I sank on to the cement floor in the park. I felt proud of my self, I am so fit. Things are so smooth for last couple of months. Body is working like a well oiled machine. No cold, fever or even a cough. Not at all getting angry with anybody unnecessarily or otherwise, BP should be normal. Not feeling thirsty or hungry very often, not diabetic too. Why think more, not even a mild head ache which would be symptom for 101 known and unknown ailments.
Shouldn't I think of my economics now ? I didn't have to spend anything on medication in these 2 months. I did a quick math to see how much I saved. I should invest this amount in certain mid-cap stocks today itself and double it in next 3 months. With those pleasant thoughts and excitement, I got up from the cement bench rather quickly. I couldn't stop crying, "Ouch it pains". There was a sudden surge of pain in my lower back. I sadly realized that all my mid-cap plans are about to go ( or already mid way through) with the wind.
It is interesting to narrate what all happened after that. This pain was not new to me. I had it a few years back at same place, with the same intensity. I had ignored that time and it had gone. So with lots of confidence I completely ignored it this time also. Who says past tricks don't work ? It worked, but only for a few days. Pain reappeared, rather strongly. I couldn't even bend down quickly and wipe off the spilled tea on the floor, before my wife sees it !
As usual I took some self and private ( by private I mean not to make it evident to others especially to my wife ) steps. I took a deep breath, squatted 5 times, though the original plan was for 10. Put some haldi in warm milk ( medicine for most of the old generation ailments ) and gulped it down, closing my nose and eyes. It worked only for a few days. The pain was back again with a vengeance.
Time has come for me to enter into the second stage of self cure, apply IODEX. The smell of IODEX is so pungent and far reaching, why my wife, even my neighbors would smell my back pain. So I have to announce this to my wife at least. Convincing my wife that all is well, it is just a mild pain, (otherwise she would start telling me to go and meet an expert) I started applying handful of IODEX for a few more days. I didn't stop there. Parallely I did google to understand the anatomy of spine, causes and remedies for back pain, dos and don'ts, expert advice, did a detailed research and followed their tips. No luck. Pain was on the rise all the while.
I retired to bed that day, fully exhausted after a busy schedule. The worries on my ever rising back pain surfaced then and I knew that it will take a while for me to go to sleep, even though I was tired. Then my wife reads out loudly some thing from her favorite women's magazine for my education. That's one of the many moments I had felt good that I am born & brought up in India not in the US. Had it been in the US, I would have shot my wife point blank, then and there, using my licensed gun.
"Many a times back pains are symptoms of acute kidney failures, so it is advisable to get expert opinion immediately if one is suffering from back pains for more than a week" - she read out. She very well knows that I have a back pain. Doesn't she know that reading out this from that stupid magazine would make me sleepless for the whole night, worrying about my ailing kidney ? Sad thing is that unlike my back, kidney is not some thing I can touch and feel and console my self that the situation is not all that bad. Or was it her ploy to drag me to an expert ?
Her trick worked.That night I didn't sleep. The moment I close my eyes, page 212 of my 8th standard biology text book appears with a bean shaped kidney explaining its functions. I realised that mugging word by word that text book of the most hated subject of mine is troubling me, very badly. The kidney I see is not as clean as in the text book. Damaged here and there, ruptured, swollen, bleeding. Very similar to the picture of pair of lungs appears in a cigarette pack. How can I sleep ? Next day morning, fixed up appointment with the ortho-pediatrician.
To my pleasant surprise, he just did a cursory check and declared that there are no major issues. By aging, wear and tear has happened. Suggested a few exercises, recommended a stronger gel than IODEX and cautioned me to be more careful ( when I wasn't ? I was never careless deliberately through out my life !). I thanked him for being reasonable, not asking to go for scans, X-rays etc, holding back half of the gratitude to express in due course only if what ever he says turns out to be true. I can hold back only that, not his fees right?
Till date things look fine, but a few questions bother me. What made me delay to go to an expert.
a. Is it because he may puncture a hole in my pocket ?
b. Will he dig more dangerous things out and I may perish soon by just worrying about those?
c. Am I not an expert my self, so why go to another expert ?
e. Would I feel inferior as he knows more than me ?
f. Am I shy that he may strip me off in front of those female nurses and keep on examining the whole body till he finds some clues?
g. Do I hesitate to meet strangers ?
h. none of the above
i. all of the above
(Doesn't this look like an aptitude test which you wrote and forgotten about long time back ? )
I don't have one answer to it, but it could be a combination of many of the above, it is definitely not none of the above !
Still, the dilemma does exit - when should one approach an expert. If you go too early, he will take you for a ride. If you go too late, you may not need an expert, it would be a done deal. This gives scope for a novel idea to develop an app for this. Now, its app season, why not one more. There are apps that analyse mood swings and tell you when to take bath, analyse your eating pattern and suggest you whether to go for a full apple or a half - that too whether in the morning or noon. The recent one I saw was the app which can help you draft and send a decent resignation letter to your boss when you are quitting ( If you write your own, it will never be all that decent !!)
My proposed app would require not only software, a bit of hardware and firmware embedded into the body. It will monitor a few parameters, will ask you to give a few details about the problem to key in and then it will set a threshold level. If you try to go to an expert before the threshold it will tell " Are you kidding? too early ! either do nothing or continue self remedies ". If it reaches the threshold it will scold you " hey moron, why are you sitting here. Go and meet an expert".
Did I lose an opportunity to patent this idea by making it public ? I am not sure. This idea might have already patented much higher level, to know that I would need to give a fortune to the lawyer to do a patent search. For all that matter this app may already be up for sale in the market, don't know. If that is not the case, then I definitely lost an opportunity to make some quick bucks. Who cares for money ? Not any more. Health is Wealth.
Before I conclude, may I humbly request to those who know my wife, to advise her to refrain from reading alound in my presence, articles/tips from those women magazines. I can look forward to sleep calmly then.
I sank on to the cement floor in the park. I felt proud of my self, I am so fit. Things are so smooth for last couple of months. Body is working like a well oiled machine. No cold, fever or even a cough. Not at all getting angry with anybody unnecessarily or otherwise, BP should be normal. Not feeling thirsty or hungry very often, not diabetic too. Why think more, not even a mild head ache which would be symptom for 101 known and unknown ailments.
Shouldn't I think of my economics now ? I didn't have to spend anything on medication in these 2 months. I did a quick math to see how much I saved. I should invest this amount in certain mid-cap stocks today itself and double it in next 3 months. With those pleasant thoughts and excitement, I got up from the cement bench rather quickly. I couldn't stop crying, "Ouch it pains". There was a sudden surge of pain in my lower back. I sadly realized that all my mid-cap plans are about to go ( or already mid way through) with the wind.
It is interesting to narrate what all happened after that. This pain was not new to me. I had it a few years back at same place, with the same intensity. I had ignored that time and it had gone. So with lots of confidence I completely ignored it this time also. Who says past tricks don't work ? It worked, but only for a few days. Pain reappeared, rather strongly. I couldn't even bend down quickly and wipe off the spilled tea on the floor, before my wife sees it !
As usual I took some self and private ( by private I mean not to make it evident to others especially to my wife ) steps. I took a deep breath, squatted 5 times, though the original plan was for 10. Put some haldi in warm milk ( medicine for most of the old generation ailments ) and gulped it down, closing my nose and eyes. It worked only for a few days. The pain was back again with a vengeance.
Time has come for me to enter into the second stage of self cure, apply IODEX. The smell of IODEX is so pungent and far reaching, why my wife, even my neighbors would smell my back pain. So I have to announce this to my wife at least. Convincing my wife that all is well, it is just a mild pain, (otherwise she would start telling me to go and meet an expert) I started applying handful of IODEX for a few more days. I didn't stop there. Parallely I did google to understand the anatomy of spine, causes and remedies for back pain, dos and don'ts, expert advice, did a detailed research and followed their tips. No luck. Pain was on the rise all the while.
I retired to bed that day, fully exhausted after a busy schedule. The worries on my ever rising back pain surfaced then and I knew that it will take a while for me to go to sleep, even though I was tired. Then my wife reads out loudly some thing from her favorite women's magazine for my education. That's one of the many moments I had felt good that I am born & brought up in India not in the US. Had it been in the US, I would have shot my wife point blank, then and there, using my licensed gun.
"Many a times back pains are symptoms of acute kidney failures, so it is advisable to get expert opinion immediately if one is suffering from back pains for more than a week" - she read out. She very well knows that I have a back pain. Doesn't she know that reading out this from that stupid magazine would make me sleepless for the whole night, worrying about my ailing kidney ? Sad thing is that unlike my back, kidney is not some thing I can touch and feel and console my self that the situation is not all that bad. Or was it her ploy to drag me to an expert ?
Her trick worked.That night I didn't sleep. The moment I close my eyes, page 212 of my 8th standard biology text book appears with a bean shaped kidney explaining its functions. I realised that mugging word by word that text book of the most hated subject of mine is troubling me, very badly. The kidney I see is not as clean as in the text book. Damaged here and there, ruptured, swollen, bleeding. Very similar to the picture of pair of lungs appears in a cigarette pack. How can I sleep ? Next day morning, fixed up appointment with the ortho-pediatrician.
To my pleasant surprise, he just did a cursory check and declared that there are no major issues. By aging, wear and tear has happened. Suggested a few exercises, recommended a stronger gel than IODEX and cautioned me to be more careful ( when I wasn't ? I was never careless deliberately through out my life !). I thanked him for being reasonable, not asking to go for scans, X-rays etc, holding back half of the gratitude to express in due course only if what ever he says turns out to be true. I can hold back only that, not his fees right?
Till date things look fine, but a few questions bother me. What made me delay to go to an expert.
a. Is it because he may puncture a hole in my pocket ?
b. Will he dig more dangerous things out and I may perish soon by just worrying about those?
c. Am I not an expert my self, so why go to another expert ?
e. Would I feel inferior as he knows more than me ?
f. Am I shy that he may strip me off in front of those female nurses and keep on examining the whole body till he finds some clues?
g. Do I hesitate to meet strangers ?
h. none of the above
i. all of the above
(Doesn't this look like an aptitude test which you wrote and forgotten about long time back ? )
I don't have one answer to it, but it could be a combination of many of the above, it is definitely not none of the above !
Still, the dilemma does exit - when should one approach an expert. If you go too early, he will take you for a ride. If you go too late, you may not need an expert, it would be a done deal. This gives scope for a novel idea to develop an app for this. Now, its app season, why not one more. There are apps that analyse mood swings and tell you when to take bath, analyse your eating pattern and suggest you whether to go for a full apple or a half - that too whether in the morning or noon. The recent one I saw was the app which can help you draft and send a decent resignation letter to your boss when you are quitting ( If you write your own, it will never be all that decent !!)
My proposed app would require not only software, a bit of hardware and firmware embedded into the body. It will monitor a few parameters, will ask you to give a few details about the problem to key in and then it will set a threshold level. If you try to go to an expert before the threshold it will tell " Are you kidding? too early ! either do nothing or continue self remedies ". If it reaches the threshold it will scold you " hey moron, why are you sitting here. Go and meet an expert".
Did I lose an opportunity to patent this idea by making it public ? I am not sure. This idea might have already patented much higher level, to know that I would need to give a fortune to the lawyer to do a patent search. For all that matter this app may already be up for sale in the market, don't know. If that is not the case, then I definitely lost an opportunity to make some quick bucks. Who cares for money ? Not any more. Health is Wealth.
Before I conclude, may I humbly request to those who know my wife, to advise her to refrain from reading alound in my presence, articles/tips from those women magazines. I can look forward to sleep calmly then.
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