Though the average life expectancy of a male Keralite is 75
years, it is only when you hit your 60s that you feel to have reached the right
side of your life span. It is now a few months left for me to hit that
milestone to be officially callled a ‘senior citizen’.
Generally it is observed that people in their late 60s or
mid 70s will have the occasion to undergo cataract surgery of the eye but for
me, it happened right at 59. Therefore, am l so lucky to do the cataract
surgery this early? “Just don’t worry”, my ophthalmologist said when I was
consulting him. “There had been many cases where people in their late 40s and
early 50s getting the cataract surgery done. So, I don’t see anything
exceptional in your case. Besides you are undergoing the surgery when you are
healthy. So, it is good to get it done early”. His expert comments were
reassuring. One way I have been lucky to undergo the surgery by the hands of Dr
Sony George, a very knowledgeable, experienced and reputed eye specialist in
Cochin, now heading ophthalmology department in Medical Trust Hospital, who
also is my club member and a great fan of my oratory skills. So, we are a
mutual admiration society!
During consultancy, Dr Sony enthusiastically advised me to
go for a multi-focal lens than the normal mono-focal one, describing its
advantages for a person like me who read a lot, also saying that with a
multi-focal lens, one could even do away with spectacles. Because the doctor was
was my reliable friend, I purposely didn’t go online/google to fetch more
details of the types of lenses and agreed to go for a multi-focal one. Was he
disappointed because I did not go for the latest and best lens but decided on a
medium multi-focal one? I cannot tell and I do believe that he was okay with my
call.
It was the right eye and we fixed the D day on 6th February,
my 30th wedding anniversary day! Why did I chose the anniversary day for
surgery? May be, doing a milestone surgery on a rememberable day, will turn the
drudgery of surgery into a celebration! Why not?
Medical Trust is an old but reliable hospital, originally
started by Dr Verghese Pulikkan, with financial, moral and administrative
support from the great MKK Nayar IAS, then Chairman of FACT Ltd., the doyen in
the field of Administration an Management in Kerala who shaped up FACT into the
country’s top fertilizer manufacturing company. He was a visionary leader and a
philanthropist too. Dr Pulikkan, a very nice, charming doctor caught the
attention of MKK to be helped, to set up the state’s first corporate
hospital!
But being the first and therefore old, has its own
disadvantages too. Its culture and legacy doesn’t match up with the 21st
century new-gen hospitals. Everyone, from top to bottom behaves in the ‘giver’
mode and so you can’t expect behavioural niceties and courtesies like the one
you get from a modern day institutions. However, MTH has an efficient working
system and some of the doctors here such as Saji Kuruttukulam, Sony George etc
are top notch in their field. And, I am safely in the hands of one such
doctor.
On the 6th morning my daughter from Bangalore wished me on
WhatsApp with a graphics greeting saying, “keep calm and trust your
ophthalmologist” and I duly forwarded it to the doctor. After an early
breakfast at home Shali, my dear wife celebrating her 30th wedding anniversary
with me, and I left for MTH and at 7 AM reported at the hospital and took the
room. The nurses there took my measurements and gave me a tetanus injection and
after changing into sterile OT clothes, I was wheeled into the OT at close to
10 AM. To go to the ophthalmology OT one has to pass through the Transplant ICU
and there I saw an anesthetized patient spreadeagled alone on a slanted bed
with all sorts of equipments and sensors connected to him. It was definitely
not a reassuring view.
We (the nurse and I on the wheel chair) reached the ante
room of OT. Already there were two eye surgery patients and a orthopaedic one
waiting in the room. Ortho OT is adjacent to the eye OT. I didn’t like it being
there. Very insipid room with multi diseases patient on the queue having
unimpressive chatter box nurses in very insipid green OT clothes frequenting it
up and down. The nurses were efficient but not that empathetic and their
conversation were businesslike (“acha, etha kannu, tetanus injection edutho?
etc). The thoughts that splashed through my was the mobile phone alert “you are
on the queue, please wait”. It was a good wait (my turn was second) and I dozed
off. In between while sleeping, and I hazely remember Dr Sony walking in and
wishing me before going to the OT.
My turn came and I was taken to the OT. A beaming Dr Sony
welcomed me on to the OT bed. I didn’t have any fear or apprehension. But what
came into my thoughts at that time was of Professor M Krishnan Nair, my son in
law’s grand father, (someone whom I had read plenty and therefore revered) the
renowned Malayalam critic and writer, seeking reassurance from his eye surgeon
again and again of getting back his eyesight, even while on the OT table.
Because, for him, a voracious reader, eyesight was everything and if he lost it
that would have been the end! Though I thought of it, I wasn’t worried at
all.
The topical anaesthesia (something of a rarity that could only be performed by an experienced, skillful surgeon, otherwise it is local anesthesia which calls for a dangerous injection on the eye) took the sensations away and doctor
Sony went into work. I was asked to focus on the 3 lights coming from the lamps
above my eyes. Then it was all the vroom sounds of the motors and different
types of alarms. Occasionally, Dr Sony talked to me to be steady and not to
move my head much. Frankly, I didn’t feel any incision happening or the
multifocal lens being put inside. The lights, the frequently falling water on
my right eye from the device above through the tube and instructions of Dr Sony
to his team were all I remember of the operation. Some ten minutes later, Dr
Sony said that it was over and I was aske sit and then get up. He got a photo
of me made with him on the mobile phone camera with the V sign, I was asked to
return to my room saying that he will meet me in the afternoon and he went back
to preparing for the third operation of the day. I walked out with the nurse to
the anteroom from where after a little wait, the ward nurse came over and took
me to my room at the hospital.
Actually, surgeries these days are hitech affairs. With
anaesthesia on, a patient will hardly know what is happening. The equipment and
the experience of the doctor using it are things that matter. In the end you
hear that it is over and that is it. Since the doctor was known to me and the
equipments were world class, why worry at all?
The first post operative phase is what I am on now. I wear a
plastic transparent frame over my eyes so that my hands will not unnecessarily
touch my eyes that could lead to infection. Actually the medication (5 or six
different eye drops periodically being applied every 15/30 minutes have been a
big challenge (notwithstanding the fact that I did nothing and it was all done
by my dear wife). Still, lying on the bed, always being inside the home the
with the eye sight slowly returning to normal, with all precautions taken to
avoid infection (no head bath, no sleeping on the right side, always wearing
the frame etc) need real discipline (that I do not have) and that was not all
that enjoyable. These are the challenges of getting aged, you better take it in
and undergo it positively so that it will help you go through the phase
better
