Second Opinion

My parents-in-law have recently moved back home from Pune after three years. Their house is pretty close to ours, about two minutes drive or just enough time to finish off a cigarette on foot (I used to chain-smoke till my wife got pregnant with our first daughter, then I weighed the options and it just wasn’t worth it).
Anyway, around two thirty at night, my father-in-law (FIL, :)) started having problems with his breathing. He had a heart-attack about fifteen years back but had totally refused to be cut open. Instead he had gone for drastic life-style changes. From chain-smoking (ya, him too – I guess that’s why he didn’t mind giving away his daughter to another chain smoker) daily drinker to no smoking and two pegs on Saturday nights. He started brisk walks in the morning, controlled his diet and made a grand effort to control his work related stress. It worked. He did take his daily oral medications control his blood-pressure and thin his blood but overall his health improved and his heart decided to give him a break. Still, arterial blocks don’t ever go away by themselves and it was always a cause for a little concern in the back of our minds.
So night before last my parents-in-law panicked. They tried the usual, Sorbitrate under the tongue, strong coffee, rubbing the soles of the feet. Didn’t help much. Fearing for the worst, she called up at around five-thirty in the morning.
All of you who know me understand that I am not a morning person. I mean, I can function at three in the morning like most people do around dinner time but six in the morning is like the twilight zone. I barely recognize myself.
Still, this was an emergency, so I got up, got dressed at amazing speed and was out before I finished the java Swati, my wife, thrust in my hands. The hunt began for a doctor who would see us this early. I drove around the whole neighborhood with FIL having wheezing fits in the back while my mother-in-law rubbed his back in desperation.
A lot of doctors live in our neighborhood, I mean a lot. But apparently, none of them were visible in our moments of panic. Then I remembered. The former head of cardiac surgery of Bhopal’s biggest government hospital lived near here as well. That’s about as big as it gets. In five minutes we were knocking on his door.
The poor guy came out all groggy in his pajamas. He has a small clinic in his house for disruptions like us at odd hours. He opened his clinic and started with the ECG on FIL. Then he sat at his table and made some notes. After a few minutes, he looked over his half-moon glasses and pronounced in a grave voice that FIL’s heart was enlarged and that was flooding his lungs with blood. The lungs were trying to throw the blood out through the only way they knew how, fits of coughing. While we stood around dumbfounded, he said to get FIL admitted in a hospital.
My FIL distrusts all medical facilities implicitly. He refused. He told the doctor to just give him something for temporary relief so he could at least breathe. The doctor wrote down a few pills and then told him to get at least some of the tests done so they could figure out what was going on. He said he’d think about it, we paid the guy and left. But he was already feeling a better and we had not given him anything yet. Maybe it was the crisp morning air. But on the way back, we did get the oral pills the doctor had written down from a 24/7 chemist near here. I brought FIL back to our house so Swati could keep an eye on him during the day.
Since neither of my parent-in-laws had slept a wink the previous night and were totally pooped (are grown-ups supposed to use this word), they went off to sleep soon.
He got up around noon. Then we tried, me and Swati (or Swati and I) to convince him to go for the tests. At least the diagnostics would give us a clue to his treatment. We finally  cajoled him into going for the x-rays and the blood tests. He refused the color-doppler. He also didn’t want to go to the same doctor again so we took him to our family physician. He only sees patients here in the evenings. His daytime office is about 15 km from here. This guy was a cardiologist a long time ago but now he only practices general medicine. He’s terribly simple and down to earth. You can’t tell that he’s a doctor by looking at his demeanor.
As soon as we enter his clinic, FIL tells him that he is not going to be admitted in any hospital. The doctor, recognizing FIL a little (or at least a FIL type patient), just smiled and told him ok. Then he did his usual tests, blood-pressure, temperature, stethoscope – general physical examination. He asked a lot of questions. Then said not to worry about it. We were shocked. What happened?
Apparently, my in-laws house has been closed for the last three years and only last week these guys have moved back in. So all the dust and the pollen collected over the years in their pillows and mattresses had given FIL an asthmatic attack of sorts. The symptoms were similar. We didn’t know any better and assumed that it was his heart. So did the previous doctor who was ready to get FIL into surgery.
This guy also gave some tests to be done just to make sure. But they are comparatively minor and FIL has no problems with them. The results will be available today evening.
My in-laws slept here last night and today morning FIL is feeling just fine… and no new medicines for the heart. The family doctor just gave something to dilate the wind-pipe and everything was fine, he slept like a log. But yesterday was a heavy day when we were trying to figure out how to convince FIL to go to a hospital.
Now he’s walking around with a smug I-told-you-so look. You were right FIL, here’s to you.
Lesson: Always get a second opinion.