Being a care-giver is tough territory. It is a terrain of the Himalayan altitude. Yes, often your own blood pressure spikes up to dangerous zones, while you are holding your own breath so tight that Sir Edmund Hillary, or his numerous followers, atop Everest with the oxygen cylinder would be breathing much, much more comfortably!
Why so? Well, the answer is obvious. The 'patient' for the medical team is your own flesh n blood, a much loved person, a human being, not a file, not a number! You yourself, moreover, are an absolute novice in the field!
Not so very politely, the doctor on duty lets you know that your 'patient' is occupying a much needed bed. With the take-your-patient-home release order, which incidentally takes an agonising day at least, you are given a list of to-do's. The prescription with its bm and am (means nothing but before/after meal) is as confusing as Mandarin!
The first hour after all have left, and you are "alone, alone, all alone" with the 'patient', you feel lonelier than Coleridge's famous ''ancient mariner." You hold your nerve though, and, voilà, within a span of two to three days, you are an expert at basic patient care so much so that you could be the next Florence Nightingale! Why, as far as 'patient care' goes, I could expertly manage hypodermic injections!
Yet nerve-wrecking is the whole feel. What could be the solution? No, the much-paid-for "mavashi" and " mama" types are more a bother. They need to be taken-care-of, at times, more than the 'patient' because such, such are the mood swings of the pampered dahlings!
I suppose, there is an urgent need of reviving the moribund " family doctor" tradition. Yes, we must have many more "family doctors." A visit a day by "Doctor Uncle" can do wonders, and not merely for the 'patient', but also for the morale of the care-giver! What say, experts and/or interns-on-strike warring over '-pathies'?!?
Pratima@ Should there be summer courses in basic patient care? May be, that could help. Well, of course, a visit to a non-private, a general hospital can cure you of all pretensions, and instantaneously. Such are the sufferings of the much neglected down n out there that you vow to yourself to never ever fall ill!
Quote of the day: "Patients don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." Touché, Theodore Roosevelt
Word of the day: care-giver A care-giver is a person, most often family, who provides direct physical, emotional, or daily support to those who cannot fully care for themselves due to age, illness, injury, or inborn disability.
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