Tag: COPD

What Is Your Kryptonite?

I had never heard of the word Kryptonite till Shackman came up with this topic for this week’s Friday Two On One blog post. Well, you live and learn and I have indeed learned something new.


To answer the specific question that Shackman has asked, for me, it is no brainer that it is my COPD.

I can go on and on about the condition and how I am coping with it but, will spare my readers the agony with just these words. It is a difficult condition to live with but, I manage quite cheerfully and have accepted the limitations that it imposes on my life style.

The other kryptonite most people seem to talk about in their lives are people and I am very glad to say that I do not have any in my life who can be thus classified. Such people do come into my life but, I don’t let them stay in my life. I am quite comfortable without them thank you.

I am sure that Shackman has much more to say about this topic, and I request you to go over to his blog to read that. Thank you.

Gratitude.

The idea for this week’s topic for our weekly 2 on 1 Friday blog post came when I was musing over my life while having my tea, early in the morning, sitting on my comfortable chair in our verandah, enjoying the fresh morning activities in our garden as well as watching the passing parade outside the garden.

There was much to be grateful on that particular morning as the previous evening I had had an attack of gastritis. Earlier in the day, I had over indulged in a favourite sweet dish called Mawa Jalebi that Ranjan had brought home from a Sweet Shop adjacent to the office of one of his clients. Late in the evening, I started feeling uneasy and by 9.00 pm was in great pain below the ribcage and despite taking some readily available antacids from the medicine chest, I was not getting any relief. Ranjan stepped out to check and found that our family doctor, whose clinic is just across the road from our home, was still open for consultation. I rang him up to check if I could come over. He was just about to close shop but, asked me to come over and I landed up at 9.45 pm at his clinic. He examined me and gave me the assurance that I will feel comfortable soon, dispensed some medicine, gave me an injection and I returned home. I started feeling better almost immediately and by 11.00 pm was fast asleep.

I said to myself that morning that, I was grateful for such a considerate son who brought my favourite sweet dish, I had medicines at home for emergency treatment, I was able to consult my family doctor despite the hour being late, at a clinic that was just across the road from my home, and was able to comfortably sleep the pervious night after having spent a very uncomfortable evening.

That reminiscing led me to consider how many things that I was grateful for in my life at that point of time and I drew up a list as follows.

1. A series of developments led me to settle down in Pune and buy a very comfortable home when I had had no plans to do that before those developments. All that happened after our moving to Pune in 1990 in this home, were, experiences that had brought me to this stage of life in my late seventies where, I can comfortably look back at my life and be content. Just imagine, my bank, hair dressing saloon, pedicurist, doctor and grocer are all just across the road from my home. I have many restaurants very near us where I can choose from a wide variety of cuisine to go to, or, order for home delivery.

2. I have a devoted son and a daughter in love, who mollycoddle me and spoil me silly.

3. Despite both hip joints having been replaced and revised twice each, and in addition, afflicted with COPD, I am able to live a comfortable life if not a very active one. I have a home that provides me with comfortable furniture and ambience that allows to live such a life.

4. I have an extended family who support and cheer me almost on a daily basis thanks to modern social media and telephony.

5. I have a wide circle of friends from all over the world who are in regular touch and, who too,  cheer me up considerably.

6. I have enough resources to indulge in my passion for solving crossword puzzles and read.

7. I am blessed with very loyal and efficient help who have been with us for decades and who are now part of our family. They are available to be summoned on a 24/7 basis and that is a great feeling of security when, my son and daughter in love, take the odd vacation and, I have to be alone at home.

8. I have two dogs at home who seem to have ESP and come to be next to me whenever I feel a bit melancholic.  They act like pick me ups that act magically and the mood changes almost instantly.

9.  There are many more smaller things in my life about which I am very grateful, listing of which will however bore my readers.

Let me therefore share the biggest development for which I am most grateful.  It was my doctor ringing me up the following day after my consultation, to check how I was.  When he found me quite cheerful and back to my normal flippant self, he said -” You are very lucky that it was not a heart attack which I had to eliminate first in my examination, as you had pain in your chest.”  I quipped – “Thank God that it was only a fart attack!”

Are you surprised that I am very grateful for a naturally endowed with, sense of humour?

Please do go over to Shackman’s blog to see what he has to say on the topic.  Thank you.

 

What Would You Say To A Younger VersionOf Yourself?

Shackman, who has suggested this title for our weekly 2 on 1 post and I are Senior Citizens with some grand stories in our past. No doubt that this has influenced his choice of the title and I welcome it as, you can see from byline, I believe that all of us are wiser by hindsight.

The first thing that I would say to a younger myself is NOT TO SMOKE. I smoked cigarettes mostly, pipes and cigars on occasion, from when I was 16 years old till just four years ago. I am now rewarded with COPD and its attendant problems.

The second thing that I would say will be – Choose a career where you can spend a lot of time with your family. I did not and that is the greatest regret that I now have of not having found the time to do so many things that I wanted to do with my late wife and son when we were young.

The third thing would be – Learn to communicate effectively instead of efficiently. I lost out on some good relationships because of ineffective communication which led to misunderstandings.

The fourth thing that I would say – Keep your expectations low and learn to deliver more than you promise. I failed on both on a few occasions to much regret later.

“The hero journey is one of the universal patterns through which that radiance shows brightly. What I think is that a good life is one hero journey after another. Over and over again, you are called to the realm of adventure, you are called to new horizons. Each time, there is the same problem: do I dare? And then if you do dare, the dangers are there, and the help also, and the fulfillment or the fiasco. There’s always the possibility of a fiasco.

But there’s also the possibility of bliss.” (Joseph Campbell, Pathways to Bliss. 2004. p 135.)

And to close on a humorous note, have your escapades in ground floor flats.

Do please go over to Shackman’s blog to see what he has to say on the topic that he chose.

Imperfections.


“I thought we were supposed to judge in proportion to our defects? Isn’t it the first hand experience that permits us to better judge?”

The above comments are from Looney for my blog post Walk. The image that elicited this response is this:

Looney has got my creative juices flowing with his comments that I thought it best that I get Shackman also to offer his two bits on the same topic without the background of Looney’s comments to get a different perspective. You can see what he has to say on this, our Friday 2 on 1 blog post here.

Let me start by looking at it from my imperfections or defects, keeping the blog post Walk in context. Both my hip joints have been replaced and revised, I walk with a limp and with considerable difficulty. This handicap also prevents vigorous exercise and so I find it difficult to reduce weight using normal routines. I am also blessed with COPD. I am not giving excuses but, this are facts of life for me. Before the second revision of one of the replaced hip joints and the onslaught of COPD, I was an avid walker and had managed to keep my weight down. After that surgery, it has not been possible for me to that.

When I see some one else obese, without a similar background, I find it difficult to understand why that person cannot exercise to lose weight. On the other hand, when I find someone without such handicaps exercising and / or dieting, I cannot help feel jealous while at the same time applauding them.

So, to answer Looney’s question, yes, first hand experience permits us to better judge.

Proceeding further, while the health issues of obesity need not be overstated, the aesthetic aspect of it has taken alarming proportions due to an industry that hopes to gain by condemning large bodies. I would like to introduce here a remarkable phenomenon called Wabi Sabi from Japan that celebrates imprefections which in my opinion includes plus sized human bodies! I quote – “In traditional Japanese aesthetics, wabi-sabi (侘寂) is a world view centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of beauty that is “imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete”

To conclude however, I would like to sign off with my own preference. Be non judgemental in all situations and just accept people, things and situations as they are. I am not there yet but, hope to reach there ere too long.

A Good Night’s Sleep – Hopefully.

Since about two months ago I have been having constant pain in the upper back and finally it was diagnosed about two weeks ago as fibromyalgia. During the day time it is manageable but when I sleep if I have either the fan on or the air conditioner on, the pain increases and affects my sleep. If I don’t use either, mosquitoes trouble me and disturb the sleep. This year particularly, due to heavy pollution of our rivers with water hyacinth which is being removed but not as fast as I would like, the mosquito menace is higher than normal.

When we had first moved into our present home 28 years ago, we were more or less on the fringes of our city abutting farm lands, stud farms and woods. At that time since mosquito repellents were not available, we had taken recourse to nets. After a while we stopped using the nets as repellents were available but, now I find that my COPD gets aggravated if repellents are used. I therefore decided to go back to the good old mosquito nets and my daughter in love happily tooted off earlier this afternoon to fetch me one from the city.

The net hangs from a hook on the ceiling. The hook was inserted in 1990 when we had just bought the house. It is still strong enough to support the weight of the net!

Behind the bed to the right you can see parts of a chest of drawers. That is an antique piece made in Rhodesia in the fifties of the last century. I purchased it from a home returning expat in 1975 when it was already a quarter century old. It is still sturdy and very serviceable. Just above the chest you can see parts of a photograph. That is of my late wife Urmeela. From wherever she is, she would be happy to see me going back to the mosquito net!

I hope to be able to sleep soundly tonight.

Cause And Effect.


No, I don’t intend to bore my readers with Newton’s third law or the butterfly effect. I simply want to share a few stories.

I smoked cigarettes and cigars from when I was about thirteen years old till just a few years ago. I quit too late. I am now saddled with COPD. The last time I saw a pulmonologist was an event marked by humour for him and shock for me. He said that nothing can be done to reverse the damage done and that I had to learn to live with it. He said that it was a classic instance of the theory of karma manifesting itself. Smoking the cause and COPD the effect. He further added that I must have had a lot of good karma in my ledger because I escaped getting cancer of the lung. Thank God for mercies!

It is no big deal. I have accepted my condition and the limitations it puts on my life. I enjoy myself to the extent possible within the limits imposed on me by the condition.

And that brings me to the cause for that ability of being equanimous.

I started to meditate with TM when I was 35 years old. I graduated to a more rigourous technique called Vipassana when I was 41 years old and have continued to practice regularly since then. I have attended many retreats and have read widely on the benefits of meditation and can vouch for its efficacy in my personal life. Cause – Meditation, Effect – Equanimity and joyful living.

One more story and I will conclude this weekly Friday LBC post.

I met with an accident that damaged both my hip joints. That was the cause. Effect, replaced hip joints, causing wear and tear to the prostheses, resulting in revisions and so on. Another effect, I have been using a cane / walking stick since 1981.  It has its advantages as younger folk seeing me with my cane defer to me in queues and even offer seats!

I have suggested this week’s topic. You can see what the other writers of the LBC have to say in their respective blogs.  Maria, Pravin, Ashok and Shackman.