Deductions of a detective.

Nature's fury is thought to be preceded by an eerie calm or a lull.This lulls us into a false sense of security.The deceptive calm,though,to the initiated and perceptive individuals,offers invaluable time to ready themselves,for the storms to follow.

Human ailments have an uncanny knack of behaving in a paradoxical manner.

Yes,Mrs.V,yet again.

The furious tsunami or the raging,unforgiving hurricanes,though,are not even a patch on the storms of arrhythmias,she withstood.In a natural calamity,the annihilation is widespread and engulfs everyone, showing no mercy or favours.The completeness of destruction is more welcome,because it leaves very little trace,behind.Specific,individually targeted,faceless ailment maims unsuspecting human being.It usually catches people off guard,and,even for a trained medical personnel,the vulnerability of the afflicted , in the face of a marauder,is very very painful.The paradoxical sequence of events unfolds as the disease process beats a retreat,either after feasting on the patient meticulously,and systematically(excuse the pun) devouring its prey;or,makes a hasty exit as if it had been a case of mistaken identity.There is always an unparalleled ferocity about acute and critical illnesses,which when abate,seem absolutely surreal,because of the calm,that prevails in the tormented body and the scarred minds of the relations.

You bet, we all were (treating doctors and anxious relations), waiting for peace, to descend on the cot no.2,medical I.C.U.Finally, it did.

I would want to believe that the calm after the storm, had more to do with logic and art of reasoning than any science,at all.If science had anything to do with the eventual breakthrough in diagnosis,then it was an embarrassing process of hit and miss,or the infamous trial and error.Hence,i am certain,science was involved very early in her survival,in the casualty room,but beyond that the processes and methods involved,were based on non-acceptance of what did not seem logical and did not arouse conviction.On the flip side,it was following hunch and intuition about the ailment.It has so transpired in my life,that most defining decisions seem to have had no method or design attached to them.Of course,it may not be so simple,as dissected thread bare by Malcolm Gladwell in his brilliant book- "blink".Such narrative goes a long way in reinforcing and augmenting the process of "thinking from the heart"and putting head to it to make it acceptable to the masses.I honestly do not know,how convincing this may sound and this explanation to arrive at any deductions,which may turn out to be life-saving ones,shall find any takers.But then if you care for takers,for the unconventional and the unorthodox,you shall tread some very well defined ,orderly,time tested methods,which lead to unconvincing methods.

Mrs.V had an unpredictable onset,terrifying disease progression and had the trained staff,behave in a very random and haphazard manner.In any case,conventional wisdom had waned and there was a huge danger of autocratic autonomy taking over,and treatment schedules,totally at the mercy of relatively inexperienced,though always well-meaning, medical staff.

A stage had arrived,where, something had to give.My experience with the resilience of the afflicted had already told me that she was not going,anywhere.Hence, the next logical extension was that it had to be then,the ailment,which had to give.The other significant aspect was that the disease presentation,and the behaviour did not gel with explanations offered by the better endowed(with knowledge and exposure) colleagues.The phenomenon of the lack of conviction in what was professed and propagated as the cause and my lack of belief in what was felt unconvincing,formed the backbone of the newer methods that were employed.The retreat in the past history,and the need to search for a more convincing cause,helped us,in looking at the ailment with renewed vigour and the perceptions got totally altered.

The glaring deficiency,commonly plaguing the medical fraternity,of looking a part of the whole as a whole,was abandoned.Anyway,holistic approach,of healing the mind before the body,and not losing the sight of the individual and his/her compulsion and need,forming the basis of the relationship,between the doctor and the patient are never lost on me.Clarity of approach needs confusion to prevail,as its precursor.Once the clarity had dawned,the methods and the path became simple to follow.There was peace in the mind and firmness to follow methods, that would bear conviction and were not open ended in interpretation.Looseness and laxity had to be replaced by firmness and clarity in approach.A very very firm decision was arrived to take the outcome to its logical end point.Believe me,it was then a cakewalk.