A neuro-rehab story

 I do love to digress and tell stories. Sometimes, i connect with the topic discussed sometimes i forget to connect. I dont know what the audience or students think, but i do enjoy a good story telling with a fact nugget inside it. So here goes,

I have joined BPT and had gone to this one building college which was smaller than my zoology dept where i was studying BSc. We rarely had classes and all morning we have to be in the OPD which  was amazing and also painful at the same time. We were there to do just observe and do simple work what our intern tells us to do- you know basic allakai* (that's a Tamil word- use google translator) work.

The college had a patient- whose name sadly i could not remember - lets call him Mr. Annan. So , he was probably in his late 40s. I think he had a head injury. As you know in many cases with head injury you get a frontal lobe affliction and many patients have issues with orientation. He also sadly had some orientation issues, and many a times will zone out. He was beloved and in those days patients were treated with so much care and understanding (i assume now also). OO, i digress. He was treated diligently by one of my seniors (as I have not asked him will not say his name) who really a big man- I mean not like us bony hardly out of the teen boys and girls.

Mr. X will be in the hospital for hours and he will have all sorts rehabilitation measures. The patient also needed to be reminded constantly about what he was suppose to bedoing. So while making him walk he will stop and just look somewhere. So the Intern could start saying mr. X mr. x and after some time he could respond. It was a challenge and was astonished to see how delicately he was cared for. No! that's not the lesson. He was made to sit on the static cycle and made to ride it as part of his exercise program. once in a while he will stop and stare some where or lose his orientation. So the Intern will keep on reminding him to get back to cycling. 

On that eventful day the patient started looking down and the and the intern was cajoling the patient to start cycle again and why it is important for his rehab. The patient suddenly wiped his head up lifted his hand and gestured to stop. And said the most important lesson i learnt in the 4 years i was in college- He said "riding a cycle is important, but what is the value of riding a cycle which does not go anywhere"

Well you can infer whatever from that. I inferred a life changing lesson in regards to rehab. Hope you also find that a important lesson

epilogue: He did recover sufficiently (again adjective which is may not give clarity) and walked if i remember correctly.