Sunday, February 27, 2011

The Fight Continues.......

The battle continues, with small victories and defeats on the way....but intention is to win the war and not every single battle in it..so if I am defeated, I will rise and come back with more energy.

To win it does not matter how hard you punch, but what matters is how hard a punch you can take and still continue the fight..same with life.

We continue to fight Akshath's deformity of his legs - a condition named "Bilateral Clubfoot" - where both his foot are bent 90 degrees inward and downward - a congenital deformity that prevents him from walking. Having diagnosed this when he was in his womb, there was all the medical reasons that asked us to quit the pregnancy - but we didn't and persisted. Did all the medical procedures and amniotic fluid test to re-confirm is here is any chromosomal abnormality. The tests strengthened our belief and we continued. We wanted to give the guys all the chances to fight this out and that was the reason why we didn't want to quit in between.

Once he was born, after examination - it was said that the severity of the deformity is quite on the higher side and it would be a tough,painful and tedious way to get it cured. But the only positive aspect was that it was curable and that's what we wanted...these pains,scars can be faced with. Then the process started immediately after Akshath's birth. Every week his legs were manipulated and a thick paster of paris casts were put on from the top of his thigh to the toes, his entire bottom was covered with just enough space for him to pass his 1 and 2. Every thursday we need to go to the hospital, his casts were removed, his legs were again manipulated and a fresh set of casts were applied. This continued for 8weeks. These period of time was extremely difficult for Akshath, since due to the pain and discomfort he was always be crying and it was even more difficult for us since there were lot of practical issues on the way. We can't give hime bath, had to put him only on diapers since urine should not react with the plaster of paris casts, as it might caused irritation and blisters. It would be quite difficult to lift him with the heavy casts and due to the heavy casts he was in some kind of distress and so on.....
No parent can stand to see their progeny in pain and discomfort for such a long period. But no other choice, we need to continue and move along with the right treatment. During each week, his legs were progressively manipulated and slowly turned outward and finally after 8wks, the doc told that he is now ready for the surgery. The difficult part was that we need to stop feeding him 4hrs before the surgery, since they would give him GA.Somehow we passed this and fortunately his surgery started early in the morning at 7am.It lasted for 1.5hrs and the next week was extremely difficult since he was in great pain and was not taking any feed. Then he slowly settled and we were told that his casts should be in for the another 4wks. After this painful period, last Thursday his casts were removed and the doc told that he next line of treatment was to put Akshath's legs on a special brace that would told his legs in a desired outward angle. We need to keep this brace 23hrs/day for the next 3-4 months and after that 12hrs/day until he is 3yrs old at least. Though we have now crossed at least 50% of the hurdle, each stage seems to be more difficult that the previous one. With this boots and bar, we need to turn the position and the legs&foot and put the brace very tightly and it is very difficult to see Akshath crying in pain during this procedure on a daily basis. Doc told us that it would take a week or so for him to get settled and until that time, we need to do whatever we can from our side.We are at least happy that we can now give him a bath daily- this is a luxury now, since we were not able to do this in the previous stages of the treatment.

So the battle still continues to make Akshath better; during these personal adversity there were periods of emotional upheavals and the situation was just overwhelming.But we learned to be there and the most important lesson we learnt - was not to quit and give up. I am sure having crossed 50% , we can face the remaining and come of victorious. Who says life is easy - Life is difficult, once we understood this - we got the energy to tackle the issues. Giving your progeny all the chances to walk is of paramount importance that anything else. As long as life is there - there will be struggle!

Friday, February 18, 2011

The art of Boxing

In boxing - to win, it does not matter how hard you punch. What matters is how hard a punch you acn take and still continue fighting. Same is very true with life