Every Day Counts!

-

 "But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth."

-Thich Nhat Hanh, The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation



During my stint in a general hospital, we had a patient of admitted in the ICU suspected to be Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome (NMS). For those who are unfamiliar, NMS is a highly fatal condition if untreated so we had to take a quick decision. He had high grade fever, muscle rigidity and altered level of consciousness. With each minute, he was going towards multi-organ failure. When the supportive measures were inadequate, the psychiatric team along with the in-house neurologist decided to start Dantrolene, a muscle relaxant also the antidote in such cases. We weren’t sure if it was NMS but we didn’t have any option. So after following proper protocol, we started the patient on Dantrolene drip and within hours, he began to show signs of improvement. His consciousness level improved, fever started breaking and muscle began relaxing. His blood parameters improved and he was shifted from ICU to ward within few days. He was discharged on medications after a week or so from the hospital in a much better state. Years later, when I recalled this incident, I realised that what we had witnessed that day, was nothing short of any miracle.

Miracles in Everyday Life

I then began to realise that we witness so many miracles each day but we barely notice them. This is not just in our professional domain but in our personal lives too. We are too busy, too caught up in our heads to appreciate them. We have high expectations, wait for major successes to celebrate when these little moments tickle by us, everyday.

Everyone treated, cured and healed, every smile of gratitude, relief and hope. In a field like psychiatry where mental illnesses were considered a punishment for your sins, patients were kept tied in shackles, in isolation, away from community and society lest they should also catch the disease, deprived of basic human rights and dignity, sometimes even not given proper food and water, subjected to violence because of their odd behaviours, we have come a long way when treatments are available for many mental illnesses, patients are getting better, getting reintegrating with their families and friends, going back to work and even starting their own families. For me and many others, these are nothing but miracles.

When Pain takes over Life

It is true that we are facing an enormous burden of mental health issues when a lot of us, especially the younger generation are suffering from existential crises, questioning their purpose and worth of their lives, a rising number preferring death over life, people using drugs and alcohol to deal with their pain, interpersonal relationships hitting rock bottom and presence of a huge treatment gap.

It can overwhelm anyone trying to relieve others suffering when we are struggling with our own inadequacies. Hence, it’s important to remind ourselves of the journey that is filled with struggles and strifes, is also with peppered with tales of smiles, love, joy and hope. We have to remind ourselves that miracles are not always the big and glorious things that everyone desires and aspires to be and to do- the most intensive procedures, the most complicated interventions.



Reminding Ourselves, Each day!

Each day is filled with numerous blessings that most of the time we forget their value and take them for granted. Each ‘Thank You’, every smile of gratitude, every prayer answered are all miracles that we witness every day. Every life that we have touched and helped in relieving their suffering whether big or trivial, using medications or interventions or simply being with them and listening patiently, is in itself a story of hope and compassion. Every smile😊😊 is a miracle. 💖

Dr. Suhasini Das

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

May I have your ATTENTION, please?

-
Image
A Piece of our Attention In today’s world, we are constantly bombarded with information throughout our waking hours, by our television sets, computers or the ubiquitous mobile phone. The internet made information transmission easy, rapid and with the ability to penetrate the remotest corner of the world. I am sure many of you will agree with me that although we have to navigate sheer volume of data every day, only a handful of them are actually essential, most are unnecessary and some are purely fraudulent. However whatever may be their purpose, one thing is common - they are all craving for our attention . In our personal lives, we have our families, children, parents, friends, work, health, community, environment and many different domains and each seeks a share of our attention. If we focus just on a particular area for long and neglect others, the consequences are inevitable. Our health may suffer, our relationships may lack warmth and affection, we may become distant and discon...
Read more

Every Life Matters: Changing the Narrative on Suicide

-
Image
Introduction Every year more than 7,00,000 individuals commit suicide, that translates to 1 person dying every 40 seconds.   To create awareness around this serious issue, World Suicide Prevention Day is observed on 10 September across the globe. Every suicide impacts not just a single person but the whole family and community at large. It raises a lot of questions, many remain unanswered. The family members often find themselves at loss, sometimes blaming themselves, but mostly clueless about where they missed the red flags. Suicide is not an isolated incident but a culmination of multiple factors - emotional, psychological, personal, social, and economical- which eventually leads an individual choose death over life. For every suicidal death, there are many who will attempt, putting a large number of people at risk. What does Statistics say? As per the National Crime Records Bureau, 1,64,033 suicides were reported in 2021 , which is an increase of 7.2% as compared to 2020. T...
Read more

Mindful Living: The Way Forward!

-
Image
    The last few decades have seen an explosion of mindfulness related literature. There is mindfulness meditation, mindful breathing, mindful eating and so on. Anyone trying to search on how to manage stress on the internet is likely to come across the term mindfulness, for sure. Yet, a lot of this information available on internet does not clarify the basic tenets of mindfulness. Origin of Mindfulness The essence of mindfulness derives from  Buddhist and ancient Hindu philosophies  like Vipassana which had been practiced by monks and ascetics for thousands of years. The term is loosely derived from the Pali word  ‘sati’   or Sanskrit word   ‘smrti’   which means ‘remembrance or reminiscence or calling upon mind’. The most popular of all mindfulness exercises, mindful breathing is de rived from Anapanasati, is the quintessential form of Buddhist meditation and has been mentioned in different sutras. Anapana means inhalation and exhalation, sati m...
Read more