What is in common between them ? 
Last Monday I got up and getting ready to go to office – thought it was another usual day, but it wasn’t. Around 6am it started paining below left ribs. The pain increased exponentially and it became unbearable around 7:30am. I had some kidney stones diagnosed earlier but was dormant, often, when I remembered to be precise, I use to drink water. Last year it was about 6mm and this year it has grown to 7.5mm – that is about 25% growth even during sub-prime crisis and economic downturn – not bad at all – wish my fixed deposit grows at that rate!
Soon, I called my photographer friend, Dr Ajit, a well known kidney transplant surgeon. I could not reach him but I rushed to Columbia Asia Hospital in Bangalore where he practices. On the way, I could contact Ajit when I reached hospital, Dr Ajit’s friends Dr Mohan and Dr Manohar whom I was supposed to see have been informed. His friends knew I share same interests Dr Ajit did – wildlife and photography. They started talking to me in those languages!
After a couple of doses of pain killers I was able to talk. Ultrasound scan showed a 7.5mm stone stuck at the tip of the ureta. Dr Manohar showed me the sonogram and showed the stone. I was curious to know where the ureta is – being familiar with 1600×1024 resolution and s-rgb color space is no use to interpret what is seen on the ultrasound screen. I asked Dr Manohar, where is the ureta ? Manohar replied – “Ganesh, it is not like tiger stripes – you can’t see that clearly but I can” – Needless to say I agreed with him!!
Next couple of days I was on medication (dialators, pain killers) in the wait mode to see whether the stone just passes out by itself – unfortunately it didn’t. On Thursday, doctors decided to remove it using endoscopic surgery. At 2 PM I was taken to operation theater where Mrs Ajit who is anaesthetist there helped me boost my confidence, so nice of her – it really helped. I was scared about taking anaesthesia. In OT I was greeted by Dr Manohar, who said – “See Ganesh, this is our forest”, I agreed and told him – “You folks are tigers here” – both of us had a laugh. Just before injecting anaethesia doctor asked where I wanted to go, he himself suggested Nandi Hills for some bird photography, I agreed. Next moment I was there probably, when I opened my eyes around 5pm my father and wife was near by. I was back from my 3 hours journey to Nandi hills.
Got discharged from hospital yesterday evening – It is still paining a bit, hope to recover soon…
