WE must never judge people on face value as everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about.
These are true words indeed as life can sometimes be a struggle.
For me, during the past six months, I have been battling a situation that I would not wish upon my worst enemy.
Six months ago, I presented myself at the hospital with a very sore shoulder that had made it almost impossible for me to sleep.
After a thorough inspection it was decided to give me some muscle relaxers and pain killers to help lessen the pain and also try some physiotherapy.
Unfortunately, it was not helping and once again two months later I had to return to the hospital.
This time a scan was performed on my shoulder and there was signs of inflammation and wear and tear and advised to rest the shoulder.
Another two months went by of sleepless nights while I was forced to have strong pain killers such as volteron around the clock.
At one point the pain was so bad at 3am I was tempted to drink half a bottle of Tequila to relax me, but wisely I decided against it.
Next, I was told to have an MRI scan to have a very detailed look at detecting the problem.
Once the results were delivered it was actually my neck that had been causing this agony.
The discs in my neck that support my spinal chord had signs of compression because of a sports injury when I was younger and it was a disc area called C5 and C6 that was causing the severe pain, pressing against my spinal chord and also causing my neck to lean to one side.
I had previously broken my left arm by falling out of a tree, had ankle reconstruction due to a sports injury, shattered the orbital bone in my face from boxing and other routine breaks and scars, but never felt pain like this.
The doctors consulted and decided to give another six months of targeted physiotherapy and other remedies hoping that the disc encasing the spinal chord will ease back in place and not put pressure on the spinal chord and compress the nerves.
If this fails a major surgery called laminectomy will have to be done, which I am certainly not looking forward to and in some respects quite fearful of having done.
After so many medical visits I have now been consulted by a specialist in pain management who has been very helpful indeed.
I don’t normally like to take prescribed drugs, but in this case I have to follow the path set by the doctors concerned.
Last week was the first time I took this strong pain medication and I have to admit this was the best sleep I have had in six months.
I actually slept pain-free from 10pm at night to 6am and felt awesome.
I am forever grateful to all the doctors, nurses, physiotherapists and pharmacists involved in my rehabilitation, in addition to this my family and loved ones have also been so accommodating and helpful to me during this time.
I have decided that rather than just sit at home over the next six months I will concentrate and rebuild my mind, body and soul.
I believe we all struggle with various issues in life whether it be physical or mental, but always remember that hope is a great thing and we must never ever lose sight of this.
Finally, readers try and appreciate that you have a roof over your head and have a few treasured friends or family as this can sometimes get you through even the darkest days you encounter.
I say this as it has certainly helped me. God Bless and stay safe.
- Ajay Bhai Amrit is a freelance writer. The views expressed in this article are not necessarily shared by this newspaper.
