Om Mangalam Mangalam

Every surgeon at one point of time has done a dressing for a patient. Each will have a story about it. None will be as wierd as this one.

This patient was one of those if-you-touch-me-I-will-scream-with-pain types who thought even a simple dressing would hurt her oh so much. What needed to be done was simple and painless. He abdominal drain needed to be adjusted as we thought it was blocked or irritating some part of her abdomen. Open the dressing, pull out the abdominal drain by a cm or two and re-dress.

I opened her dressing and she yelped for her aunt to come and hold her hand. I put on a pair of sterile gloves and she almost threw a fit. She had a pundit (Hindu Priest) in her room! She tells her aunt to tell her pundit to chant a mantra (prayer) for her pain. I start cleaning. He starts chanting. She starts screaming. She can't hear him. She actually orders him to chant aloud so we can hear. My face contorted in ways I cannot describe. I felt like you feel when you've found out your girlfriend is a transsexual. I almost couldn't help rolling my eyes. People who know me know my reactions to such people. It's not something I can write publically. Damn!!!

Well, anyway, i finished pulling out the tube. I even asked her if it hurt. She said no, no, not at all. I wonder whether that was because it was never supposed to or because in her head her pundit was chanting mantras.