Sunburnt Home - an Australian-Sri Lankan novel:

Chapter 27: Health is the ultimate profit!

By Sunil GOVINNAGE

Jayadeva was pleased to learn that Asela’s diagnostic tests have not revealed anything wrong. However, the expert advice was that Asela had some muscle weakness in his right limbs and needed regular physiotherapy and several routines of exercises to improve his muscle power. Despite Malini’s explanations, it was Jayadeva who had to face the reality of explaning things to his son.

Dad, if doctor cannot find anything wrong with my x-rays, then why all these exercises and meeting physiotherapies?

“That’s the question!”, said Jayadeva thinking that Asela would not ask further questions.

"No Dad, that’s not the question. You always try to avoid questions. If I have no medical problems, then I should do my things, instead of going to see all these people and doing those crazy exercises. That means I have a medical problem!"

"It was your Mum who started all these. Go and ask her for answers!"

"I did ask her and she says I have to do exercises and follow Physiotherapy for months. It’s a real pain Dad. "

"I am not a doctor, but it looks as if you need some exercises to strengthen your upper right hand and upper body muscles. It is not an illness but a condition, apparently you had it when you were born. "

So I was born a patient, and now needs treatments, isn’t it.

No Putha, it is not the case. None of us are perfect when we are born, and it doesn’t mean that we are sick!

Asela gave an empty look and went inside. Jayadeva sat on the grass in the front lawn and cursed the humidity that reminded him of Sri Lanka’s regular weather that he wanted to forget.

Jayadeva was not happy as in his opinion that it was Malini’s action in the first instance that raised doubts about a neurological disorder. He cursed her for and doing all the things to refer Asela to a specialist who couldn’t find any condition that caused Asela’s complaint of pain in his right arm.

--If Malini just ignored Asela’s symptoms at least for a few days nothing would have happened. Now Asela is not happy, and I have to take him for physiotherapies and putha is not happy about unnecessary treatment. And it is costing money!

Two weeks later Jayadeva received an email from Rasika whom he knew from university days in Peradeniya. Rasika who lived in Melbourne had forwarded an email about one of their batch-mates, Prasanna Silva who had remained in Sri Lanka unlike most of them. He had been working as an engineer in Anuradhapura for the last fifteen years. According to the email, Prasanna had developed diabetes and was in a coma with kidney failure. He had been admitted to a hospital in Colombo, and was unconscious for days.

Jayadeva was very distressed to read the email about his old friend who was in his mid-forties. Unlike most of his contemporaries Prasanna had stayed in Sri Lanka without any desire to cross oceans to find greener pastures like him or Rasika in Melbourne. One of the last emails that he received from Prasanna was about the need to find the lost glory of Sri Lanka, and his work with a group of people to produce a film about the ancient cities of Anuradhapura and Pollonnaruwa using his own funds.

Jayadeva tried to recall the last paragraph of Prasanna’s email requesting his expatriate friends to bring their foreign-trained children to Anuradhapura during the next vacation, as he was keen to show them a multi-media program about the glories and lost civilization of Anuradhapura and Pollonnaruwa.

He recalled the very last line of Prasanna’s email: You folks don’t know what you have lost and you have failed to teach your children the history of our country because you have left your heritage when you left Sri Lanka!

When Jayadeva received the email about Prasanna’s condition, he felt ashamed as he has not taken both his children either to Anuradhapura or Pollonnaruwa due to civil war and fear of illnesses such as Malaria in the dry zone.

*****

Jayadeva was scared when he had a pain in his lower lumber region, and Malini wanted him to see their General Practitioner as she thought that it could be due to kidney stones.

After having initial tests at the clinic, the GP said that Jayadeva’s urine was too acidic and wanted further tests to determine whether he had kidney stones.

“Do you drink enough water, Jay?” the doctor asked casually.

“Yes, may be a litre or little more.”

“ That’s not enough! You must drink at least three litres of water every day,” the doctor emphasised.

A friend of mine is nearly dying due to kidney failure. He is also diabetic, Jayadeva casually mentioned.

“Is he related?”

“No he is not!”

“ So he is not related, and you are not diabetic, so don’t worry!” said the doctor without even looking at Jayadeva.

Jayadeva was worried about his impending diagnostic tests to find out the cause of his pain in the lower back.

*****

A doctor injected a liquid dye to Jayadeva’s veins and took a series of x-rays turning and rotating him in a dark room which reminded him of a dark labyrinth described in Buddhist Jathaka Tales.

After the tests Jayadeva developed a headache with vomitish feeling and had to stay at home for two days.

He was worried that something was wrong inside his body and regretted for ignoring and been insensitive when Asela complained of his symptoms.

Throughout the short illness Jayadeva was thinking of Prasanna and he was confident that the doctors in Sri Lankan would be able to cure his friend.

Jayadeva visited the GP’s clinic with trepidation. Though his pain has alleviated, he was worried thinking that he too was suffering from a serious kidney disease.

When the doctor said: “Do you want the good news or bad news first?” Jayadeva confirmed his fears about his imaginary kidney disease.

“ Well, the good news is that there are no blockages in your kidneys, and your blood results are normal. But, in one of the kidneys there are small crystals like stones; in your right kidney. They are not large to worry about, but we have to put you on the watch list and get you to drink a lot of water. If they are there after two months or getting bigger, then we have to insert a tube and crush them for good,” said the doctor casually.

“ Jayadeva drove back to work from the clinic whistling a tune of a Sinhala song. He was trying to recall the full stanza from Dhamma Pada which says, Arogya Parama Labha- Santhusti Paraman danan”Health is the ultimate profit, and happiness is the ultimate wealth.

When a feeling of happiness settled in his mind, the image of Prasanna lying in a hospital took away his feelings like a bird damaging a flower while trying to take away honey.

(To be continued)

Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.

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