This is part 7 of my story A Blessed Life.
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In the first few days of starting dialysis, Kaushal had spent most of his time watching what was going on around him in the dialysis center. Now, he had become used to the routine and would fall asleep. Today, he was biding his time under the watchful eye of Lakeesha. He was quite scared of falling asleep because of the allergic reaction earlier. Thinking of that took him back to older days.
It was a Sunday and he had just woken up late. Reshma was sitting on the bed next to him while Shweta was playing somewhere.
"Hi", she said. "How are you feeling?" . She was feeling very concerned lately about his health and it showed plainly in her eyes.
When she became anxious she developed a nervous movement of her hands too. She would keep rubbing her hands together without even knowing about it. Initally this had un-nerved Kaushal and irritated him, but he had learnt to live with it. Nowadays, he barely noticed it.
"I am feeling ok", said he. "I think"., he added almost as an afterthought.
"Dont worry, the doctor's report should come in any time now. And you will be alright. Dr. Jerry told me so himself.", she was comforting him.
"Hey", he said, "I don't worry, remember? That's your job." This was an old joke amongst them.
Shweta came running and asked to sit on his lap. He picked her up with some difficulty and put her on the bed next to him. She gave him a hug and began playing with her ear stuck to his stomach. She imagined that it was a cave and there were animals moving around inside there. "So, what are they saying today?" he asked Shweta. "Nuttin, daddy", she replied. "They are grrrowling ! Listen daddy, listen."
The phone rang and Reshma went to pick it up. He could hear her talking indistinctly on the phone and decided it could not be the doctor since it was going on for far too long for that. "Must be her friends from work", he thought.
" I think I will just go watch a movie now. Do you want to come along?" he asked Shweta. Then the discussion turned to Cinderella, the only movie she was familiar with. At this point of her life, Cinderella was everything to Shweta and she loved to discuss anything on the subject.
It was all of 5 minutes before Reshma came back. Her eyes were red from crying. "Is everything alright?" asked Kaushal. "Is everyone OK at home?"
"That was the doctor", Reshma said. "And you have..." ; she was finding it difficult to complete the sentence.
" We need to get you into the hospital right away. They have a room waiting. Your kidneys have failed." she completed the words as if they were very heavy on her tongue.
"Kaushal, Kaushallll. You ok?" asked Lakeesha, bringing him back from his thoughts.
His watch said it was just 4.30 pm. and he had been here on the dialysis bed for less than an hour. Time was sure taking its own sweet time, moving forward. He called Reshma once more, but again all he could get was a Voice Mail. This time, he left no message.
He picked up the book again, when Dr.Gerald walked up to him with his trademark smile firmly in place. " I have good news for you", he said. "You are on the list since the last three weeks." The doctor was talking about Kaushal being on the nationwide waiting list for kidney patients awaiting transplant. Whenever a donor with matching blood type and other characteristics(blood type, tissue type, size of the organ, medical urgency of the patient, time on the waiting list, and distance between donor and recipient) became available, someone in the list would be called for a transplant. "Keep your bags packed!", called the doctor before moving off.
Essentially what happened during a kidney transplant was that a donor kidney would be flown in from anywhere it became available. Patients on the nationwide recepient list would keep a bag literally packed with their essentials to the hospital at a moments notice. Often, patients went to bed with cellphones next to them so that they would not miss this all important phone call. IF you ever missed it, you could never say how long it would take for you to get called again. More rarely a donor came up who was willing to donate his kidney, but such instances were few and far between.
A little before 7, Reshma walked in with Shweta. She had picked the little one up at her school and brought her home. Lately, Reshma would try to come home and make snacks so that Kaushal could eat something too. Then they had a little snack themselves and went to meet "Dadda" in dialysis. Reshma never once heard a wince of complaint from her even though she was tired from playing all day at the school. She knew that her Dadda had the biggest boo boo in the world and she had to make him as happy as possible. Her unflagging enthusiasm and joy helped Reshma do more than she could have done by herself.
Normally kids were not allowed into the dialysis unit, but Shweta had won the hearts of the nurses on duty and subsequently earned permission to visit her dad. She was a minor celebrity among the nurses and had taught them all to say "Kem Chho".
She sat at his legs and watched TV while he ate the food they had brought from home. Kaushal told Reshma about the allergic reaction at the beginning of the treatment. He always had a knack of playing down any major issues when Reshma was concerned. This only made Reshma more anxious because she was not sure if Kaushal was not glazing over some details about what had really happened.
"Hey, Remember James Morrison?" she asked. "I had spoken to Shormila Aunty the other day and Biswas uncle offered him a testing position in his office. Isn't it awesome? He only has to go to work 3 days a week. Other days, he works from home. He starts next week." When Reshma got excited she always spoke breathlessly until she had poured out everything she wanted to say.
"Thats great!" said Kaushal, "And, I am officially on the waiting list, the doctor just told me. Now, I just have to wait for 3 or 4 years to get a kidney."
"Good !" replied Reshma. "That's a start."
And then it was a time for catching up about the events of the day from either side. Whe he was finished with his food, Reshma took Shweta out to the waiting area so she could play for some time while Kaushal could rest.
Kaushal & Shweta then proceeded in their separate cars to Walmart where they picked up a camping bag and filled it with the necessary items from the list the doctor had left with him. Today Kaushal could barely walk and he made use of the wheelchair made available by the store. Reshma pushed him while Shweta sat on his knees. She was having a jolly good time of it.
That night they had the same food Kaushal had had for the last few months- Roti with some daal! Reshma always tried to give him a little something extra to keep his spirit up. Today she had made some halapeno peppers recipe she had found on the net. Some of the ingredients were on the banned list, but she figured that those little portions could not hurt him. By the time they had finished dinner and put away the dishes, it was 10.30pm and a very long day had ended.
The incessant ringing of the phone woke Kaushal up with a start. It was just 11.45 barely over an hour since they had gone to bed.
"Mr. Kaushal Garodia", a surprisingly alert voice asked him.
" Yes ", he said, still shaking the cobwebs of sleep from his mind. "This is Virginia Transplant Center. We need you to come in right away....
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