A plumber, who invented the wheel!
“Did anyone say anything about the baby, when you got the prenatal scan done?” asked the radiologist after the 1st scan. I said, “Yes. Dr. Shetty said that there is a little hydronephrosis near the left kidney and nothing to worry as it will naturally heal by itself”. He said, “No no. I do not want to talk to you. Let the Pediatric Surgeon talk to you. You please go back to ward”.
Hope you are all doing well. I am writing this blog to figure out whether my son was a plumber or a wheel mechanic in his previous life.
On the 14th of July 2016 in Mangalore, we had our 2nd baby, Aditya. Divya was in ICU after the delivery. Aditya was with me and my mother-in-law was taking care of him. Divya was shifted back to the ward after 24 hours while I was patiently waiting for the Pediatric Surgeon. I was called inside the lobby of the Operation theatre where the surgeon was waiting for me. As I stepped in, he said me to relax and offered a glass of water. I said, “I am good”. He continued, “There is a small issue with the baby. Usually 1 in a 100 baby boys will face this”. He took a paper and pen and drew 2 kidneys with 2 pipes connecting to a balloon. These pipes are called as ureter and the balloon is urinary bladder.
He said “The left ureter is filled with water and got dilated by 22mm this is termed as Hydroureteronephrosis. This is because of a block at the junction where the ureter and the bladder connects. This block is called as Ureterocele. We have to replant or reconnect the ureter in other part of the urinary bladder” With a heavy voice, I asked the Surgeon, “By when should this surgery be done?” He said “As soon as possible. If we delay it then there may be chances of losing a kidney because of stored water which in-turn scars the kidney. We have to do it within 15 days”. He also mentioned that post surgery these type of cases has only 60% of success rate. He advised to an antibiotic AMOX to be taken by the baby until further developments to avoid the scar because of infection.
I thanked him and came back to ward. My in-laws were in the ward and I sat next to Divya. “Our baby needs to go under the blade”, I uttered with a crumbling voice, tears rolled out of my eyes. Divya, though she is stronger than me, couldn’t control her tears too. After a few hours, my mind switched to a funny mode and I said to Divya, “Aditya must have been a bad plumber in his past life. He must have used excess of M-seal to fix pipes because of which he is suffering from Ureterocele.”
In next 15 days, Aditya had to go under multiple tests and scans. In 2nd scanning report we found that there was a slight reduction in the ureter size hence the surgery got postponed for next 20–30 days.
We reached Bangalore after 30 days to conduct few more kidney functionality and drain tests. While driving, this little fellow, was peeping out of the window, to see the wheels of buses and trucks. I was confused whether he was a plumber or had kept a puncture shop in his previous life.
After all the tests done with reports, we visited Dr. Babu, the best known pediatric surgeon which my sister had chosen. After the in-depth analysis, he asked us to wait for another 30 days and continue the AMOX daily. Those 30 days passed and Aditya’s ureter size was reducing. With frequent consultations and scans, his ureter’s size kept on reducing and the doctor kept on postponing the surgery until he was 2. At this point of time I agreed that Aditya was a boffo plumber in his previous life.
Whenever we took him outside, he always watched and used to stare at the wheels of other vehicles. In fact, the first word he spoke wasn’t ‘Amma’ or ‘Appa’, it was ‘Auto”! Hence, on his first birthday, most of them gifted him Auto Rickshaw and other vehicle toys.
In February 2019, we had been to Tirupathi to remove his hair and he started asking for a fire engine toy. We took him to many toy shops after visiting the temple. We almost covered 50–60 toy shops, but none of them had fire engine toy. Some of the toys were the miniature models of exiting expensive cars and these models were also expensive. I asked him to select any one from these models as I thought he would feel good. He sat on the floor and tested them by pushing and dragging and watched their wheels. And guess what, he was very much unhappy with their wheel performance. He tested many vehicle toys in same pattern in almost every shop we visited. I am still trying to figure out what were his expectations on those toy’s wheels.
Now Aditya is 3 and his ureter size has reduced to 4mm which is under the limits. He has discontinued all kinds of antibiotics and the surgery is ruled out. He has started his wheel alignment and engineering classes by joining to a nearby nursery school.
Whereas, I’m still wondering, was he the man who invented the wheel thousands of years ago or was he a BWSSB engineer?
by Yashaswi J
