For today’s story I borrowed again a title of a film. I saw this film when I was very young but it is one of those films which every now and then I recall to my mind even because of its significant title. If I remember well the two protagonists were a priest, a part played by John Mills and a bandit played by Dirk Bogart. “The singer not the song”, was a phrase which was said by the bandit to the priest who tried in a friendly and persistent way, to persuade the bandit to stop from his criminal life. The bandit did not a believe in the religious stuff which the priest used to talk about. In spite of this, the bandit respected and admired the priest………. that’s why he told him, “ The Singer not the song.” In my humble opinion the bandit was wrong in a way and very right in another way. He was wrong because that religious stuff was good and important but he was right because to have a good singer is always of utmost importance.
Surely you do understand that the bandit referred to the priest as ‘the singer’ and to the Christian belief as the ‘song”. But this analogy can be applied to every type of performer. Let’s take for example, a ‘teacher’. We can say that teaching is very important (the song) but it takes a good teacher (the singer) to deliver what one has to teach and even then some would not learn but again the ‘singer’, in this case ‘the teacher’ is of utmost importance ……………………hope you have got it! This can be said about other types of performers such as artists, entertainers, craftsmen, lawyers, and doctors. In fact here is where I wished to arrive, ‘doctors’.
This was rather a long introduction to arrive at what I have in mind but soon you will understand the reason for such a prelude.
In my life I got to know many of these ‘singers’ (doctors) as I had several ailments. Several of these doctors were not that good and I was at the receiving end and it was not at all pleasant. But I met one or two very good singers and they interpreted the song in a wonderful way and I benefited a lot…………. So if you are still with me I wish to narrate to you another experience about my health problems in which I will narrate about a not so good doctor and an excellent doctor and how they dealt with my ailment. In this analogy, ‘the song’ is the way they practiced their medical profession and the 'singers' are the doctors.
Most of my health problems were the result of that injury I suffered during playing football when I was about seventeen years old. (you can read about this in story # 2)
But let me remind you of the happenings I went through in a few words.
I was injured while playing football. I did not tell anyone about it because if I did my parents would not let me join a first division team on the island. But things did not get any better on their own as I hoped. I got sick, very sick and had to be taken to hospital. In the months that followed, I was operated twice in my left thigh were I was injured but the wound would not heal completely and puss oozed out of it. They told me that I had an infection in my thigh bone (femur). It took several courses of strong antibiotics and five years later it finally healed. For about thirty years, my leg did not give me any trouble and I resumed playing football and other activities. But when I was about forty five or fifty, I began to feel pain in my thigh were I was injured. I had to go to an orthopedic consultant. He told me that a bone infection does not heal completely and the microbes were dormant for a long time. Then when I grew older and weaker the infection was re-activated. So the doctor or let’s call him ‘the singer’ decided to give me long courses of antibiotics. This solved the problem only temporally and after a few months I had to take again the antibiotics. In this way I spent a stretch of about twenty years of my life taking antibiotics every three or four months. This was causing me side effects as the antibiotics kill the good bacteria in the stomach and intestines which is useful to remain healthy. When I complained to the doctor about this he told me something which didn’t sound so professional to me. He told me,” About the stomach pain which is caused by the antibiotics, you have to go to a doctor who specializes in the intestines. My work was to fix your leg and we have been quite successful these last twenty years with the antibiotics I am giving you”.
But he was not that right because about three years ago when my leg began to hurt again and I took the usual antibiotics, the pain did not go and it got worst even after taking two consecutive courses. My usual consultant was abroad (fortunately) for some weeks so I had to find another orthopedic surgeon. During all this time I was in great pain and I could hardly walk; my left thigh was red and tender. There was surely a bad infection inside going on.
I went to hospital and there was this middle-aged German doctor. When he saw my leg he was alarmed, “You surely are in great pain! How can you bare that lot of pain?” I told him the whole story and how this time the usual antibiotics did not do their work as usual. He replied that this was bound to happen as the body gets used to the antibiotics after they are taken for a long time. He wandered why I have been on the same antibiotics for such a long time and he said that from time to time one should take different types of antibiotics so they will remain effective. “But my greatest concern,” he added, “ is that the infection is at an advanced stage; you should have come weeks ago. I suggest you stay here and we will do the necessary tests and operate as soon as possible.” I was surprised and I was afraid of another operation because in the previous two operations I had, things went wrong and I was on the danger list. But the pain was so great that the thought of being pain free was enough for me to opt for surgery.
I was given a room and within a few hours they took me to have several scans. In the evening the doctor who saw me in the morning came to visit me. He told me that I was to be operated the next morning which was a Sunday. He explained to me that I had not been treated in the correct way. Taking antibiotics would have never really solved the problem for long besides causing very bad side effects. He then explained something which he illustrated by showing some graphics of the scans. He told me that the infection caused part of my thigh bone to rot. He said that it was like damaging part of a trunk of a tree. But nature provided to grow another layer so that the damaged trunk (bone) would be strong enough. But the problem was that the outer part of the bone was strong and healthy but the inner part which was infected, was trapped inside. I understood that this was a very serious problem as one cannot remove the inner part without taking the outer part too. In a moment I realized that the only solution was to cut off my leg and instinctively, I told the surgeon,”No don’t cut off my leg, please don’t”. The surgeon told me to calm down and that he would do his best not to do that. “But you should have come weeks ago as the infection is over a big area of your lower femur,” he added.
"But how are you going to remove the inner part?" I asked anxiously.
“Years ago I had a similar case and I did something as an experiment and it was successful and the patient is still OK after more than fifteen years.”
“And how did you do that?” I asked promptly.
“It is rather technical so leave everything to me and I will do my very best.”
His words did not convince me that much but as they say ‘beggars can’t be choosers.’
That night I had to be sedate to sleep as I was too nervous and worried.
In the morning, my wife and children were all there to see me being carried on the bed to the operation theater. My daughter the nurse even entered in the operating room. Soon I was given an injection and I lost consciousness.
As I was regaining my senses in the recovery room, the first thing I did was to see if I still had my left leg but I was too weak to move. But my daughter was there and guessed what I wanted to know and she whispered in my ear, It’s OK Pa, your leg is still in place. The doctor did a great job.” I was relieved and went back to sleep with a smile on my face.
When I woke up, I was in my room and could confirm that I still had two legs. I was given again a long course of antibiotics but this time the types they gave me were chosen after analyzing the type of microbes which I had in the infection. Two days later a nurse took of the bandages for the first time to dress my wound. As son as she saw the wound she withdrew back as if she a shocked. My curiosity took hold of me and I sat up and had a look. I almost fainted! There was a 10 inch by 5 inch open wound and the femur could be clearly seen. It was all perforated which as the doctor later told me, the holes were right through my femur. Of course he did not tell me what he was going to do beforehand because I would have been terrified. He told me also that by drilling all those holes, he hoped that the rotten part in the inside would be rejected out through the holes. The antibiotics would then do the rest to kill the infection. The wound was left open so that it gave ample time for the rotten bone to be cleared off.
It took almost three long months for the wound to heal completely and when there was no more discharge, it meant that the infection was cured. Believe me it was impressive how such a big, deep wound healed and closed slowly on its own……. no stitches were used at any time.
Almost three years passed from this operation and thank God and the good doctor, my leg is fine. I did not need to take any more antibiotics. When I realize the years I spent in pain or taking antibiotics I realize that the first doctor was not such a good ‘singer’. But about the German doctor I can truly say that it was ‘The singer not the song’.
Quote of the day:
The object of all work is accomplishment and there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as inspiration.
Thomas Edison