True and false

Ashwin's dialogues has been providing his paternal grandparents much entertainment and knowledge about how his parents were keeping his eczema under control.

• I'd like to go back to Madras. My mother will give me candies when Appa is not around.
• When uncle came, Appa took us to a restaurant and we had biriyani, parotta and chicken. And we packed the leftovers to be had later at home.
• I want to go to Chandanapally (maternal home). And no, dont pack my medicines.
• My legs are aching. I cant stand. Please take me to Dr. Kuruvila in Madras.
• To the family upstairs: Appacha and Ammachi have sent me up so that they can eat fish.

Nothing escapes his eye.

Otherwise the kids are doing fine. Mira is enjoying life, especially all the goodies she gets to eat. We had been depriving her of a lot of good food because of Ash, and now she gets to eat them under mil's care. Most of her feeding is done at the tenant's house upstairs, and all the special food - fish, egg, chicken, nuts - is smuggled up. She gestures to mil from the stairs when she wants her egg sent up :)

Ash is missing us more owing to his illness. Apparently he is improving - he is oozing less and the skin is clearing. Mil is very strict with his diet, no biscuits or bakery stuff even. "Will you get me biscuits when I come?" he entreats when his dad calls.

Strike and after

Unlike Kerala, Tamil Nadu especially Chennai is seldom affected by a bandh. Hartal and bandh days, exhorted at the national or regional level, almost function like any other day. But yesterday's general strike called by the ruling party of the State, was different. Buses kept off the roads though private vehicles and the trains, which come under the Central government, ran.

I fortunately stayed put at home, unwilling to risk a difficult time on the roads in the searing heat. And caught up with some cooking and cleaning chores, which I have been doing as time and health permits. I have been trying to straighten the post-maid chaos in the kitchen and elsewhere in the house. I cant blame them - they wouldnt have the time or inclination for the finer cleaning that a house requires when they are trying to do too many things.

The husband was away a good part of the day, to do his reading in the air-conditioned comfort of his office, and so I had the house to myself. Late in the evening, while I was sweating it out with rotis and tomato chutney, he returned home and suggested that we eat out at the Rajasthani dhaba, one of the few eateries that doesnt give me an indigestion the Day After. By then, the rotis were almost ready and so we decided to have them before going shopping for veggies and provisions, school shoes for Mira etc. I topped the day with a shawarma, an Arabian delight from a fastfood centre.

And quiet flows the Cooum

Occasionally, in the evenings we get an SOS from Kerala because the kids wish to speak to us. I have been cutting down on calls because hearing our voices makes them more upset. Even the mere mention of my name the other day made Ash bawl loudly one night, wanting to see me. And he sobbed into the phone: 'I want to see Appa and Amma, please take me back to Madras.'
Mira entreaties are calmer: 'Amma, come and take me to whereever you are.'
We tell them, 'Soon when school reopens.'
We are partly helpless because we have no nanny in hand. The one who was with us has disappeared after reaching Kerala. She was supposed to have helped out with managing the kids, as she stays close by. But she had told me that she wasnt keen on being with mil and would instead come back to Chennai in June. But as of now, I dont have much hope as there is no news of her whereabouts.
Moreover, a two-month vacation in a small top-floor apartment that is a virtual oven during the summers is not my idea of a vacation for the kids. The heat in Chennai is searing already. In the bus, casual strangers sitting next to you discuss the heat. "What will May be like if April is so bad?" they shudder. Luckily, we spend a good part of our day in the cool comfort of the office.

Meanwhile, Ash is not alright. After the steroid effect wore off, he is itching and oozing all over. Vaidyan Viswanathan, who did a unique medical course of allopathy and ayurveda during the days of Sir CP Ramaswamy Iyer, says the so-called malignant stuff in his body has to come out. I have my doubts. Whatever the means, I hope the end result is something promising.
And yesterday my brother called to say that my newborn niece has been diagnosed with infantile eczema. It has made me very depressed. In fact I am thinking more about her than my son now. Being a girl, I hope it doesnt get too bad for her. She needs to grow up cute and pretty...

Another new year

As Keralites celebrate another Vishu, here's hoping you all had a good time ...

The Resurrection

I got back today morning, after a 3-day disappearing act to the land of Mahabali.

The kids seem to getting on fine without us, from yesterday night's report from my inlaws. Mira did ask for me a few times but our tenants upstairs entertain them so much that they dont miss us very much. They spend much of their waking hours upstairs and thankfully, the family enjoy the kids. At other times, "Amma" and Beena aunty and Momachechi come downstairs to play with the kids or help m-i-l. The secret of their attraction is that there is no male child in their house and they relish Ashwin's antics.

Easter and Good Friday were celebrated at home with the usual levels of feasting - minimal (kanji-payar) for GF and maximal (appam-chicken stew and duck curry) for Easter. Since my f-i-l took ill during the GF service and had to be hospitalised for a day, we limited our tours to a couple of doctor (ayurveda) visits at Neerettupuram near the Chakkulathu kaavu Devi Temple and to Chandanapally late in the evening on Saturday.

We did manage a sidetrip to the Edathua church yesterday after seeing the new vaidyan (I know, we are too impatient and keep changing doctors) for Ash. And as Ash sighted the sculpted firgure of the saint atop the horse at the church, he asked V: Appa, who is that person?
And V replied: St. George.
To which Ash asked: Oh! Is that my Chandanapally granpa? He knows that his maternal granpa is a George!

Pics will follow...

Bye bye

I am off to Kerala tonight with the entire gang. So after a long long time, we will be spending Good Friday and Easter in Kerala. I had to change my plan a bit though; owing to a staff crunch at work I was asked to cancel my week-long leave and return earlier. So instead of the 19th, I will take the train along with V on the 12th. One way it is good - it will make us grieve in unison for the kids whom we are planning to leave behind in Changanachery. Shared grief is easier to handle than ones done separately.
Before I leave today, we will be meeting Ash's teacher as it is an Open Day for the kindergarten students. Ash was all excited yesterday as the teacher gave him a box of jumbo crayons, a teddy bear card made for "Dad & Mum" and toffees, which he gobbled the moment he saw his dad arriving to pick him up. Toffees remain on the taboo list as far as V is concerned.

A hospitalisation

One thing I enjoy about hospitalisation is that it gives me time to read and relax. So after the initial tension - partly that of staying in a hospital room and partly that of creating more disarray in the situation at home - when the doctor advises a hospital stay, I look forward to some rest and relaxation. Though with a little boy in distress or discomfort, it is not easy.
Most of Ashwin's hospitalisations earlier - five so far, I think - have been for gastro-enteritis and related digestive problems that eczematic people suffer from. (But V's week-long stay in hosp with the broken leg had given me the best rest - plenty of time to read and sleep, though we worried quite a bit about how his leg would fare.)

Ash was admitted in hospital on April 2 following a bad flare-up of eczema. I suspect it was caused by the biriyani and chicken we dared to give him from a restaurant last Sunday when b-il and co. were around.
By Tuesday, his skin was beginning to look worrying. So on Wednesday, we took him to Dr. Maya Vedamurthy, a dermatologist in Apollo hospital,whom many had advised me to try out. She suggested that Ash be put on cyclosporin 4 mg/kg (after consulting the paediatrician at Apollo) because his whole body was broken and oozing, and she didnt think it wise to let him suffer. He itched so badly that night inspite of the antibiotics (we didnt give the oral steroid she advised), he didnt sleep until about 4 am when we gave him a bath with a pinch of bleaching powder as advised by Dr. Maya. A spoon of bleaching powder in a bucket of water helps to minimise the itching, she had said.
By the next day when we went to check with his regular paediatrician Dr. Thomas about giving him the steroids and the immunosuppressant, his condition had got so bad that he developed swelling on his legs and severe pain near the hip where the skin had cracked and got infected. For a child who takes his ailment stoically, Ash cried a lot in pain when I touched his lower back or tried to make him stand.The paed and the dermatologist there decided cyclosporin would be the best way out for Ash, and to treat him as an inpatient for the infection.
By the second day, the oral steroids and antibiotics began to work - the cracked skin began to heal and the itching reduced. Ash loved his first day in hospital because he had Pogo to watch and many of V's friends and colleagues visiting him, but by the second night he was bored and insisted on going home. Mira missed me and Ash very badly, and sobbed to sleep each night. She spent a good part of the second day in hospital with her brother while V divided his time between hospital and office.
He was discharged on Saturday, since we requested the dr to postpone cyclosporin treatment for a later date, say 2 months later, after his summer vacation in Kerala. We hope the cleaner environment, (I wont say cool climate as I am told Kerala is hotter than Madras this year) grandparental care, diet and ayurveda will do good. If his condition continues to be bad even after, we have to start him on cyclosporin in June.
Right now, he is looking much better. The dead, wrinkled dark skin has all peeled off to reveal fresh soft skin and a shining face. But the steroids are for a week only, and I dread to think what will happen after that.
The doctor tells us not to worry abt the side effects of cyclosporin, it isn't harmful like steroids. The pead is not the kind who gives any drastic treatment, so I guess Ash's condition warrants it.
Meanwhile, members from our church and the parson came home to see Ash this weekend. One of them has advised us to meet Dr. Narayanamurthy, a dermatologist, for a second opinion.
p.s. I didnt manage to read much this time.

Farewell, nursery school!

Mira on her last day in school, March 31st. As parents, we felt sadder than her (she is too young to realise what is happening) that it was all getting over. A special year at the WCC laboratory nursery school.