MIND IS EVERYTHING

According to David Hendricks, "Mind is everything". You may recollect many situations, your mind worked in a miraculous manner.

I have numerous experiences to substantiate this concept. One experience is in connection with a physiotherapy treatment given to a senior general physician, who was totally paralyzed by a fatal disease Guillain Barre syndrome.

After the life-saving treatment by Immunoglobulin, the follow-up treatment was physiotherapy for his paralysis. You know that physiotherapy is a treatment, in which both the therapist and the patient should equally involve for better results. Here, if the mind is non-cooperative on any side, the result will be negative. Treatment with drugs or even by surgery, if the doctor is good, there will be a good result, even if the patient is not fully involved. The case is different in physiotherapy. If the therapist does not have an extraordinary rapport with the patient, most neurology patients will not only cooperate but probably, may kick you out. You can't retaliate, because," Every patient is a VIP", as per ethics and written in bolded fonds on the walls of all the hospitals, including Forces hospitals also. Therefore a successful motivation is an inevitable factor for physiotherapy.

My patient, the physician, improved strength in all the parts of his body, except his both hands with my treatment in six months. Although he, was from another district, he hired a room and stayed in Trivandrum with his opthalmologist wife, for physiotherapy. He had some power for grip for his fingers, otherwise, his hands had no power, but hanging from the shoulder. There was absolutely no change in the power of hands for two months more. They started losing hope for further improvement. Naturally, my patient was dependent on his wife for all his toilet activities. You know very well that a doctor with only disabled legs, can do the surgery also sitting on a high chair, but a doctor, with disabled hands can do nothing either in his profession or in his activities of daily living. The couple knew that better than anybody. In the meantime, many of his friends and fellow doctors were frequent visitors and they encouraged him. Still, his incapability of A D L(Activities of daily living)made both of them disappointed. The opthalmologist wife repeatedly told me desperately, that she might have to be his lifetime helper for his toilet activities.

Adding fuel to the fire, one of his batchmates, a cynic neurologist, visited him and wanted to see his naked shoulders and hands. As he is the concerned doctor for GBS, my patient showed him as desired. He had severe wasting of shoulder girdle muscles, and at a glance, the neurologist said reflexively, "Early wasting shows axonal degeneration", which carried a bad connotation in Neurology. My patient, who is MD, (Gen. Med.,)was shocked to listen to those words, which did not have a hopeful meaning. Any wise people can commit foolish human errors. The thoughtless untimely expression of those words of the neurologist, right on the face of the patient had a serious negative impact on the physician-patient. Hearing this, my patient started sweating and was about to collapse. His wife also was embarrassed. What the neurologist uttered was scientifically cent percent fact, but the utterance was in the wrong context. The neurologist understood his mistake, although what he said was right, but not at the appropriate time and place. He started consoling my doctor-patient, but it was in vain. You know very well that counseling intelligent people is difficult as counseling is a process of befooling your mind.

I visited him as usual for treatment in the evening and saw both of them sitting totally lost. On repeated asking, the wife said the whole story and said," vincent sir, my fate is to assist him throughout his life". I was not a bonafide counselor for such an omniscient patient. They were planning to return to their faraway house. But both of them trusted in my experience in dealing with GBS, and that is the reason they stayed in Trivandrum for eight months, leaving their children in hostels. I tried all my tricks and weapons to motivate and persuade them to stay back, but they were adamant. The ophthalmologist's wife was a strong believer in Lord Sree Ganesh. She said desperately, "Sir, I don't think, he will be able to break a coconut in front of Lord Sree Ganesh, in Pazhavangadi temple, Trivandrum, with his feeble hand, which I kept a promise if he recovers his hands "This faith kindled a new idea that, if I could somehow make him break a coconut in front of Lord Ganesh in Pazhavagadi temple, my further attempt can be continued. I was sure that there was no other remedy in the world than physiotherapy for further improvement, however late.

At first, I strongly asserted that he would break the coconut if he had firm faith in Lord Ganesh. I said I am a believer in God, the Holy Bible says"If you have faith in God, at least as much as a mustard seed, you can make a mountain move with your order in the name of your God." "How can I break the coconut with this paralyzed hand "", said the doctor. "Believe first and obey what I say", I said. They were prepared to do anything, what I said. My plan was to train him to throw coconut with his available power of trunk rotation and feeble hand grip. You can apply science everywhere provided, you apply appropriately. I applied biomechanical lever effect in the body and centrifugal force, which we all have studied in physics. I trained him to throw with a sponge ball to prevent injuries. I made him hold the ball with his feeble grip and with his very powerful rotation of the trunk, made powerful rotations to left and right and with the centrifugal force the ball in the fist rose high and the gravity of mother earth helped him to make a powerful throw down, the coconut has to break, that was my hypothesis. The science of centrifugal force and gravitational force made him a successful throw, a blend of hammer throw and cricket throw. Anyway, it was sufficient for him to break a medium size coconut. I took the doctor and his wife in his car to the Pazhavangadi temple of Lord Ganesh. There again, it was disappointing to see the coconuts as small as areca nuts kept for sale. The smaller the size, the more difficult is to break, you know. If the coconut did not break, I am sure, he will be upset and will never do any physiotherapy. That would be the end of the whole enterprise. I also started praying with them for the success and made him hold the coconut with his weak hand. Once again I gave final instruction for the strange throw, which nobody might have done so far and might never do in the future as the necessity of the throw is unique. Thinking only Lord Ganesh, he threw the coconut on the stone. The coconut. broke. in to two. pieces !!. They both chanted loudly the name of Lord Ganesh, not bothering the crowd around them. I knew that it will be now easier for me to do the monotonous physiotherapy for many more months, which is required for further improvement of axonal degeneration, as the neurologist, rightly said earlier. The doctor came to me in ecstasy and hugged me and said," I will be all right. Let it be one year more, Now, I will do physiotherapy on the basis of war footing "

Let me now conclude. He remained in Trivandrum for six more months and had 50 percent improvement of hands. I compelled him to go back home, where his two daughters were in a hostel for long. I trained him 150 exercises, which he was able to do by himself and I knew that he would not discontinue as he had a strong faith in Lord Ganesh and physiotherapy. He came for his review in our hospital driving his car after six months. He is now perfectly fit for his age and doing his profession, doing lots of charitable work for the poor.

The End.