John Lennon once remarked, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”  I, for one, couldn’t agree more.  For the last one year or so, this has been the story of my Life…

It all started in February of last year, when we were scheduled to go on our annual vacation.  That trip was of course, cancelled on account of my needing spinal decompression surgery for my prolapsed lumbar discs.  The weeks and months that followed, involved a slow and painful process of getting back on my feet again, which I was determined to do.

BossLady – my wife – was already pregnant with our second child, at the time.  We did not know, however, that only a few months later, we would be facing a difficult time with the pregnancy thanks to the increased probability seen in the triple marker test, warranting a risky procedure called amniocentesis to rule it out completely.  Just like we did not know that, a few months after that, the pregnancy would unfold yet another exciting chapter with an “incompetent os” that would need surgical intervention and complete bed rest for several months!

Finally, after an eventful term, a healthy baby boy was born to us in Oct 2007. Life was beginning to take a turn for the positive… Or was it?

A few months after that, Mom developed a sinus-bronchial infection that would take several months to treat, at the minimum.  According to the ENT specialist, we were lucky to have caught it in time!  The treatment had not yet been completed, but she was making good progress.  The baby was also a healthy four-month-old now.  So it would be a good time to take a much-needed holiday, we thought.

Once again, we planned our annual leave – this time to an exotic coffee estate in South India.  I’d applied for leave well in time, and planned for all my projects to be managed in my absence.  BossLady was already on leave, so that was not a problem.  A week before departure, however, she developed a fever – one that would go from 100 to 104 in just a few days!

I was actually out-of-town on an official trip and had to rush home to attend to that.  Naturally, the annual vacation was cancelled, once again.  In fact, an entire course of antibiotic and antimalarial medication hardly had any effect on the ailment.  A plethora of tests followed, but the fever remained undiagnosed.  Finally, a consulting specialist diagnosed it as Typhoid.

The hardest part of it all was communicating to an innocent four-year-old that we will not be going on the much-awaited vacation.  We always prepare Pumpkin for what’s coming, and had spent quite a few days building up hype for the upcoming trip.  Naturally, she was looking forward to the entire experience of going to a coffee estate, especially since she’s not even permitted to drink coffee!  Alas, her vacation would have to wait for another day…

Even today, 11 days after the first bout of fever, the recovery has only just begun.  She still gets a fever every 5-6 hours, but is slowly… very slowly… gaining back some of her strength.  A microorganism that’s one millionth our size is presently controlling how we live.  And, if what I understand is correct, typhoid is an ailment that can take 4-5 weeks to recover from.

We are, of course, hopeful of a full recovery.  And, can only hope that things take a different turn, this March onwards.  Only, I won’t be making any plans to that effect.