Boost your immunity: The ball is ALWAYS in your court

And just as the weekend of gallivanting across the city drew to an end, I developed a mild fever. Undeterred, I went into the office on Monday morning, only to return home burning with a fever, experiencing brief but painful headaches and severe body ache.  Like most Indian families mine too had its explanations for my condition. “You should change your trainer. The workouts are too intense” or “I told you not to go swimming in the rain” or “You never relax. You’ve been out all week”.  Under normal circumstances, I challenge these admonitions with a dismissive glance. An illness however, brings with it an innocent childish gullibility. I start internalizing and believing all that I hear and a modicum of guilt sets in.  

I made a mental note to amend my lifestyle and took the day off on Tuesday to get some rest. By Tuesday evening I noticed 2 small scabs on my stomach and by Wednesday morning a noticed multiple scabs all over the trunk of my body. Several google searches later, I suspected I had all the symptoms of chicken pox. The horrified look on my mother’s face when she saw the scabs on my body confirmed my doubt.

We rushed to our family doctor, who immediately reconfirmed our fear. Accusingly, I asked him, “Doc, you gave me the vaccination for it. How can you say I have the disease now?” He explained that there is always a small chance of getting the disease despite a vaccination. I must have retorted with an extremely nasty look (Since mom was around I could not voice my anger), because he started fuming, became bright red in the face and turned away from me saying, “We are not God after all.” He instructed me to stay at home for a week under quarantine. I was angry, irritable and extremely disappointed when I returned home.

It has now been 3 days since I was diagnosed and I want to share the mental and emotional changes I’ve experienced over the past few days. I’ve compiled a list of immunity boosters, i.e. attitude shifts and strategies I am using to deal with the disease (and myself!).

1) There flows in Egypt a river called (De)Nial: I spent the first day in complete denial. Nope, this could not be happening to me: I have been vaccinated after all. The Doctor can’t be serious when he’s saying I cannot leave the house for a week. I kept thinking this was some sort of horrific dream that I was going to snap out off. The thought of being quarantined for a week was totally out of the realm of my reality. I winced in my anger and frustration all night. The next morning, slowly but surely, I began to confront my reality and come to terms with it. This seemingly small step surmounted to half the battle won. I mentally psyched myself to roll up my sleeves and confront the disease. Mysteriously, the anger and frustration vanished and I began to educate myself on the disease, its treatment, remedies etc.

2) The theory of relativity: My attitude shift was further propelled by the realization that it’s a minor disease that I will be immunized for life against in a matter of weeks as opposed to having a fatal ailment or serious disorder. Moreover, as friends and family called and several people related their encounters with the disease to me, I began to feel blessed that I actually had such a mild outbreak of the disease (thanks to the vaccination). I heard stories of how people had been quarantined for 3 weeks, were unable to open their eyes since the scabs had formed below the eye lids, couldn’t use the toilet due to several scabs in their anus etc. Reading more anecdotes on google also confirmed the horrendous manifestations of the disease. Viewed from this perspective, my infection seemed mild and minor. I could read, write, watch movies and yes, use the toilet without a problem!

3) Hum ne kya khoya hum ne kya paya: These are my fav lines from a Ghazal in the film Saath Saath. Translated it means, “What did I loose, what did I gain.” Naturally, human tendency is to focus on the former, so I began to enlist all the fabulous things I had lined up for the week till Sunday. Tuesday was my friend Hitesh’s wedding party, Wednesday, my best friend from CMU Jahnavi was in town for 1 night from New York and was coming over for dinner, Thursday my childhood friend Krupa was coming over to see mom given her short trip to India was coming to an end, Friday was Hitesh’s wedding sangeet, Saturday was Hitesh’s wedding and Krupa’s brother’s engagement and Sunday my favourite play (that I have seen five times now) was returning to the city, for which I had pre booked  the best seats. And now, I had to spend the entire week in my bedroom, in isolation. I felt miserable, as though I had been sentenced to solitary confinement. All of a sudden, my social calendar was depleted and I couldn’t do anything about it. Or so I thought.

As I cancelled all my social engagements, the sorrow and frustration resurfaced and amidst this emotional havoc I made a conscious resolution. Sure, the illness was taking away moments of happiness from me, but the Marwari in me would not allow this clean sweep. I was going to ensure I got something out of this illness.

One might wonder what I could really gain from a weeklong quarantine and the answer is: plenty. I made a list of all the things I wanted/needed to do but had put on the backburner since I was never home and there was never any time.  

1) Catch up on those movies!

 I’ve now seen Satyajit Ray’s Charulata, Woody Allen’s Eveyone says I love you, Midsummer night’s sex comedy, Ramesh Sippy’s Shakti (to comply with dad’s taste in movies). I would recommend all four films. I have in waiting, Annie Hall, Mera naam joker and the Lord of the Rings trilogy (Not my genre of films at all, watching upon a friend’s strong recc and availability of time). Here's to a week of celebrating cinema. How can I complain?

2) Sort out old photos and music libraries

I have been procrastinating the ordeal of sorting out my digital photos and music libraries forever, since it is a fairly time consuming task that requires one to actually sit in one place for an elongated period of time (rare occurrence in my life!). I have succesfully tagged several old songs and cleaned up my entire digital photo library. Tommorow I will backup my entire music and photo collection: always low on my list of things to do but very high on my list of critical things to be done!

3) Clean up the room; what’s in those bags?

My room is always in a state of mess; even after I have cleaned it. I fail to understand how. There are always things lying around: bank statements, invitations, electronic chargers and wires of all kinds and lots of bags with random things thrown into them. So I’ve taken on this golden opportunity to clean up the mess or at least temporarily stash it away in one big bag.

4) Watch out for those carbs!

I’m convinced. The only effective diet is to avoid carbs (grains) at night. On a regular work day, it is easy to dismiss the soup and salad for a full meal since you return home exhausted and need a happy meal to cheer you up and on the weekends one is invariably eating out. Now that I am homebound, I have made 3 dietary rules.

a) Absolutely no desserts of any form

b) A glass of spinach juice every day (can blend methi/kothmir in it)

c) No grains after lunch

So far, I am on day 4 and have followed my rules.

I’m motivating myself by thinking the following (only logic works in my case):

1)      I’m not going to the gym, so I need a reduction in calorie count

2)      If this disease is going to leave scars on my face, let it not leave kilos on my waist

3)      My only ‘work’ now consists of following this diet. My focus should be undeterred

4)      The possible positive outcome of this disease for me is weight loss

So, those are my secret weapons for dealing with the onset of an illness and trying to convert it into a positive experience. If you have other unique methods your have deployed and would like to share them, pls feel free to comment on the blog or write to me. Would love to hear from you, just in case, I need to boost my immunity again.