Behind the White Coat

Bombs Over Karachi

"I can see body parts strewn all over the road," said CNN''s correspondant, "There are dead bodies everywhere. ... It is a large-scale attack, by the looks of things."

The latest count as per Geo TV was 200 dead, 500 injured.  As Benazir Bhutto makes her return to Pakistan after 8 years in exile, she was recieved by thousands of people, and 2 suicide bombers.  One of the bombs was right next to her bullet-proof vehicle, which shattered the windows, rattlin the passengers, but thankfully left Benazir unharmed.  However the other 200 people who died, and 500 who suffered injury did not fare so well.  What kind of nation or polictical situation victims 1000 of their citizens and people for such mindless violence?  Under what ideals, religion, or political incentive validates such terrorism?  Wolf Blitzer called Pakistan's politics "Risky Business."  That is an understatement.  Benazir new of death threats before returning to her home soil, but does one ever expect to be so close to carnage, death, and chaos?  Pakistan's politics is hardly your run of the mill "democracy," it is more like anarchy that is attempting to find some sort of light at the end of a disturbing tunnel of violence, corruption, and political and cultural rivalry.  It pains me to see my home country amidst such chaos and bloodshed. 

Now people may have different views on Benazir's political stance and ideals, and her party's outlook for the future.  Forget about whether or not you support her or oppose her.  That is fine.  That is healthy politics.  Her return should have marked a forward step in the growth of Paikistan's democratic process regardless of what one feels about her.  But was she met with cheers, opposition, debate, voting, and democracy? No...  This was all overcome by two fucking suicide bombers.  This makes me sad.  And of course it is all over the news now. But in a week's time, it will be gone.  If something like this happened in America or the UK, I can't even begin to imagine the repercussions.  In Pakisan, it is has almost become a part of daily life in politics.... I am fearful for my nation.

As painful as it was, it almost humorred me hearing someone speak from London, regarding a bomb blast there that was followed in minutes by police, security, crime scene agents, in taking away the injured, closing off the area, collecting all the viable evidence, and starting the process of finding out what happened.  In Pakistan, they can't even protect the goddamn motorcade!  It was moving through a sea of people, slower than walking speed!  How the hell did they expect to stop a guy with a bomb coming right up to the car?  And after the incident, what?  Thankfully many injured (probably not all that COULD have been saved) were taken away  to hospitals.  And then what?  You think there is some CSI unit in Karachi to collect evidence? Please. Even if they did, what are they goin to do? Prosecute the Taliban? Track down those responsible for the bombing and put them in jail?  My friends, we are far and away from a country that holds any sort of legitimate democratic process.  My prayers go out to all those injured in this blast, and for that matter, victims of all the other mindless "political" violence that has-and will-occur.

Back Pain and Accupuncture

Wow, has it been that long since I wrote in my blog?  I guess after I got back from vacation I 've busy and preoccupied.  It's Ramadan for one, so I'm chronically tired and hungry.  Work is always busy, especially when I'm in the ICU for 2 weeks after a vacation. Bollocks! Then of course there is facebook, which I admit I am quite hooked on.  But isn't everyone these days? Anyway, a talk for another day....

I am in serious pain today.  I have problems with herniated discs in my lower back, and  I have pain pretty much everyday.  Once in a while, I'll have some muscle spasm and strain my back, rendering me cripple and quite useless for the next few days.  An "Acute Back" I guess you could call it.  That is exactly what happened 2 days ago.  How you say?  Despite everyone telling me "Sounds like you partied hard last night", and "Go easy with that wild sex Ali," the precipitating factor was not that glorious. I was simply going up the stairs, and felt a spasm, and then that was it.  Now I walk like a hunchback, with shooting pains from my back to my thigh.  Though it has been worse-- there were times when I couldn't move out of bed for 3 days!  All this from my herniated discs (L4-L5 and L5-S1 if you are curious).  I really need to get my ass to physical therapy, and maybe even some epidural steroid injections, or perhaps some alternative therapies ....

Speaking of alternative therapies, last week I actually tried accupuncture!   We had a seminar on it at work, and I volunteered to get some healing.  The needles are very tiny and thin, and tap right into the skin.  No alcohol or sterilization is done, you just stick them in!  The doc (he is an actual doctor who took a course, not a Shaman or anything like that) proceeded to pierce me from my back to my ass to my leg.  It was a very weird experience.  He first put a needle into my head, which is supposed to help people who have trouble sleepin because of some pain or ailment.  I barely felt the needle go in, it didn't hurt, but I almost felt a feeling of warmth and calm over me.  Was it my chi re-aligning?  Or just a brief sympathetic surge from my nervous system when I realized a needle had been stuck into my head.  Who knows....  He then put some needles in the lower back, again a slight pinch, but nothin else.  Then a needle went into my right hand, right at the junction of the thumb and pointer finger, near the MCP joint, which is a specific accunpuncture point for general pain relief.  It was strange, I felt tingling and parashtesias in my pinky finger and all over the right hand, which anatomically cannot be explained by what nerves cross where the needle was entered.  Then needles went into my buttock (yes he hiked up my shorts with all my colleagues watching to put one at the bottom crease of my butt....), and various parts of my leg.  One needle went in just next to where the knee is, and that was painful!  I felt this electric surge down my leg, like he hit a nerve.  A few more went in the leg and foot, and those also felt a little weird.  But it subsided.  Perhaps thats a good thing??  The other interesting thing is when the needles go in, you get this large area of redness that grows around the needle like a circle.  It is supposed to mean your body's response to the needle is a positive one, and you have good chi.  Some call it chi, others would call it inflammation.

The needles stayed in me for 20 minutes.  I felt relaxed, calm, and warmth.  (Again is that a psychological or bodily response to knowing I had accunpuncture needles in me?  I can't say)  Afterwards, I gotta say, I did feel better.  The pain was still there, but compared to before it was less, and felt kind of dulled.  It is like when you get lidocaine at the dentist, you can still feel something in your mouth, but it doesn't hurt.  This lasted for about 1 to 2 days.  Then the pain returned to my baseline daily pain... Nobody knows how accunpuncture works, but for certain things, it really does work!  Hey if it can relieve my pain, I aint going to ask questions....  Despite knowing the ins and outs of the human body, there are many things we can't explain.  Am I a believer in it now?  Well I'm getting there...

Then of course a few days later, I strained my back and boom, I was down for the count.   I called in sick for the first time ever during my residency!  I was unhappy to break my streak.  Today I am rolling around juiced up on pain killers, muscle relaxants, and my cane.  And not one of those pimp canes, but one of those curved old person canes... During clinic today, one of my patients looks at me and tells me "I'm glad your my doctor today.  You remind me of Dr. House!"