Fortitude of positivity – a product of a societal manifestation?
-Written by Dr. Geeta Sundar
I’m on my early morning rounds in the ICU.
Tube in mouth, RT stuck on the bridge of his nose, legs and hands a noddle disarray, ventilator tubes shuffled and tied to the corner of his bed, my patient who suffered a traumatic brain injury has been an M5 status since his admission 3 nights ago. I shake his sternum with a pressure that is borderline on being painful and he opens his eyes. Lo! That’s a positive sign, and as I speak to him, call out his name and ask him, how he is, is he fine, he nods, and agrees with me. That’s a M6 and for me, a huge step forward. I had almost labelled him an M5 for the next 1 week and was wondering on the need for a tracheostomy – but him being M6 now helps me make a plan for a trial for extubation.
His response had me wondering on the crucial steps it takes to heal onself. Physically. Mentally. Spiritually. Actions have reactions. Actions have consequences – and as I was talking to a colleague the other day, where I happened to involuntarily shrug and tell him that I was so conservative in my approach to life that I loved and cherished safe consequences – and that despite all consequences, the dictum is that the body heals, that the system rights itself, and an older routine can be established. If I were him, in that space, on that bed, tubes all over me, not speaking, I wouldn’t be able to give a response like he did, I’d be cynical – I wouldn’t say I was fine, I would want to cry, weep, wallow in my pitiful state and probably say I was too sad about the way the traumatic incident had changed my life. But that was not what he did. He agreed that he was fine, he was okay. What is it about the healing process that makes one start being so positive? I wonder. I wonder. Some neurochemicals? Neurotransmitters?
Inflammation is body’s way to heal and it’s a double edged sword. It causes healing and it worsens healing. It can make and break. It can create and destroy. Pathologists will tell you inflammation is innate, it’s acquired and it’s a natural defense. But I think there is more to it than what meets the eye. Probably a superior control from the brain? Some cortical inflow information to the inflamed tissue on how it should go about healing?
Influences from the mood, the person’s well being, the person’s thinking, emotions, that could play a role in monitoring how the body heals? They say gyri controls the gut, and maybe this too then? Or as I ponder, I assume, maybe there is another realm of this healing and positivity that is inbuilt? Brought down like heirlooms from generations above us, of eons of humans and ancestors that have fought for the rights and life we have to today and so it’s just a manifestation of how we have adapted to being, to answering that our situations are ‘okay’ or ‘fine’? Maybe, maybe, years of conditioning has made us this version of acceptable forms of ourselves where we don’t look the problem in the eye and agree with the best version of how the society would reply? And say, yes, we are okay. Yes, we want to go home, despite knowing home would be a dangerous option. We just become flat, give up the fight and yonder for a ‘fine’
circumstance.
And then there is the whole book on The Secret and the way the Universe reacts to thoughts. But in that state of M5 and healing, does the mind even have sensible thoughts? Are there even sane thoughts? Are there even thoughts that focus on the aftermath of the incident, the aspirations of the soul that inhabits the body? Guess we’ll never know. Thoughts can’t be translated yet, and maybe in years to come with AI, we can translate and so get a better understanding of this. Like Nature, maybe there is a nurturing aspect in the cosmos. Hidden. But well constructed. Pristine, not yet destroyed by human.
I wish I could say all that heals well, ends well. but I’ve been at the observing end of all things getting messed up despite adequate healing. Positivity can only take you so far. Pollyanna can spread her wings only this much. So after all the experiences, it makes me wonder, if a multifactorial aspect decides the end result – metaphysical, beyond chemicals, beyond science – probably a fated influence? Probably, God? Probably, bigger than God? Probably, the Universe, itself?
