It was like any other day in March 2013 – I was handling ever-increasing mails and suddenly felt a kind of pain in my right leg. I took an aspirin and returned home early and applied pain balms, hot water fermentation and massage. Pain was throughout the leg and of a nagging kind. Again I took an aspirin and tried to sleep, but in vain.
Next morning I was examined by an orthopaedic doctor. He prescribed painkillers and antibiotics for a week and assured me it was nothing serious. Next day I went to the clinic as the pain was increasing and the doctor repeated his prognosis and advised a scan. The scan results were normal. The doctor repeated his motivational words and changed his prescription with more powerful antibiotics and painkillers. On the third day I couldn’t drive the car as the pain was acute in the ankle. By the fourth day there was a new development – now the action of my thumb was lost. I rushed to the same doctor who referred me to a neurologist.
It was a bad day as I couldn’t walk on my toe as asked by the neurologist. I complained of increased pain, while I tried to walk on my toe. She conducted shock wave tests and all the results were normal. She gave the report that everything is ok but need to be tested for ruling out hadensa disease. I went to the skin specialist who took a day and issued a negative report for hadensa.
Now again, with ortho who changed his prescription and as well asked to undergo physiotherapy with heat wave. Seeing my sufferings, the physiotherapist reluctantly advised me to get an opinion from another doctor.
I called my relative who happened to be a neuro and narrated the whole story. Though he was a little faraway I met him on Day 12 with all reports. He conducted shock wave tests again and got normal results. Then he advised to undergo MRI. I asked “MRI?” That was when he uttered those golden words ‘accurate diagnosis is 50% cure’ and MRI is the last available tool to fix the problem.
It was altogether a new, little scary experience with very little space between my entire body and the machine and continuous sounds of various decibels. Finally when they pulled me out, I asked why it took so long. Their reply was that they had summoned another doctor to confirm MRI findings of my condition, which were rare. On getting the report my doctor got surprised and informed that a cyst of around 5-7cm size is pressing the perennial nerve near my knee, blocking the brain signals to my right leg. He added that a cyst in such area of the leg is unusual and rare and has to be removed by surgery. An expert orthopaedic surgeon removed the cyst and after a few days the pain subsided and after a month, with regular physiotherapy, I regained my thumb action too.
This incident taught me a wonderful lesson. “Accurate diagnosis is 50% cure” is very relevant for the current COVID-19 scenario and is not only for medical conditions but for all problems in our life – profession, business or career. For sure, it should be all the more helpful, if we do self-diagnosis at periodical intervals using swot analysis. Such diagnosis will help us attain success through proper planning and action.
