Chapter 1: Discovering about my Genetic Disease
I was a normal healthy child all through my school life if you exclude shortsightedness that is. I wear high-powered glasses, probably a result of reading too much fiction. In the year 1990, when I was in college I became more health conscious. I joined my neighborhood friends for jogging and exercising on a daily basis. I did quite a few pushups including one-hand pushups apart from pull-ups. We also used to jog each evening from our houses in Vasant Kunj to the Vasant Vihar market around four kilometers away. The jogging greatly increased my appetite. From three chapattis for dinner, I straightaway jumped to seven chapattis on the very first day I jogged. Gradually I increased the time spent in doing bodybuilding exercises to an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening. The efforts showed and I became physically much stronger than ever within a year of this new regimen.
During my MBA years, as my workload of studies increased, I had to give up on jogging, but I still spent one hour on bodybuilding exercises everyday. Having built up a strong muscular frame, this one-hour of exercise helped me to maintain it. When I got placed from campus in my first job in a large MNC engineering firm, I went through my first health checkup and my blood tests and other parameters came out normal indicating as I believed that I was in good shape. The initial months immediately after joining the firm were both physically and mentally demanding as we travelled all over India for a detailed induction and on–the-job training. I was leading a group of thirty engineers in all these trips. All through, I was always commended for my high energy levels and stamina. In all I spent around five years with this firm. It was during my second posting in this firm, when I was working in the company’s factory in Faridabad, that I first got to know that I did have some serious health issues.
It was a hot sunny summer afternoon, when a group of IIT Engineers in our factory were sitting in my office cabin and were discussing about our company’s tie up with a large Private hospital chain for employee health checkups. Although not mandatory, the facility was available for all employees free of cost. A friend from IIT Kanpur joked that his body was a 1972 make and he felt that a routine checkup was overdue. Another guy did mention about an incident where a factory union leader who was absolutely hale and hearty had gone for a checkup, but when he found out that he had a heart problem, his health deteriorated and he died within six months. We then debated whether it was better to know in advance about any health issue and take precautions or wait till something actually happened. The consensus veered more towards the former.
So one fine morning in 1997, I drove in my second hand fiat car all the way from my Vasant Kunj residence to this Hospital situated on Mathura Road in Delhi. I was on an empty stomach all ready for a battery of tests to cover each part of the body. Most of the tests were routine and were going fine. However, it was during the ultrasound that the Doctor looking at the screen, looked worried and turned to me to ask the reason for undergoing that particular test. I told him that there was no particular reason and that I had come for a routine Executive Health Check up as a part of our company’s policy and its tie-up with their hospital. It was then that he revealed that the ultrasound was showing numerous small cysts in my kidney. He said that as I grew older these cysts would grow larger and ultimately my kidneys could fail. This news came as a bolt from the blue to me and I was at a loss for words. Anyway at the end of the whole checkup, I was supposed to meet a Senior Doctor to discuss all my reports. This Doctor also looked quite grave and said that it seemed I suffered from a potentially fatal disease called the Adult Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease (ADPKD). He also noted that my blood pressure was on the higher side at 130 / 90 and could be a direct consequence of this disease. He asked me if my parents had any kidney problems. I told him that I had lost my Dad due to kidney failure way back in 1983, but we did not know the reason and it was believed at that time that he died due a reaction from some wrong medication. He told me that my disease was genetic in nature and from what I had told him, it seemed to have come from my father’s side since my mother was healthy. He said that I had a fifty percent chance of survival. He however qualified that he was not a Nephrologist and that I should take an appointment with a Nephrologist and discuss this in detail. I nodded a faint yes and left.
On the way back, while driving in my fiat back home, the conversation with the Doctor just kept playing in my mind and I was just thinking about how much more time I had, to live. Although I have a cheerful disposition and it takes a lot to get me down I must say at that time I did feel quite depressed. I was wondering how I would break the news at home. After a lot of thought I decided against telling anyone at home about this whole episode. In fact I thought that when the doctor said that I had a fifty percent chance of survival, he did not say anything new. After all everyone at any moment in time can die for any reason whatsoever, so everyone has a fifty percent chance of survival. I also thought that doctors tend to be alarmist at times. Let me not think too much about what he said and let me lead my life normally as before. Hence within a few days I had put all negative thoughts to the background and all but forgotten about the incident. I also never went to the Nephrologist as advised. One thing I must mention here is that during those days, we did not have the Internet, so I was not in a position to do any independent research of my own and hence ignorance was bliss at least for the moment.