By God's grace, and good wishes from dear ones, I have been in  comparatively good health through my 80+ years. I am fast trying to reach 1000 months of my life - I am almost there with 969 months to my credit. But there are bumps, potholes and hurdles in   the path one follows in the journey of life. Sometimes it seems that you are in denial. I am an optimist most of the time and people think I am always in denial about my health problems.

Last month, something came up suddenly to give a scare. I did not find it very alarming but did not want to take a chance, especially when our younger son-in-law Randeep (Seema's husband) is a Cardiologist himself and is always concerned about Sadhana and me. They live just a few miles away from us and we visit them and our twin angels, Nisha and Shivani, frequently.

The morning of November 6, there was some little uneasiness, a kind of tightening in my chest region. I thought it was some heart-burn and that Tums would solve the problem. Sadhana found some for me without realizing if there was something more than what Tums could solve.

We went to see Nisha-Shivani in the evening and I chose to talk to Randeep about my problem. I did not think it was a heart problem but was a little confused and shared it with him. [Seema saw us talking, got suspicious, and came to know about it.] Randeep's instant reaction was to get me admitted to the hospital for thorough rounds of check-ups/tests. He announced that he was taking me to the Emergency. That came as I was about to tell Sadhana about it.
It came as a shock to Sadhana who was, perhaps rightly, unhappy also because I did not share my concern with her since morning. I did not want to unnecessarily bother her with something I was not sure myself about. Secondly, she herself is suffering from acute Arthritis and other ailments. But to her, that was no excuse.

Well, once I was in our own doctor's hands I wound up at the  Emergency of the nearest, Christus Saint Catherine Hospital, in Katy, not far from our homes. The name has something sweet for me. Catherine was my second good friend - now they call them girlfriends - when I was about 5 year-old. That was some 76 year's back in Dehradun, India. I lost track of that Catherine long ago but Catherine hospital might now remain with me for a long time.

For more than 18 hours till the next midday When Randeep took me home, I was at the mercy of doctors, nurses, medical assistants and clinical technicians and so on. They poked me, drew blood, put  tubes inside and outside of my body, and subjected me to other tests, including EKG (twice), and X-rays. Who could sleep with all those tests! I was also starving as I rarely relish hospital food, especially being a vegetarian (now I don't eat even eggs).

All that ‘ordeal' left me totally exhausted and weak. Though the chest congestion - or whatever that damn thing was - had 99%  disappeared, Randeep was not satisfied and after three days sent me for CT Scan at the same hospital.

This is a highly technical procedure with expensive machines and various recordings/readings. It also involves radiation. The whole thing took about an hour though without alarming me. But the results must have alarmed Randeep who concluded that I must have consultations with another specialist and undergo Angiogram and/or Angioplasty as my arteries were partly clogged.

"Papa you are in denial," was all that Randeep could think of when I thought, and said there might not be anything wrong with me. I never imagined that a heart problem/attack could come near me. Randeep said though my heart was strong there was something blocking the arteries, some plaque build-up, and again, he did not want to take any chances.

Randeep himself does all those procedures but being a member of the family he preferred someone outside the family circle to do it.

Seema took me to the very senior and reputed Doctor E. Raizner who has an office in downtown Houston. Dr. Raizner had not long back performed surgery on the former First Lady Barbara Bush (wife of senior George Bush). [I wondered if the doctor would use the same knife on me. I actually wanted that as a souvenir but they use brand new instruments and I was not lucky to have even that.

The preliminary examination was done by a nursing assistant who left us in he room for the doctor to come and closely examine, talk to me and discuss the CT Scan (a CD was prepared on that). He told me that after the Angiogram if he found my arteries were clogged even up to 50 percent, they could be treated with some medication. Over that point, further procedure of Angioplasty will have to be done. That was a little more scary as it meant the heart had become real culprit. Of course, I did not panic at all.