Volume 5 Issue 6 June 2015
Physical Examination!!
A clinical psychologist was my neighbour. One day he complained to me “My wife is unable to do any work after her third delivery. She goes off to bedroom and lies down without sleeping. My mother is unable to cope up with this attitude of hers. My mother is already stressed out with my 2 and 4 years old daughters. My wife went to her native place for delivery and her mother must have tutored her not to help in house chores. I thought it is better to take your help in this mother-in-law Vs daughter-in-law syndrome.”
I went to his house and spoke to mother-in-law first in the hall as it is a routine to respect the elderly. Later I spoke to the patient in her bedroom. She heard all her mother-in-laws complaints and cried to me. “Doctor, please ask her how much house chores I was doing after the first two deliveries. Now I can not because some lump comes on my stomach up to my throat. It becomes worse if I bend down. I am fine if I lie down. My mother did all the post partum rituals
methodically though she had to look after my brother’s son. I should have taken rest for few more months. But my mother-in-law insisted that I come back. I had to send my daughter to school here. I know it is all due to tubectomy. My mother told me not to go for it. Now that I got a son, my in-laws insisted that I get tubectomy done.”
Thank God, I did a physical examination though it was uncomfortable in home visit. She had a huge incisional hernia – still reducible!
Bangalore, dr.saranya@gmail.com
