Trick or Treat - a survival guide to health care
40 Plodding, and Procrastinating The Hare and the Tortoise: A hare teased a tortoise for being so slow on its feet. The tortoise challenged the hare to a race, and dared it to win. The hare readily
agreed and was amused at the idea of running a race with such a tardy rival. A
fox agreed to be the judge and the race was started. Soon the hare was so far ahead that he thought of taking a brief nap and then resuming such an one-sided race.
While the hare was fast asleep, the tortoise kept plodding on and in time reached the finish line.
Hari and Thomas were attending the same chest clinic for treatment. Both had a
chronic lung condition called bronchiectasis. Their doctor explained to them the nature
of the disease and how to take proper care: "The normal lung has a clearing mechanism
to remove the germs and dirt particles along with the phlegm (mucus). In bronchiectasis,
this mechanism fails. So every day, you have to adopt head down postures and drain the mucus using the pull of gravity. You must do this lung-toilet twice a day. Otherwise the
mucus will stagnate, cause repeated infections and slowly destroy the lungs.� They were also taught to look for early signs of chest infection and take the appropriate treatment.
Thomas was meticulous and spent time in clearing his lungs every morning and
evening. Hari tried this for a couple of days and found it tedious, dull and boring. He gave up lung toilet. Over the next five years, Thomas had no major lung infection,
whereas Hari was treated eight times with antibiotics and admitted to the hospital twice with 'severe pneumonia complicating bronchiectasis'. 119
