Munesh Mangal has a candid tongue, so when he speaks it is interesting to listen, and after three months of recuperating from his kidney transplant surgery, he has quite a lot to say, particularly about how his days are no longer humdrum and filled with the agony of knowing he was dying.
The 11 years he had suffered with defective kidneys now resemble a bad horror story he was once caught up in and he insists on putting them behind him. His immediate focus is on staying healthy, keeping out of hospital and resuming classes, which he was forced to quit a few years ago.
Since his groundbreaking surgery on local soil in July, he had been hospitalized for a period of two weeks — the stent that had been placed inside him had to be removed and re-inserted.
On the day of this interview, Munesh was found sitting at the medical clinic at the Georgetown Public Hospital after a regular check-up with the doctor — he is required to visit twice a week — looking at a piece of paper that holds the results to a blood test he had taken the day before. He is deep in concentration, almost unaware of the presence of his sister nearby and the countless other persons waiting to see the doctor. After a long, hard study of the results he looks up and says that the doctor was right; he is okay.
Munesh then runs off to the pharmacy, returns with his medication and sits down. He is ready to open up. His medication is a combination of drugs that he is required to take twice a day. In total, he swallows 10 pills in 24 hours. But he says that if 100 pills a day would keep him healthy then he would happily ingest them all.
“I am not too bothered by the regular routine of drinking pill after pill twice a day what does worry me is that they keep changing. One time I had a certain strength then another time I received another strength so I was a bit confused and I asked the doctors about it. Now things are okay I think,” he says.
Doctors say that Munesh’s medication is also being monitored as he responds to it so it is likely that he could be on different pills, different weeks but they are aiming for uniformity.
The 19-year-old says he has good days and others when he feels like his body has taken a severe beating. In the early days of his post-surgery recuperation, he was constantly plagued with aches about the body, and had no choice but to lie in bed and sleep the pain away. But that was in the past since he is hardly ever at home these days.
Call it a burning desire to be on the road again, but Munesh has been hanging out and reconnecting with old friends within the past month. There was a time when he knew what was on television at specific hours; now he has trouble remembering time slots. He sees the change as a progressive step towards his long-term recovery since being active is a prerequisite.
Munesh is somewhat troubled that his mother, Leelkumarie Mangal, has not been able to adapt to a more active lifestyle since surgery. Since she gave him one of her kidneys he believes it is only fair that she gets use to walking around some more and “getting off the bed that she is so attached to”.
Munesh is close to his mother, so close that he often sits down and decides what is best for them both, and most times she finds it agreeable. They live alone at their Lusignan home and had been doing so for a few years now. His parents are separated and he has an older sister who has married and moved out. If his mother falls ill, he somehow finds the strength to press on without her, as he was forced to do at the time of the interview.
Leelkumarie is hospitalized and had been for four days before he sat down with Stabroek News. Her condition is not listed as serious but doctors are closely monitoring her; the incision she received during surgery is developing an abscess. She had not been hospitalized prior but there were moments of severe pain.
Munesh recounts it as though he personally suffered, but again he points out that she has not been as active as prescribed.
Stabroek News also spoke with Leelkumarie, who struggled to sit up in her hospital bed, and refused to lie down when encouraged to do so. She, too, is frank, spilling that from the outset her road to recovery has been rough. It is nothing doctors had not previously said to her, but still, it is more than she had imagined. However, she underscores that giving up one of her kidneys for Munesh is the sacrifice that any healthy mother would make.
“Sometimes I does feel like I am always going to have to battle something or the other since the surgery but seeing him walking around looking so healthy I am just happy and thankful,” she says, staring at her son as she spoke.
There was so specific medication prescribed for her after surgery; doctors simply told her to take better care of herself. Leelkumarie said she has done nothing but follow their advice, yet her condition continues to raise questions as to whether she should be on medication.
Questioned about this, Minister of Health Dr Leslie Ramsammy said she is being monitored regularly and that doctors have been positive about her recovery. He said the doctors would only prescribe medication as required, noting that Leelkumarie has been on a few pills but not more than is necessary. Both mother and son are under the care of Dr Purohit at the public hospital, the minister said, adding that they are receiving quality care.
Leelkumarie does not dispute what the minister said, but says she hopes her condition improves and that someone can take a closer look at her current medication and see if any changes should be made. She is also hoping that the pain would ease; constant pain that has plagued her since the surgery.
Munesh is at the hospital regularly; he takes her meals, which he prepares himself and hangs around until visiting hours end. Twice a day he is at her beside and if he had it his way, he would be there all day keeping her company. He speaks to her with deep concern in his voice, asking whether she had breakfast and if she is in need of anything in particular. As she lies on the bed responding to his battery of questions, the roles are reversed — he is like the parent fully in control, for now.
