MY FIRST SURGERY

I have been having a small boil on my upper eyelid for more than two months and as usual I have been ignoring it. This small boil started causing discomfort in my vision over two weeks and hence I went to an eye doctor in Dubai who advised having it checked in Chennai.

I landed in Chennai Airport at 5 a.m. on 19th August 2011. I went to eye doctor Dr.N.R.Rangaraj at 3 p.m. the same day for eye checkup. The doctor looked into my eyes and said I have “chalazion” and it needs to be operated upon. He said “you come tomorrow evening I will cut open and scrap it off”. I said “OK Doctor. Thanks and see you tomorrow”. As I left the clinic I started having “butterflies in my stomach”. Until I met the Doctor the following day at 6 p.m. I was only thinking about the surgery. It is the first ever time that a knife is going to be put on my body by a Doctor. I have never had a surgery before and hence it caused lot of fear, excitement and nervousness in me.

On 20th August 2011 I met the doctor and he checked my eyes and said the “chalzion” is more defined and clear now due to the hot water fermentation. He then said “please go to Ashwini and wait for me I will come at 7 p.m.”. I went to Ashwini Soundararaja Hospital and waited in the reception. The doctor was delayed and finally arrived at 7.35 p.m. I was immediately asked to get into a room and made to lie down on a bed.

As I lay on the bed my nervousness increased manifolds and I was closing my fingers and gripping myself with fear. The Doctor said “I will give local anesthesia in your eye. It is a very small injection and not very painful”. As he poked the needle in my right eye just below the eyebrow, I felt acute pain and at that moment I thought how did “Periyavaal – Shri Chandrasekara Saraswathi” bear the pain of two eye surgeries that too without any anesthesia. My mind was only seeing the face of Shri Chandrasekara Saraswathi Swamigal and I started chanting “Jaya Jaya Shankara Hara Hara Shankara”. I kept doing that throughout the 10 – 12 minutes that the Doctor was working on my “chalazion”.

After the Surgery was finished when I got up and sat in front of the Doctor I told him that I was thinking of “Periyaval”. I said “I have read somewhere that Periyaval has undergone eye surgery without any anesthesia”. The doctor said “that has been incorrectly reported, in fact Dr.Badrinath performed both the surgeries on “Periyaval’s eye only after administering local anesthesia”.

I felt that the thought of “Periyaval” on the operation table and staying focused on chanting his name was remarkable. My first ever surgery went off very smooth without any pain – thanks to “Periyaval” Shri Chandrasekara Saraswathi Swamigal. It turned out to be a wonderful experience as I could regulate my mind and thinking process.


T.P.Anand
28th August 2011
Dubai, U.A.E.