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There was something small and sharp stuck in my throat so after trying everything to take it out we went to an ENT specialist, but...
We had just finished our dinner that day. I had made chhole and as soon as I finished I could sense something pricking in the throat.
Gulping water, gargling, coughing….nothing helped. Something WAS there.
I tried to use all my skills to take it out but in vain. I used a torch and tried to locate the foreign body. Yes..It was there, clinging to my throat, near the tonsils.
It was already 9 in the night, but we asked for the ENT specialist who came to check.
He used all his instruments, skill, and patience…to declare that “There was NOTHING!
On my insistence and even on telling him the exact location, he was adamant and said that it was PSYCHOLOGICAL!
These words are good for those who love dramatics! Not me. I thought, I never even sigh even if in pain, and here he was dismissing me as a psycho case!
He then said he would do an endoscopy on me to confirm, and fixed the procedure for the next day.
The next day I went to another ENT specialist, a lady. I told her my ordeal, told her the location of the pricking culprit as I felt it.
She used her skills and instruments, and declared that YES…she too could see what I had described.
She sprayed a little local anesthetic, and pulled the thing out.
It was a small barb that I could clearly see after it was out.
I was relieved of both: the barb itself, and the barb of the labelling of my actual pain as “psychosomatic”.
Editor’s note: Women regularly face #MedicalMisogyny from health care professionals. For the WHO World Health Day 2023 theme of ‘Health for All’, identifying this misogyny and ensuring #Equity in healthcare is essential. All of April, we will be sharing stories with you on this these, either personal stories or fiction. Find them all here.
Image source: YouTube/ Pocket Films: Kundli
Lalita Vaitheeswaran is a gynecologist having a passion for writing in both Hindi and English. She has authored 6 books of poetry, both in Hindi and English, and a book of short stories in English, read more...
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