The Struggle that Ended with a Neonatal Breath

One of those silent struggles..

The world had seen many great struggles ever since humans marked their presence across the globe-- some for a chance of life, some for a piece of  land, some for a bit of freedom and even some for a pinch of Sodium Chloride. This chapter is about a struggle. But let me tell you this is not about any of such famous struggles, which craved for and earned their space in history books and media archives. It is about a personal struggle of mine.

 It is a 'Glorious Struggle' I had been leading silently since 1992 until it finally seemed to be triumphant in the very recent gone days.  The Hero might be I, as the only one struggled is me, but the paramount character is not me. It is a part of me; more specifically my 'breathing contraption' - the so called human Nose.  Yes, my Nose is the Villain against whom I had been leading a struggle since my birth for nothing but to Breathe freely.

The end of the struggle showed its signs when I finally decided to restructure the Villain with the help of some clinicians. They said that I had to undergo a little modification nasally, because the nasal bridge was a 'bit' bent like the old Da Vinci Bridge of Constantinople.  They call it the Septal Deviation, quite common among many. But in my case, when they endoscoped it, the deviation was beyond normal and should be taken care of At the Earliest as it would lead to sudden blockage of air and would make me suffocate frequently, similar to a decade-old Leyland truck grappling to negotiate the hilly hairpin-curves.

I have heard that before from men like them. At the earliest???  I felt like laughing from within. Because it has been 24 years since it all began. I was born like this and even the very first gasp of air, I inspired, couldn't have gone through my nose without an altercation with the inner walls of it. Ever since then I had been a regular visitor of nearby hospitals. I had been 'roaring' in my sleep, like a lion. At times it created a ruckus when I breathed and often felt my nose not at all functional and I had to rely on my mouth, both to eat and breathe at one and the same time. But yeah.. I decided not to laugh and move on this time. Because it was high time I expected a climax for my struggle. Moreover I didn't want to be a grappling truck as my age would not settle for that.

So I surrendered myself before the doctors for the Septoplasty. Well, it was a 3 hr long surgery where the Rhinologist sculptured my nose with utmost care and concentration like a sculptor showcasing his expertise on his new piece of work. Never thought a doctor could be an artist too. And I was laid down like a numb piece of rock on which the man was chiselling; thanks to the anaesthetist. Later when the numbness left me gradually I started trying to feel what difference that paid upgrade of the two-holed projection on my countenance had made. I could feel air queuing impatient at the entrance of my newly 'tunnelled' nostrils to enter the windpipe, first time without any tiff with my nose walls, for making me alive, just like the long row of trucks waiting for the opening of Thorong La Pass after the recent Nepal blockade, to giveback life to Nepalese who were in breadline.

I started respiring once again like a newborn, that I was once, but this time with the luck to intake air freely. Words played hide and seek around me to describe that 'breathtaking' feel of taking breath through an open tube of flesh for the first time ever in my life. I respired again with the consciousness that I don't have to be a roaring lion in my sleep anymore.   I respired again and again happily with the satisfaction that my lifelong struggle to breathe has come to a glorious end with that one 'Neonatal Breath' I took in, just after I came out of that operation theatre as a 'newborn'- to begin a second life but this time being a powerful juggernaut to thunder through the ups and downs of life.