“A Well kept Secret”

        “A Well kept Secret”

It is said everybody have a past. “But not everybody reveals that past and feels confident to divulge its intricate details in public. At same time it is very difficult to keep a lid on them and keep it away from the light of day. It requires great internal strength, mental calmness and in certain cases wits, per say.

“MY LEFT EAR!!!”

Lady was in her late thirties, medium height, average build and the face easily missed in the crowd. Nothing was qualitative peculiar about her to divert anyone’s attention span for substantial amount her time.

Patience was one of her virtue that I appreciate in her which lacks in most of my patients.

She came in with her husband, talked in detail about her skin ailments went through an entire procedure of case taking protocol. Answered all my questions to desire level and that was it. All snowboarded calmly. One of my peculiar habits is to ask one last time, before writing a final prescription is, “Anything else!!” Maybe if she missed something, maybe patient need to add something as a foot note. It’s the last chance for them to tell any minute detail before I uncap my pen and do the needful. As with all patients, there is always something missed and remembered at eleventh hour.

This time, it was her husband who came up with an instant realisation, “Doc! She probably has some trouble in hearing in her left ear.”

“Since when?” I rightfully raised my eyebrows.

“Since that accident.”

“What Accident?” After divulging substantial amount of time with the patient and still there are unfilled blanks in her medical history, came as a real big disappointment.

I frowned, “Please, do tell me.”

It was her husband driving and they had a minor brush up with another vehicle on the highway year back. There were no external injuries though and not even any legal tangle (Relevant Information pointing towards the minor bang). But since than, may be due to screeching sound between the cars or god knows any other factors, she has suddenly stop hearing from that ear.

Plenty ENT doc’s unanimously sang the carol of dead nerve due to injury. But Surprise! Surprise! there was never any physical contact. That was something that didn’t go down my throat.

I prescribed anyways keeping up with the sunny side, because the incident was of recent occurrence and in certain cases this works as our walking advantage.

For months she walked in my clinic with her husband with a good prognosis of her skin but no ‘breaking good’ glory for her left ear. We only applauded the wonders on her skin. But it got me worried.

And one odd day when she walked in with the same repeated story but this time, alone, without her husband. Was it my guilty face or whether she was in the ultimate mood that she divulged the entire truth to my utmost surprise?

She was deaf in that ear since she was five years old. A weird accident took away her hearing power. A leather ball found her mark on her left ear, damaging her auditory canal and bursting away her tympanic membrane. The last thing that she ever heard from that ear was her own scream. Since then the world around, have been silent on left! No surgery could revive it back to being. It was dead. She grew up adapting to that abnormally. She was at peace with herself until she decided to marry this man, whom she fancied. The only peril on the path was that if the truth about her dead ear be revealed, she would miss this connubial bliss.

The woman was not ready to give up. She had a plan!!

For fifteen years of her marriage she faked it all. She was on her guards always protecting this dark secret of her past. She tried hard and became proficient in reading the movement of the lips without hearing the actual words. She was a genius born once in thousand years with such will power!

But the question arises, why is she killing her already dead ear, now in public eyes?? Answer is simple, she is done faking. She has been already married for fifteen years now. So a dead ear and hearing loss won’t affect her conjugal bliss anymore. But still she required an impromptu to stage its death. A husband initiated accident was more than wish fulfilled to do her act. No one would ever suspect it and the guilt will be carried on her husband shoulder. Wonderful thinking!

He may now live in the guilt of killing away his wife left ear but she found her freedom to be proudly, one sided deaf.

Amazingly Awesome!!!!