Chapter 36: Interested In Remaining Disinterested
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He gave a benevolent smile.
I examined him, and I thought that I had made a correct diagnosis. Immediately, Dr. Don and Dr. Goher entered and they said to me, "Why don't you come and let us talk in the next room." So, in the next room, we went there and what do they show me — they show me reference books on anatomy, on the diagnosis, on pathology, on the treatment — about six or eight books opened out with references, laid out on the table for me to read and they were ready to just throw questions at me about my diagnosis, about my findings and what I was going to do about it. They asked me various questions.
So, I told them that this is a case of a difficult type of syndrome known as "Ramsey Hunt neuralgia" — where you get two nerves of the face affected, the seventh and the fifth, as a result of which he had excruciating pain both in the facial distribution and also in the ear. But I thought the ear pain was not so bad, because Baba was not able to eat and the sores on the face, on the tongue, on the inside of the cheek, on the hard palate were very, very painful indeed. One could see actual sores and he was bleeding from some of them. So, I thought the only way to do it is to give an injection and block the nerve on the face by which, at least, the pain in all over the face including the inside of the mouth and on the tongue would stop immediately. If I succeeded in blocking this nerve, Baba would be able to eat something immediately.
Well, I do not know what happened to me because I had no other thought in my mind, because I had forgotten Bombay, I had forgotten Ahmednagar, I had forgotten everything else. In fact, I had forgotten myself! And I just told Baba, "I have decided to give you an injection of alcohol into one nerve."
He said, "Go ahead! Why are you waiting?" Dr. Don looked at me. Dr. Goher looked at me. They were rather worried, but Baba says, "Go ahead!"
I had taken with me my electrical stimulator to know that I am in the nerve that when you touch it with the electric current the patient gets typical facial pain.