LIVING THE i LIFE : ‘I cannot sit home and not help while others are struggling'

When coronavirus started spreading, it became clear that the next step was lockdown and we were trying to prepare for that mentally. When we saw the news in Italy and Spain, we became anxious about how to handle it. I am a neurologist and I was thinking how I could help. I cannot sit home and not help while others are struggling. I went to the hospital to help for emergencies. I can’t deal with the COVID-19 patients but helped other patients who came in with seizures and strokes. The number of cases I see has gone down. At one point, even as a doctor, I felt a little stressed - especially when you hear the bad news. I used to have these little anxiety bursts. I told my husband once that I was having palpitations. I did some gardening to relax and distract myself. As doctors, you are not immune to these pressures.

We try not to show it in front of patients as they are drawing strength from us. My stress buster is the time I spend with my daughter. My husband works in IT sector. He works from home for a company in the UK. My daughter is a Class 12 student. I always try to divide my time equally between work and home. One thing that has increased is cooking. I like cooking because I never had the time to cook every day. As a doctor, I’m running around all the time. I squeeze time and get a little bit of reading done. This shutdown has given me the time to do that.