Can You Mend My Broken Heart?

319 Medical conference - 4

Akira somehow didn't like the disappointment that was getting reflected in Oshana's tone.

If anyone had the right to be disappointed with his absence then that was her. If anyone had the right to miss him dearly, then that was her.

She wanted to retort back and say mean things to her, but that was not her. That was not the way she behaved and functioned. So even though she was upset with her words from before and now, she decided to ignore her existence altogether and she sat back on her seat acting all unperturbed.

Oshana looked at her notepad in which she had scribbled a lot of medical terms or jargons that she had heard from the talks given by the doctors. Some of the spellings were incorrect and seeing that a smile etched on her face which was more like a mockery.

"At least get your spellings right", she said and left for the tea break area.

Even though she knew it was not her fault, she still felt a bit offended. She started looking at her notebook and a look of disappointment spread on her face.

"Aren't you hungry?", she turned back upon hearing that familiar voice.

"No, I had a heavy lunch", Akira replied turning back.

"Well, I didn't officially introduce myself. I am Dr. Jaby Nelson. A neurosurgeon by profession. And you are?", he asked and took the empty seat next to her.

"You don't mind me taking this seat right?".

She shook her head indicating a no.

"I am Akira. Not a doctor by profession and since that's not my chair, I don't mind".

"You have a funny bone", Dr. Nelson said and chuckled.

"So may I know who in your family is suffering from this condition?"

"Nobody in my family. It's my boyfriend".

"Oh I see", he said and leaned back on his chair. Then after a second of silence in between, he said,

"Well if you have any questions or queries in your mind then you can let me know. Maybe I can help you out. Even though it's a rare condition, I have 6-7 cases under me from varying age categories. So I have a pretty decent idea of all the whats and hows.

Her eyes gleamed upon hearing him speak.

"I have his report with me, Would you mind to see them once?", saying that Akira handed over the file to him after removing the reports of predictive analysis.

He flipped all the pages thoroughly. She thought that he would just give a glance but he meticulously read all the reports, including sleep analysis graphs and reports on memory and imagery tests.

After scanning the whole bunch of reports, he looked towards her and said,

"Well, I guess your boyfriend is lucky. He seems to have a mild issue with just connecting the faces. But apart from that, all his memory is intact. He hasn't forgotten anything. The case becomes acute when there are scenarios in which a patient suffers from mild amnesia as well. But here this isn't the case".

"So that's good right?"

"Yes, that's pretty damn good".

She smiled and took a deep breath.

"Basically, it's just that every day he might have to just see the names mapping to the faces, that's all he has to do to lead a normal life, and chances are there that he might get back his visual facial recognition section of memory reinstated as it was before as well."

"Really? That's possible? I mean one day can he recognize me from my face?"

"Yes, I mean in more than 90% of the patients with just the symptoms of Acquired Prosopagnosia have recovered their cognition back, in a couple of years. Although the number of years might vary from person to person, depending on the extent of the damage. Apparently, our brain has the capacity to self heal under certain scenarios and you can consider this as one of them."

"Can I do anything to expedite the healing process?"

"Well, our human brain is like an intricately connected complex super system. What is wired where is very difficult even for us to even understand So it's like a fuse which can flip something and another one can flip it back. So just wait patiently and most importantly do not lose hope".

Breathing a sigh of relief, she said,

"Well, I had a few more questions as well".

"Yeah shoot".

"Are there any chances of memory loss or amnesia for him?"

"No, if he doesn't have amnesia now, then it cannot lead to amnesia. Just because he can't remember your face doesn't mean that eventually, he will forget you".

"No, I didn't mean to ask like that".

"Then what do you want to ask?"

"I mean I just wanted to know about the repercussions in the future. Will he be paralyzed? I mean in future will the medicines or this disease itself will have any side effects?"

"From where are you getting all this? Some romantic sad chick-flick I suppose. These things happen in dramas, not in real life Akira. There is no scientific evidence for it. I think you would have googled enough about it to know that."

"Well I just thought, I could ask you in person since you are here".

"I know it must be hard on you, but keep all these negative weird thoughts away from your head. Amnesia again can happen because of injury or massive trauma. So unless he suffers from an injury again, there are no chances of Amnesia for him".

Those were the words that she wanted to hear. Those were the words that gave her comfort. Knowing that he was going to safe and ok, was the best thing that had happened to her throughout that day.

"I see that he is attended by Dr. Oshana. That's nice. She is new in the filed but she is a very good doctor. So don't worry. He is in pretty good hands."

"Well, to be honest, I am scared of her pretty good hands", Akira muttered under her breath.