Dolo 650

I have had two health aberrations in my first month in Mumbai and surprisingly neither has involved the digestive tract anywhere along its route.

The first was about a week ago when I came down with some sort of 24 hour virus which made me slightly hot and feverish for a full day and then left me snuffly with sinus issues for a few days after. I think I mentioned this in my chai blog. Other rememdies offered by my work colleagues were ginger steeped in boiling water, photo above, which I must say was pretty effective, and the more traditional paracetamol based solution, a drug called Dolo 650.

Today I have done something to my back and am stooped over, in agony, looking all of my 50+ years! Unfortunately or fortunately today is one of the numerous public holidays in Mumbai, the 2nd of the 15 whilst I am here on my secondment. The unfortunate bit is that I am not in the office and therefore there is no-one to fuss over me and bring me ginger tea, Masala chai and/or Dolo 650. But the fortunate bit is that there is no-one to witness my stooped over, 50+, wincing state, which is not becoming. I think, in the case of my back, Dolo 650 would be the first remedy that colleagues offered me although I am 100% certain a herbal alternative involving steeping some spice or herb in boiling water might also have been suggested and weirdly that herb or spice would be there in the Pantry for the Pantry Boys to make up for me. (The Pantry Boys are 3 young men that work in the Pantry. Like the two Toilet Ladies who work in the womens toilet and the Office Boys [who are grown men] who just do odd jobs around the office all day, they are the human ecosystem that keeps everything functioning in the office and I'm sure that they'll be the ones to turn the lights off when the last white collar workers has q

been replaced by AI ).

These health aberrations have made me realize that I actually don't know how to seek professional medical help. It doesn't seem necessary to be registered with a GP equivalent primary care person and it seems to be entirely up to you where you go to seek medical assistance. I'm not sure that this is entirely true but honestly, no-one has explained the process particularly well to me and the vague responses I have received invariably involve people getting in touch with someone they know through someone else. Whenever I am asked where my new apartment is, the person enquiring always looks very pleased when I tell them and they all point out that there is a very good hospital there. I am not planning to need the services of a hospital whilst I am here, but I think that's where I am expected to go should I need any sort of medical attention. For all drug needs the millions of pharmacies dotted around should be able to supply Dolo 650.

One thing I don't need to worry about is any sort of accident or medical emergency in the office. Not only am I completely confident that my work colleagues will assist me to receive the best medical care but I also wear, proudly, on my Photo ID Card, alongside my mugshot, my name and the name of my company, my blood group.

Yep, my blood group.

On the very first day in the office, like every first day in the office as a new joiner, I was asked to have my photograph taken so that they could prepare my Photo ID card which will enable access to the building etc and enable Security to identify me as I come and go. As you would expect in any large corporation across the world. All good. But then, unlike anybother large corporation anywhere in the world, I am alao asked for my blood group. I don't know my blood group, which might be remiss of me but in the 50+ years I have been alive I haven't really had to know it. The admin team in the office look bemused. I don't know my blood group? That is a problem. They cannot issue an ID card without a blood group. Oh, I ask, why is that? Again bemusement on their part - what if there is an accident and I need blood? They need to know my blood group to give me a transfusion. There are a lot of bemused faces in this exchange. They are all looking at me like I'm some sort of alien that's dropped from the heavens that firstly doesn't know its blood group and secondly doesn't know that you need to know your blood group before you can have a blood transfusion. And I'm looking really bemused, freaked-out grade bemused if I'm totally honest, thinking to myself what sort of accident and emergency will I have had in the office that there will be no time to get me to a hospital where they can carry out appropriate tests including for my blood group before deciding whether I need a transfusion, but instead they will need to give me an emergency on-the-spot blood transfusion for which they will use the ID card around my neck to determine what blood they can use?? I am a sedentary office worker - how did I lose all that blood in such a short period of time? And who is this person that has arrived with lots of different types of blood with them that will check my ID card and decide which to use? I cannot visualize the situation. No TV drama can I draw upon to understand why I need to wear my blood group around my neck during office hours! Or maybe they just call it in? They phone for an ambulance and the non-medical admin team will use the data around my neck and advise the hospital that they need to bring this specific blood.

I could see that not knowing my blood group was a problem so I asked for 24 hours to find out and spent that evening trawling my NHS app for any blood tests which might have revealed that. I found out many things about my blood in that quest but not blood group. So I tried the Message Your GP service on the app and messaged my GP asking if they could send me my blood group. A few hours later - what a great app! - I got the response that they don't know my blood group either because unless I have had surgery or some other reason to have needed blood it's not a data point that they have on record.

I reported this back to the office the next day, feeling less alien, and everyone looked disappointed but nothing more was said. They were probably wondering what sort of carefree, naive country was the UK that no-one was prepared for any medical emergency? I returned to my desk expecting to receive my ID card in due course with a big blank where the missing data should have been. However, no more than an hour later - no exaggeration - the admin team is gathered at my desk asking me to accompany them to a meeting room in which there is seated a man from some clinic to take my blood and determine my blood group!! Honestly. And no-one else was weirded out. I watched very carefully as Clinic Man donned a mask, opened up a pack of blue gloves, a new needle, and a new blood collecting tube and consented to him taking some blood from me. He was very efficient, finding a suitable vein from my very pathetic ones and he was all done in under 5 mins. And by the end of the day the report had come back confirming my blood group. Which I now wear very proudly around my neck. And trust me, I'm wearing my ID at all times coz I haven't yet figured out what in the office will cause this massive blood loss situation and therefore I cannot mitigate the risk of it happening. I must be prepared.

My sister, who is a doctor, is coming to visit me in a few weeks and I will be asking her for a list of medical tests which are difficult to obtain in the UK that I could get done here. I shall just pop into this very good hospital near my new flat, or invite Clinic Man or one of his associates to visit me in the office and get myself a full analysis of my 50+ year old body!