The biggest revelation that Nephrologist No. 3 (N-3) at Hospital No. 3 made to us was that "It
was my mother’s prolonged use and consumption of a painkiller drug by the name
of Brufen or Ibuprofen that had caused her Chronic Kidney Disease/CKD".
The
story behind my mom and her relationship with Brufen tablets goes as follows:
My Mother gave normal birth to my younger brother, but since the Delivery was a Dry one, she suffered severe back pain during that time. To help her heal, the Gynaecologist had advised my mother to undergo Physiotherapy. The first day she went for her Physiotherapy session, I had a fall, my grandparents could not look after me even for those few hours; my mom returned to see a gaping bleeding wound on my forehead and then rushed me, her 3 year old to the Doctor to get me stitched up. That was the first and last day of her Physiotherapy sessions.
And from that day onwards, my Mummy
had brought me and my brother up as a Single Mother and a working one at that,
she had been toiling away bringing us up and working simultaneously over 26
long years since that day at N-3’s cabin…and in those 26 years, for a prolonged
period of over 10 years she was gulping a tablet called BRUFEN or IBUPROFEN*
like a toffee candy multiple times in a
day to numb the pain in her bones and spinal region, that would enable her to
continue with her daily chores which even included looking after my father’s
parents and other family members. By ‘looking after’ all, I mean that she was
doing most of the cooking and laundry of all family members besides looking
after her children’s needs and those of the house and its maintenance along
with toiling away physically managing a Business-which was started by my father
and not meant to be commanded or managed by a woman in the first place, still
my mom was courageously doing it all, as I can say now, at the cost of her own
health and happiness.
My
very selfish, self-obsessed and self-centered father was least concerned about
her health issues, he used to visit us sporadically twice a year only to meet
all his relatives out here in Delhi. Both I and my brother were too young and naive to help our mother during her bouts of pain, which we frequently used to
see in all these years growing up. She also used to ask us both to massage her back and sometimes hit it with our fists to help ease her pain. She often used to get Neurobion injections as well to help her aching spine. It was only in 1999 when my mother was
popping a Brufen on a bus ride, a senior lady seated next to her advised her
not to do so if she valued her life!
*Now to come to the point,
BRUFEN belongs to a class of NSAIDs i.e. Non-Steroidal Anti-inflammatory drugs which
are commonly used as Over-the-counter Painkillers. Research worldwide has
proved, though not conclusively that, heavy or
long-term use of some of these medicines, such as ibuprofen, naproxen, and
higher dose aspirin, can cause chronic kidney disease known as
chronic interstitial nephritis, which in simple English of a non-medical author
like me means that, since these medicines are excreted through the Kidneys,
they have the capacity to damage the kidney filters in a way that the kidney
starts loosen its ability to filter out toxins from the blood because either
the filters are damaged or blocked. A link to one such reference article is https://www.kidney.org/atoz/content/painmeds_analgesics
Later,
in the month of August 2015, Delhi Government made NSAIDs including Brufen, a
prescription drug and Chemists were barred from giving it Over-the-Counter to
anyone not having a prescription from a registered Doctor for the same. (News
reference link: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/healthcare/biotech/pharmaceuticals/delhi-government-bans-over-the-counter-sale-of-nsaids-without-prescription/articleshow/48441880.cms)
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