Advice doesn't hurt

We all seek teachers in our lives. Be it in the form of a human, life or, nowadays more dominant, digital devices. We are constantly learning from our environmental constituents. 

I too have a similar teacher at home, the one that has been teaching me for almost 3 decades now. None other than my mom. (Please don't start masculinism fight that I'm not giving due credit to my father. It's just that all I have are motherly notes for this post.) 

I was in the quest for my lost appetite. I had taken treatment from half a dozen doctors, but none showed long lasting results or were prescribing me continuous intake of tablets. There we were, in the clinic of another doctor of the city. Along with a few changes in my dietary habits, this doctor wrote the tablet with similar salt, but of different brand name. (On a side note: Comes out that this doctor was once the student of the previous doctor.) 

So, I started the medicinal course as prescribed: One tablet out of which was to cure the problem and the other a multivitamin for my the then-lean frame. After a few days, I started feeling a short, sharp and wavy ache in my chest. I ignored it for a few times but when it became frequent, I told mom. My silver haired mother asked me to stop taking the medicine. Even she had experienced a similar reaction during her youth, but that was out of workload. I was like I've been taking these tablets for years now. They can't be the cause. 

My parents immediately took me to doctor who advised me to undergo so-and-so test. She even confirmed it with the doctors if that medicine could have this side effect. They denied. 

Hearing that, I, violating the instructions, took the dose the next morning. I clearly remember I was sitting in the office, having a glass full of water, when I felt that painful wave again. "Is that really the reason? Could it be true?" My mind almost synchronised with the experience of my mother. I stopped taking medicine, this time motivated intrinsically. My test reports too came out to be normal.

A similar episode has happened recently too. This time I was getting treated for an unhealing injury. The doctor had treated the superficial disease and was trying to treat the underlying cause. So, he recommended me a so-called harmless moisturising cream. I was delighted that alongwith getting treated by one of the most famous dermatologist of the city, I also get free advice on usual skincare routine. Out of habit, I scanned the carton box of the cream with my eyes, along with 'directions to use' page (I know I'm a bit crank as nobody even holds that paper, leave alone reading in detail.) 

Then, I started to apply that cream on the advised areas which was majorly on feet and if I felt some remnant of it on my hands, I would just lightly rub it on my arms and face. After a few days, I noticed normally hard to spot acne on my hands. I thought them to be just another seasonal allergy.

Later that night, I started to feel like itching my feet. I casually mentioned it to my mom that apart from the affected spot on my foot, I am experiencing this scratching sensation on my whole of my feet. She was quick to analyse and asked me to stop using the cream. I couldn't stop myself from defending the 'harmless' moisturing cream. "How can it cause the reaction when it is just a cream which is supposed to heal?" She authoritatively ordered me to block its usage. 

Me being me. I ignored her advise and applied it that night too. Of course, I felt the strong need to tear my skin apart because of the irresistible itch. I learn my lessons the hard way, I guess.

Just because she got right in these two worth remembering incidents, it doesn't mean one is always right. She doesn't possess magical powers after all. (Still I admit intuition is a thing anyway.) As kids, we were told that coconut oil makes your hair grey. If I told this to my friends who applied coconut oil to their head, they would counter my advice. Turns out that my mom started using coconut oil around the time when her hair were starting to turn grey, which in turn made her believe that it expedited the process and worked as a hair whitening agent.