Yashwini was admitted to the hospital about a week ago, as her feet were completely swollen and she couldn't eat. The doctors said that her lack of activity led to edema. She normally isn't the best eater, and has been tired lately---a side effect of her ART. After staying in the hospital for about two days, she insisted on going to her house for a day, then, she promised, she'd come back to Karunya Mane. We encouraged her instead to come directly to KM, but she was quite adamant about going home, as supposedly her blind mother was visiting.
We took her to her village but there was no mother, an apparent misunderstanding or miscommunication. She insisted then on staying home until Sunday, three days away, after which time she would return to KM. She lives with her sister and next to her brother and his family, but nobody is willing to take care of her, insisting that we take her with us. But it's hard to take someone when they're not willing to go. Her daughter went with her husband to Bangalore, for how long nobody knows. As Yashwini can barely walk, someone has to be near her at all times.
We returned on Sunday, at which point she cried and insisted on staying home for two weeks, until the 22nd of this month. There wasn't much we could do, even though, again, her family insisted we take her. We reminded her to continue to take her ART (which she is doing) and to eat healthy and practice good hygiene.
Often, the poor are difficult to help when they are sick, not only because they often don't take their medicine properly. The family is often unwilling to help, the patient lives in squalid conditions yet insists on staying there, and he or she may not have the knowledge or capacity to understand how bad his her her health condition really is.
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