The grey in our decisions

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The grey in our decisions 

This was in the summer of last year. I had a 55-year-old male patient admitted with a severe stroke. He was a government job holder with lots of stress and had hypertension. He was initially intubated and was now off that tube. He still needed two tubes: one to feed him and another to drain out his urine. 

For the last seven days, we all had struggled and brought him to this present position, which was excellent by medical grading. His wife and daughter were the only family members present at his bedside. 

However, despite the medical progress, in reality, the patient and his family were still struggling. The neurology team recommended rehabilitation care but the family was unable to decide. We spent a couple of days wavering on decisions between discharge or continuing hospital management The daughter asked me, "Is this the right decision to go home? 

"I pondered  "There is no single right decision; each of us is right from our perspective." replied, As doctors, we are always caught in the grey area of such decisions where clinical expertise and personal reality clash. Life’s Journeys are rarely filled with black-and-white decisions. Most decisions are in the hue of grey and one needs to understand this complexity. 

Life teaches us to embrace ambiguity and make the right decisions. 

But grey decisions may not always be the right decisions!! 

 This does create a scary situation, however, one can overcome this by making decisions based on our inner core values, safeguarding our integrity and decisions that resonate with our soul. However, one could be proven wrong later in life, but that’s what life is about. It teaches us, and we grow more mature and wiser Last week, I was travelling to Bangalore by road when I spotted a vibrant ice cream parlour bustling with people merrily eating ice creams. Though not an ice cream lover the place compelled me to stop and place an order. They had a huge list of flavours. No wonder it was so popular among people. 

 I couldn’t decide between blueberry cheesecake and fig & honey. 

 I smiled and asked the person, can I have both? He beamed “ Great Choice Madam” 

As I savoured different flavours, I thought to myself; there are still moments in life where we can make both black plus white decisions.

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