21 - a Famous Milestone # = Final Panchakarma Treatment Day!

Cloud is at the clinic right now - probably getting his pinda sweda - rice fomentation treatment.  We've both been getting trained in how to do this to each other.  Tonight we'll get our final training.  It's trickier than it looks.  You have to keep the temperature of the medicated milk very hot, dip the cloth covered bolus into the hot milk, wipe off the excess, pat the body a couple of times if it's very hot, and then press into the area to massage with just the right pressure according to the individual's ability to bear it.  The degree of heat is also according to each person's ability to bear it.  You have to re-dip after a few strokes to keep the rice hot.

I've had greasy hair for six nights now - tonight will be the last and I'll finally be able to wash my hair with shampoo tomorrow morning.  This is an effective way to make your shampoo last while traveling - don't wash your hair!  After each night's shirodhara treatment (oil poured on the forehead with forehead tipped slightly back) my hair is so wet and full of oil that I've been using the hotel shower caps to cover my head under the scarf until I can get back to the hotel and use a hotel towel to swab it enough that it won't seep through another towel into the pillow.  The oil gives a rich reddish brown color to the white towel.  Fortunately Cloud explained to someone in housekeeping that we're doing panchakarma and this particular woman knows all about it. So now there is at least an explanation for the strange looking towels we leave in the room.  They always come back white again, so at least they're not ruined - unlike some of the old clothing we brought with us.

The oil on the forehead is such a wonderful process.  Last night I was feeling worried about the fact that I'm not going to take tramadol (impedes the oil healing) but yet life will continue as usual once I get back to Seb Town and the feet are still not able to handle as much walking as I'd like at this point.  Yes, that will change over the next 2 - 3 months as the panchakarma continues to work its magic - but I was worried about the future.  Anjali gave me my 3rd or 4th lecture on the subject (all meant to help - I sincerely thank Anjali for her direct communication and her efforts to realign this stubborn, western mind) - then kindly added that many people react the way I'm reacting but that I must stay positive for the healing to happen.  Then it was shirodhara time.  I lay there processing our talk while the oil poured down and wasn't getting sleepy as I had during the past five treatments.  It occurred to me to follow Anjali's advice and think only upon this moment.  How easy it was to fix my mind on the pleasant feeling of slightly warm oil gently pouring across my forehead from side to side.  I had brought in my computer and was listening to Joanne Shenandoah - Native American singer - and peacefulness reigned.   Sometime later I was waking up as my hair was getting wrung out and oil poured into the bucket on the floor.

Dr. Pendse and our practioners are very pleased with our progress as Cloud said in a previous blog.  He has improved beyond the hopes and expectations of the doctor and so have I.  Anjali said my pulses and soft and supple muscles show me to be 60% improved!  My pulse is bouncy, energetic and much more positive.  Ya know those boulders we all usually have in our shoulders and upper back, and the mini boulders in our necks? - well I don't have them anymore.  There are no lumps left - except the one that has been there for 30+ years near my shoulder - but that one is much reduced.  By doing the daily yoga exercises from Mrs. Aruna Pendse and continuing the oil massage and pinde sweda on that area 3x/ week (thanks in advance, Cloud) this too will go away.  The area needs "strengthening."

Sneha, such a fantastic practictioner - kind with wonderful hands - and her oh, so, cute
son Shalvah ( This may not be the correct spelling ..... sorry if I'm wrong).

I'll be oil and rice massaging Cloud as well.  We're going to place my old massage table in the kitchen near the stove as the milk has to be simmering while performing pinde sweda.  The next time you come by for dinner, be sure to look carefully before ladling creamy looking soup or sticky rice into your bowl from the stove.  You've been warned.

I've already begun the yoga exercises and I've been working hard to stretch the tendons in the feet and back of the leg.  I've been pulling the bones in the foot and deeply massaging the scar tissue there from 3 previous surgeries.  I'm determined to make those bones move into their correct position.  The panchakarma treatments have established a foundation in our bodies for further healing and progress.  If we follow the protocols we've been given and take our daily medicines, we will see continued progress over the next 2 - 3 months.  We have to continue to work oil into the areas of the body that are still in need of more healing - and the rice fomentations will soften as well as strengthen.  The herbs that have been boiled into the milk (then drained), the milk itself, and the rice "milk" that mixes in, are all strengthening to the body.    This, along with the more than 20 herbs that are infused into the medicated oil we're using enter not only the muscles, but the bones and nerves - nourishing, cleansing, lubricating, every part of the body.

We will be purchasing a new suitcase on the way to the clinic this afternoon.  I'm going for my final treatment and Cloud is coming for the rice fomentation massage lesson and to pack up all the medicines we are bringing home with us - enough for 90 - 100 days.  We also hope to bring home some difficult to get in the U.S. herbs for Dr. Helen Thomas for use in her clinic.  Dr. Pendse has been in communication with her and Craig and they will be overseeing our progress back in the USA.

The next two days will be our own, and on the third we take off in the silver bird on high.  Two actually: one all the way to Newark, a lovely 16 hour (!) flight and then back to SFO.  We're planning to see a couple of temples to Ganesha tomorrow - can't wait.  They say they're beautiful.  While there, I'll send prayers for the removal of obstacles to the success of our and all our loved ones' successes in all positive endeavors.  Also for lovely Judy's free unimpeded flight to the land of milk and honey.  Ganesha has his work cut out for him here in India.  He came to the right place.  I'll ask if he could please find someone who could help us out over in the USA.  We could really use a Remover of Obstacles, especially certain obstacles wearing dark suits!

Shades of Green!

Below our third floor window we can see the unfinished building next door.  As in any available shelter - people are living in it, on the bottom floor.  They've erected some walls and we can see a small fire burning for cooking food.  Seven or eight people of a variety of ages live there.

This is the trash that piles up outside their wall.  There is nowhere to take it and in many of the areas of the city - it looks as though it never gets picked up.  People sweep areas and burn small piles of burnable trash - but there is no service to take the trash away.  This is what happens when almost no one pays taxes.  

This young cat found a great bed on the second floor of the building where some bundles are stored.