First Treatments

It just started raining outside - which is later than it has started on previous days.  I love it because I feel comfortable opening the window and letting in more fresh air.  (The only window with a screen is the one in the bathroom which is large and lets in a good amount of air as well.)  Mosquitoes have not been a problem yet, not many around so far.  We are in such a relatively quiet enclave, and it really is peaceful here.  Lovely for us, and absolutely necessary for Cloud.  When engaged in the panchakarma process it's very important to do a lot of resting, and Cloud will need to rest a lot - more than me.


Cloud had his first treatment this morning in the clinic and he is now sleeping.  We had breakfast in the restaurant together earlier after he returned from the clinic.  (For me only fruit - cloud was able to enjoy more variety of the excellent food.)  He left here at 7:30am and was treated for just one hour - from 8:00 - 9:00.  They are starting out slow and easy with him.  He is still dealing with pain in different areas on his body and the practitioners learned just how sensitive he is.  One of the practitioners is a young doctor (the same who brought us our medicines the other evening), Dr. Gajanan.  He is very earnest and helpful.  Cloud has made him laugh several times and he's taking quite a liking to him.


I'll see if Cloud will want to write about his first treatment himself, rather than write about it now.  I'll be gone for my treatments later, and perhaps he'll want to write.  If not, I'll do it soon.


Last evening at 4:30pm we left the hotel in another rickshaw (AKA Tuk Tuk).  This city is so large and crowded not only with people and vehicles, but many twists, turns, businesses, schools, colleges, shops, stalls, etc - the taxi drivers have all had a difficult time finding the clinic, which is "near the SP College." (They've had to call our clinic as they get close, in order to find it.) Drivers from this area can't find the clinic, and drivers from that area can't find our hotel.  This is one very large convoluted city!


By the way, we have not yet seen any Westerners or any foreigners since we arrived.  Not one!  It must be that all of the tourists are in different areas than we have seen.  We hope to make it to the Osho Ashram soon, and there we are sure to see many tourists.  (We heard today that it is only 1Km away.)  There is a relatively quiet garden/park we can visit as well as the ashram itself.  Joseph, our friend from home has spent lots of time there and said we must see it and even our doctor recommended the site as something special to see.


The clinic is not at all what I had imagined it would be.  I thought is would be many treatment rooms and take up an entire building or at least a floor of a building.  I realized yesterday that it is only a small, modest suite in this tall concrete building of many floors and rooms. That is actually the basic description of almost every building in Pune.  (More pictures, soon.)  There is a waiting room with several plastic chairs, and Dr. Pendse's office that contains his desk and chair, two other chairs, a small bed where he palpitated our abdomens and took the pulses in our ankles, and a couple of bookshelves.  


The clinic is spotless.  The floors are white tile and all must leave shoes at the door.  Then there is a small reception area which is also the pharmacy where herbal pills and powders, oils and liquids are put into bags with a short instruction sheet by other doctors.  The making of the medicines is a tremendous undertaking, and the doctors have to spend a lot of time preparing them.  One doctor doesn't even see patients, he only makes medicines.  Dr. Anjali Damle - my chief practitioner said that proper preparation is extremely important and they do most of it themselves.  She too makes some of the oils at home as does Dr. Pendse's wife who also works at the clinic at times, tho we have not met her yet.
I asked if it was getting difficult to get some of the herbs.  She said not yet, but that for the first time people are beginning to plant the herbs for harvest, rather than just collect them.


After passing a bathroom on the right and going through a corridor that is alongside the pharmacy, I entered the treatment room for the first time.  There are two beds - massage table height, with some padding.  I was told by Dr. Sneeha - who is Anjali's assistant (the one who took us shopping before) to take off all of my clothes except my underpants.  (Good thing I have so much experience being a naked hippie.)  I lied down on the bed and Anjali came in with the medicated infused oil.  This is sesame oil mixed with a water and herb infusion.  It is cooked a long time, until all of the water evaporates.  The recipe for the oils are written in books they have studied - each recipe is for different maladies and stages of the panchakarma.  She said my recipe would change in four days (different set of herbs in the oil).


Both women massaged the oils into me - one on each side.  I could feel the soft grit of the herbs and minerals in the oil - it's thick with herbs.  The sesame oil is the primary oil used "for it's healing properties" and the massage is to relax muscles and to get the herbs into the skin and into the body.  They massaged front and back and it all felt very good - even on my feet.  


Next was the steaming.  I got up from the bed and sat on a white painted wooden step with a small cloth on the top step.  My feet were on the floor and my back was turned to the women and the steam.  I could see through the crack in the curtains, the street three floors below.  I could see the heads of lots of people and throughout - the honking and motors never stop.  Then I feel a soft spray of steam going up and down my back and the women ask about the temperature.  They said they would begin with a light steaming, but I love steam and could tolerate more.  I looked over my shoulder to see how they were producing the steam and saw a pressure cooker looking pot sitting on an electric burner - a green hose coming out of the top and Sneeha holding the end of the tubing which was wrapped in cloth so that she would not get burned.  I turned around and the rest of my body was "steamed."  The purpose of this is to open the pores and relax the muscles.  Very pleasant.


Phase 3:  The Rice Fomentations.  This I had never heard of and it was great.  Dr. Pendse says I will be taught how to do this because it will be necessary in our follow-up treatment, especially for Cloud.  The electric burner now moves to the other bed, close to my bed and another pot is placed on it.  This time the pot is filled with boiling milk.  "The cow's milk also has healing properties, and herbs are added as well."  The rice fomentation is ingenious.  Anjeli and Sneeha have cooked rice wrapped in a cloth - roughly the size and shape of a softball.  The rice becomes very soft and is an excellent medium for soaking up the milk (which keeps the fomentation hot or warm) and then is used as a massage tool for softening the muscles and strengthening them and for reducing pain.  I then received another body massage with these fomentations which were refreshed continuously in order to stay wet and hot.  The massage was deeper and some areas received repeated rubbings - the legs, knees, my feet and my upper back.  I have chronic nerve pain in my feet and sensitive nerves in my legs and joints.  I have chronic pain in my upper back from a car accident in my twenties.  It all felt great.  
Anjeli explained that the recipe for the rice fomentation comes from a book that is 3,000 years old!


Between treatments I was wiped down with my own towel (We each have two and have to wash one each night) and was only a bit sticky by the end.  I dressed in some old clothes I brought, then with firmness,  directed to put on the fleece hat I brought and socks and long sleeves.  It's very important to keep the warmth in the body all the way back to the hotel.  I put my raincoat on over all of that, because it's almost always raining in the late afternoon.  By now it was 7:00pm.


Cloud was waiting for me as his appointment with Dr. Pendse had ended quite a bit earlier.  The clinic is closed on Saturdays so we were the only patients.  The last time we were there the waiting room was full when we left his office and newspapers were moved so that we could sit down and wait for our medicines.  People were surprised to see us there I'm sure - but all kept to themselves and there was minimal staring.  They have only had a couple of other foreigners in the clinic in the past few years - one from Germany and an American.  Helen and Craig from Santa Rosa were there a few years ago too.  So we are an oddity.  People are so reserved here - almost no friendly smiles or hellos on the street or in the restaurant by other patrons.  Exceptions are Indians who have traveled out of the country themselves - they can be very friendly - and of course those who work at the hotel and restaurant and are realizing we're not leaving anytime soon.


I was told to rest a lot, read - some computer is ok - so I should stop now.  Having all of this time to rest -"avoid a lot of noise and excitement during this process of panchakarma  - also worry and anger" - gives me lots of time to write (have to avoid too much aggravating American news), not something one usually has while traveling.  This is certainly a different kind of trip.  


I think I'll read now - I leave at 4:15 for my 5:00 treatment.  I assume it will be the same as yesterday. . . This time I go on my own in the ricksha while Cloud stays here.  We're very disappointed that our treatments are at different times of the day.  It's unavoidable as the female and male doctors are available only at opposite times.


Cloud is still sleeping.  Dr. Gajana is quite confident that Cloud's pain level will be reduced substantially very soon.  I myself have continued to reduce my dose of tramadol (pain med) dramatically.  I'd like to reduce it to nothing if I can in order to properly assess the effects of the treatments, but I'm a little nervous about negative side effects from that.  (I'm not walking much, so my pain is reduced for that reason as well.)  I also did not have any caffeine today because it's hard to rest when one is hyped up on caffeine.  So far - no headache!  Many of you know that that alone is testament to the success of these treatments as I always get a headache if I reduce my caffeine intake or even have my tea at a different time.  Amazing!