Saturday, July 16, 2011

He's Baaaccckkk...return of the substitute

 Well, Laurie's gone off to her session, sooooo I finally get some pillows (hooray for me).  Not that she shouldn't have as many pillows as she likes, of course, it's just that she likes pillows, sometimes all of them...and, I kind of like them too.  So, to all of you who have written that maybe it's a good thing that we each have different times for our appointments, I give you the 'pillow predicament' to add to your list of reasons why it is in fact a good thing.

Updates:  We each went in to the clinic last night, Laurie to have her session and the both of us to see Dr. Pendse.  Yesterday was a day to celebrate gurus and teachers and in keeping with the spirit we presented Dr. Pendse with a beautiful flower arrangement that I managed to find at a florist nearby to the clinic while Laurie was getting treated.  Laurie gets the credit for the idea and me for the legwork (there's teamwork for ya).  The staff (Dr. Pendse's advanced graduate students and young doctors) were very impressed, as was Dr. Pendse.  As promised, I gave him an added gift of my newly unopened VIR medicine that I had been given on Tuesday, to which he heartily laughed and asked what vintage it was.  The ploy worked beautifully, as not only did he accept the offering but he took me off the stuff entirely.  I now have one extremely happy gag reflex.  Dr. Pendse offered both Laurie and I a very yummy, chewy soft mango candy, as it is custom for the teacher or guru to offer something in return to those that give gifts to him or her.

As to our prognosis', he said that Laurie had a bounce in her pulses and was impressed with her progress; and that I was doing 5 - 10% better than he had expected me to be doing up to this point.  Laurie, now off of Tramadol for about 7 days, is beginning to experience again the same kind of pain she had prior to getting on that drug over a year ago.  This is proving to be a bit of an understandably emotional setback, yet Dr. Pendse seems undeterred in his positive appraisal of the upside possibilities for her.  She is starting to get that burning sensation back in her left foot when standing on tile floor or hard surfaces, and when walking even short distances; and she is experiencing burning in her left shoulder and scapula area as well. Dr. Pendse does not seem to be discouraged and I reminded Laurie today that in just a short time she has gone from 200 mg of Tramadol daily to none, and she has completely cut out caffeine for the time being; with very little to none of the usually horrendous side effects that go along with quitting either of these.  Dr. Pendse continues to encourage as much rest as possible and does not want Laurie to overdo using her feet at this point and exacerbate the pain.  He asked Laurie to have Drs. Anjalie and Sneha to call him after today's session so that he can discuss what he would like to do next regarding her situation.  Also, he mentioned last night that she would start to get her appetite back very soon and sure enough today she ordered the most substantial lunch yet.  We still eat considerably less than we have been used to doing back home.

As for me, I haven't taken my drug, low-dose Naltrexone (the one that helped me get over that awful hump a few weeks back when I was in such excruciating pain) for the past two nights and we have agreed to see if I can have success weaning that from daily regimen.  Naltrexone is not known to have the same issues as Tramadol during the weaning process, but if it becomes no longer necessary then why bother taking it.  If the pain returns I will definitely start it up again and Dr. Pendse is in complete agreement.  My abdominal pain has almost completely gone and during my morning sessions the massage work is getting deeper without the normal wincing reaction that I have become so accustomed to.  Matter of fact, today, Dr. Gajanan (all of 26 years of age; Vikrant being 25) was working on my left foot and calf muscles in a way that I have been unable to tolerate for at least 15 years; and boy did it feel good to be able to just lay there and let him go at it. The rice fomentations are also getting hotter and I am not yet having any trouble tolerating them.  As for the enemas, let's just say I'm glad when the hotel comes into view at the end of the rick-shaw ride.  Laurie on the other hand has become quite adept at 'holding her oil', shall we say, for a longer period of time than moi.  Dr. Pendse has also reiterated his desire to not have me engaging in work, if at all possible; at least keeping it to the bare minimum so as to concentrate on healing.  As to my sleep pattern, after being up for nearly 24 hours (from 10 pm the previous night until just after 9 pm last night) I managed to sleep fairly normally last night from close to 9:30 pm until 4:30 am this morning.  I also took a short pre-lunch nap this morning when I returned from the session.

Me and the boys (I guess I can say that...for crying out loud the two of them together don't even add up to my age) do spend a fair portion of the time chatting during the sessions, though I tend not take part in the rapid fire Hindi interactions that the two of them engage in.  I have been trying, to the amusement and (at times) appreciation of those folks that I interact with, to learn various Hindi words and phrases, and the hotel front desk staff, driver, watchman and doctors are now primed, ready and eager to hear my morning "Supra Bhat (Good Morning)"; not to mention the cheery "Dhanyawaad (Thank You)" or the roll off the tongue "Fir Milenge (See You Tomorrow)".  I've yet to master "Bad Mai Meeleain Ge (See You Later)".  Anyway, we talk about everything from Ayurveda, the various aspects and treatments, to Vikrant asking me today "What is Jazz?  What instruments are used in this Jazz?"  Some other day, if I can remember some of the conversational details, I will pass them on.  I do remember today, however, that Vikrant played some music off of his phone during the session; some very nice Arabic and Sufi music, some very heartfelt vocals, and then this one more modern piece that midway thru the Arabic broke into "My name is Sheila, (unintelligible, unintelligible) body, I'll be sexy for you..." and then back to Arabic.

Some of today's quick takes during the morning ride (not a very easy task from a moving tuk-tuk):


 





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