Manna for the Blog-Thirsty rabble

Greetings fellow blog-a-natics and a very special greeting of love and hugs to our Washington family; we continue to wish we were with you at this time but envelope you with all of the supportive thought we can muster from here in India.

As I write, the rains continue fairly unabated outside...I have already been to the clinic once today; for my session #10.  In a little over an hour Laurie and I will trek back into the middle of the city for her session and a dual meeting with Dr. Pendse.  I will plan on my usual escapade to the grocery store for some needed essentials; today's list including another jar of honey (helps the "powdered" medicine go down, the medicine go doowwnnn), dates, and perhaps more almonds.  I'm considering branching out to a small bag full of dried calmyrna figs (dare I be so bold?).  This will consist of at least four street crossings, so if you have some spare time please put in a good word for me...believe me, it will come in handy.

Laurie is making progress in the foot owie department, with her usual swelling seeming to go down a bit and the burning pain not as persistent.  The shoulder pain, while not gone, is also subsiding.  She continues to get by without any Tramadol and I have now gone 5 nights without Naltrexone (though the thought has crossed my mind a couple of times to reintroduce my tongue, throat, and stomach to the tiny little pills).  Somehow I've managed to avoid the urge to even open the bottle, but stay tuned...

View from the room

As to our sessions, Laurie is continuing to have the oil poured over her feet similar to the way I do at my sessions.  It seems to be helping her.  I continue to get oil rubbed on the head (good for stress), though they missed it yesterday (I think they even looked at my head and thought (oh my god, this is beginning to really look gross).  I finally decided to give myself a good shampoo yesterday (aahhh, mo' better).  I also continue to get the oil and milk from the fomentations rubbed off with the edge of business cards.  For you detailed types it is made of a lightweight stock.  It is multi-colored and is for a Dr. Anuprita Naik (Management Trainee) for Indu Pharma (GMP Certified), Ayurvedic Medicines with Ayurvedic principles.  I'll spare you the telephone numbers, e-mail address, website and office and factory address.  This is the only card that is used on me, though I have thought of giving the guys some of mine.  I have been assured that this card is no longer of valid use so I would have to say that Dr. Anuprita either failed as a trainee or moved up the ladder.  Suffice to say it both tickles and grates, depending on where it is being used and to what degree of concentration is placed behind the technique of removing the excess oil and milk.  Needless to say there seems to be ample stock of the cards for my panchakarma run.  I asked today what they would use if the business cards were not available and I was met with silence and smiles.  Laurie, on the other hand, just gets everything rubbed off with the palm of the hand.  Ahh, to be the gentler sex.

View from the shower

Yesterday I met Dr. Pendse's wife, Mrs. Dr. Pendse (she being Aruna, he being Narendra, both being doctors).  She has her own practice at the clinic during the times that he is not there and she also practices chiropractic.  Dr. Gajanan refers to her as Pendse Madam.  She wanted to meet me, take my pulse, palpitate my abdomen.  The night before Laurie and I both had had some, shall we say, intestinal activities in the wee early hours of the morning, and I was not feeling quite as peppy as the day before.  We engaged in our own game of musical 'chair', taking turns, one after the other from 4:00 - 6:00 in the morning.

Getting to know you, getting to know all about you...

It seems as if the oils, infused with herbal medicines were beginning to work a certain magic (or else the day's food didn't quite settle).  However, in my case I began to feel as if my insides were wanting to turn inside-out, and I for one was not exactly enjoying the feeling.  The ride into the clinic was not exactly my favorite and my pulse turned out to have less strength than the previous day; no small wonder with a rather sore and tender abdomen.

After Pendse Madam took my pulses, she told me she wanted to call her husband to discuss some other medicinal prescription for me, whereupon I looked her straight in the eye, held up one finger, and said "No VIR!"  She laughed and told me she knew all about me and VIR (helps remove toxins thru the urine...

The dreaded stuff...

To my delight, she came back and told me that she spoke with her husband and recommended that I not have a busti (enema) that day, but instead take a fairly benign tasting powder, mixed with warm water four times that day to ease the soreness and tenderness of my intestinal tract (and, sure enough, it did the trick).  I was also instructed to only eat steamed rice and either dal, or buttermilk. "Buttermilk!" I yammered, "I've tried that maybe once in my life...it's sour."  "You can have it fresh and sweet" she replied, "but they do sometimes put chilies in it." "Chilies!?! Is there anything that they don't put chilies in here" I asked rather increduously.  I asked her if she drank buttermilk and after she replied in the affirmative I queried both Gajanan and Vikrant the same question as they hovered inquisitively behind her (they too, replied affirmatively, with Gajanan doing so with the ever present Indian bobble head shake of the ol' noggin).  Pendse Madam, along with just about every other doctor, suggested we talk to the hotel management about having our food prepared without all of the spices normally used here (delicious, but not exactly what my particular system or condition are comfortable with).  Just the other day I ordered something that I was told was not spicy (of course to them it isn't)...after a few bites I pleaded for a large bottled water to put out the fire that had exploded in my mouth (so much for four years of carefully staying away from nightshades and other spicy foods).

Well, Laurie and I did have a wonderful lunch of rice and (drumroll please...) you guessed it, dal (did you really think I was going to opt right away for the buttermilk).  After that we went outside to our favorite spot with the outdoor tables under the awning, surrounded by plants, and decided to try and take some photos of ourselves.  As luck would have it up walks Vijay, the chef (seven days a week, overseeing all of the meals...seems to be more common around here than we would have thought).  We get to chatting, he in broken english, and us in rather halting english trying to make ourselves understood.  We go over the menu together and he assures us that he will do whatever we want with the spices, or no spices as the case may be (which he since has done).  He also describes the various details of different dishes that we are interested in (and are cleared to eat by Dr. Pendse).  And then, he insists on giving us a dessert; so okay, we choose Gulab (Goo'-lob) Jamun (Jah'-moon), a sweet doughy cake-like ball, deep fried in ghee (butter) and placed in a warm lemony sugary syrup.  I mention that only Laurie will be eating it because the doctor ordered me to only eat rice and dal (yes, I know, or buttermilk).  Well, out come two orders of the stuff (two balls per stemmed glass goblet), of course, and Laurie begins to eat hers while uttering divine sounds of delight and letting me know that it would not be  polite of me to turn down such an offering (she of course is right, as Vijay looks on smilingly).  After another moment of internal tug-of-war (my trademark modus operandi) I sit down, whisk the spoon up in my hand and "OH MY GAWD...", it's, how do they say it, "TO DIE FOR!!"

Vijay - He's not really this blurry...I was though, before the Gulab Jamun

Anyway, at this morning's session, Gajanan asked me what I had to eat yesterday and I told him rice and dal.  "And dinner" he asked.  "Nothing" I replied, "Oh, actually I did have a little more rice and dal."  And then, with a rather wry smile he said, "And a Gulab Jamun?" Well, to put it mildly, I was stunned...BUSTED!  How the heck did he know (LAURIEEEEEE!!!-Gajanan happens to be at the clinic in the evenings also, when Laurie is there, and she of course described the dessert manna to Anjali and Sneha, and...you guessed it )? All I could do was wag a finger, shake my head and let him know he got me; while he had a nice hearty laugh at my expense.

I also shared photos of our girls, Judy, the Maguires, and Grandma Ruth with the guys this morning (sorry Jack, we didn't discuss you...the very, very cute Maguire household dog); as I showed them some of the photos we have from last Christmas time that are still on the camera.  When Vikrant left today and said goodbye to me he turned and said "And give my regards to your daughters, they are very beautiful" (cut to very proud papa, beaming, covered in oil and milk, still waiting for his morning busti)...then he even used a parting shot of "gorgeous".

Proud Papa and Mama

Anyway, it turns out I had another busti-free day (hooray for me), partially due to a slight mechanical failure, but it's getting late, and I would rather not go thru the details at the moment.  Suffice to say that...


This just in:  We have returned from the evening visit, and yes, I did get the Calmyrna figs (thanks for all the kind thoughts, I had little to no trouble crossing the very busy streets tonight) and Dr. Pendse declared that my pulses had a "bounce to them".  He said this with a rather startled look on his face and raised eyebrows.  Laurie also got a good evaluation, though she is progressing at more of a slow, steady pace, while my rate of improvement has accelerated.  Dr. Pendse feels this is a good sign because I have a much further distance to travel to get to overcoming my "more difficult" condition.  He mentioned that the pulses are a good sign, but now the physical body needs to catch up, and that will take a bit of time to bring it all into balance.  Today, however, I actually showed some signs of energy and buoyancy for a brief spell after my session (of course during the session I actually fell asleep and woke myself with a brief snort).  Now to get my stamina back.


So, there you have it folks, today's update.  Sorry for such a short, broadstroke post...I'll try to be more detailed next time...thanks again for all of the support, love, and suggestions (Yeah Mike <Schroeder>,    "Head with Grease" and "She Who Holds Her Oil" are much better sounding Native American names than "Cloud" or "Cactus Flower":-)...)...Love to all, Thinking of you, Cheers...