Well there was a little walking
in the sand but not too much. We were having too much fun otherwise.
This is a couple of days late.
By the time we got home from Goa on Sunday night, there was little energy and less
enthusiasm for writing the blog. However, not to bury the lede, the trip to Goa
was definitely a success. Am I 100% pain free? No. Are my joints totally free
from inflammation? No. On the other hand, I am moving much better and have no
need for a cane. I am off all meds except the Ayurvedic herbs and a couple of
Advil or Aleve a day. Dr. Uppoor said I should continue to see improvement on
the swelling and discomfort over the next few weeks and he anticipates that by
the end of three to four months I will be symptom free. Actually he said cured
but I remain a bit of a sceptic. I am not yet convinced you can cure auto
immune. There is plenty of evidence it can go into remission, however, and if I
can achieve and maintain that, it is a functional full recovery.
Each day’s treatment was quite
similar (for details, see last week's entry). Occasionally, they would add in slow drip of warm oil along the
hairline, allowing the oil to flow across the scalp. This was very relaxing and
enjoyable but I am not sure exactly how it impacted my auto immune, but it felt
great. The other changes were less pleasurable. Part of the treatment was a
cleanse. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday started with drinking an increasing
amount of gee (clarified butter) infused with herbs. The first day was about a
quarter cup; second was about a half; and the third day was a full cup. All I
can say is blech! The taste was awful and it lingered for quite a while. Friday
and Saturday my cleanse was kicked up a notch to enemas. Now that was fun too
in its own inimitable way.
I will say I have gone into the
Ayurvedic treatment with something like a mix of blind faith and skepticism. I have moved a long way from my former belief that only traditional, western,
allopathic medicine had value to offer but I am not ready to totally abandon
western medicine yet. I am a pragmatist I guess. If it works, great. I am for
it. There is a lot about Ayurvedic underlying philosophy that seems more like
magic than medicine. I haven’t bought into that entirely. However, one of the
things that I do find interesting is the similarity to how Ayurveda describes
the origin of auto immune disease and the latest research by those in
functional medicine.
In Ayurveda, the underlying
cause of diseases such as mine is seen as stemming from malperformance of the stomach
and intestines. Because things are not processed correctly, toxins are released
into the blood stream that can settle any number of places and cause problems.
If they settle into the joints, you end up with symptoms like mine. This is
quite similar to the description of “leaky gut” that is currently (although
somewhat controversial) being studied by MDs who specialize in functional
medicine. The build-up in the joints of what Ayurveda calls toxins is quite
similar to the description of inflammation causing fluids that attacks and
builds up in different parts of the body, which is kind of a typical
description of what goes on in auto immune.
In any case, improvement for
now, which I will gladly accept. Now I need to continue my efforts to lose
weight and when I get back to the States start an exercise program that won’t
bring too much impact to my joints.
Rae Here. While our time in Goa didn’t end up being the
sightseeing adventure we’d anticipated, be were still able to get a few pictures
and have a bit of time on the beach.
I’ll start by explaining a bit
about our hotel. We stayed at a hotel
that our Dr had recommended. He thought
it would be good because it had a kitchen and that would give us the chance to
cook some of our own food. Nice idea,
and the kitchen looked right, it just didn’t come equipped with anything, not a
glass, spoon, pot; well you get the idea. We had no idea where to buy any food
so I guess it really wasn’t a problem. We also had a living room area, called a hall,
a bedroom and 1 ½ bathrooms. A fairly
decent place but lacking in a few areas.
We were given 2 bath towels, no hand towels or wash clothes, one bar of
soap, and one tiny shampoo.
They had a pretty good looking
menu, but almost every time we ordered something, they would call us back to
tell us that one or two of those items were not available. This made some things a bit tough, because
there were certain things Phil wasn’t supposed to eat so it made our choices
pretty limited at times. I could share
several other fun/funny experiences with room service. There was “free Wi-Fi” when it was available. We had to get a new password every 3 days but
we soon learned that we needed to have them write them down because you had to
continually keep logging-in, and that was on a good day. Getting the password written down was also
pretty funny. No one has any paper or
scissors, so they would find some scrap of paper and then tear off a corner and
write the password on that, Hotel stationary or note pads, you joke. I will say that the staff was always helpful
and friendly.
Driving from the airport to the
hotel took just over an hour and so we were able to see a few things along the
way. Early on, this area had had a large
Portuguese influence and so there were many Catholic churches, some very old
and some new, some were very small and some large and stunning. That seems so different from what we see in
Delhi.
There was an area where they
were working on widening the road and it was the usual sight of many workers,
both men and women. There they were with
their little hoe shovels clearing and breaking up the ground, digging out and hauling
boulders. I wasn’t able to get pictures
of this process, but off our balcony we could see a lot that was being cleared
and prepared for a building. Same
process of many workers moving earth and rock.
I did manage to get a few pictures of that process, just got there right
after most of those workers had left the sight.
Notice the guy carrying the boulder on his shoulder.
We did finally make it down to
the beach. It was cloudy and rained on
us so most of the pictures look a bit gloomy.
It’s interesting to share the beach with quite a few cows, but that’s
what you get to do there. In fact we watched 3 bulls tussling with each
other. They made their way down toward
the water and into the crowds of people who were sitting on the sand and at the
water’s edge. The people weren’t too
fazed, they just got up and moved aside.
Luckily no one was trampled.
There are always so many more men than women but there were a few
women. No women in swim suits, maybe a
few in shorts, women in sarees standing in the water. One young couple that we guessed were on
their honeymoon as the bride was sitting in the water’s edge with all of her
red wedding bangles up both arms. Everyone seemed to be having a good carefree
time.
Goa is warm/hot and humid, so
that equals lots of green tropical beauty.
Goa has much less traffic than Delhi and seemed to have a slower pace of
life. There was still trash, but overall
less than Delhi, and no pollution. It
was fun to see a new area, but the best part was the end result for Phil. The
rest was just a bonus.
Next week will be our last
blontry from India.
Namaste
No comments:
Post a Comment