Getting into the Flow

Like the traffic in the streets the schedule here is pretty fluid. Since the first day I have had about 2 hours of treatments in the morning and about a hour in the afternoon. While that has been consistent, the timing of those treatments have changed a number of times so I have to vary my schedule accordingly. That said, the treatments themselves and the things I do each day have been relatively consistent.

So at this point my day usually goes as follows. I wake up around 5:30 or 6:00,  depending on when the chorus of dog barking and bird singing starts! I am in the middle of reading a few different books so I start out with half-hour or so of reading.  One of the books recommended by Carl Jerome that I am reading is called Trust In Mind by Mu Soeng. It is commentary on a sixth-century Buddhist enlightenment poem called the Xinxinming. The poem itself speaks about how to eliminate dis-ease and stress in one’s life. I usually read this one in the morning and then sit for mediation.  By the time I am finished Dr. Raju is starting to see patients and I go and queue up to see him.

Dr. Raju’s Clinic

While waiting I have access to email so I can read and respond to those and often attempt to call home via Skype. Communication has been a little challenging, which Susan will attest to! It is a combination of not having internet access in my room, and the wireless I have access to at the clinic is quite a bit slower and intermittent. However, I did connect with internet shop where I can get a wired connection. Probably not a bad thing to unplug a little.  The way the time zones work is that when it is morning here it is eleven and one-half hours earlier in Chicago. So for example,  if I make a call at 7:30am here it is 8:00pm in Chicago the previous day. It is a little confusing but I have gotten used to it.

After seeing Dr Raju I come back to my flat for breakfast and if my first treatment is later, say 11:00am, I write a blog entry or at least part of one (as I am doing now) and then do some yoga exercises to set the mood for my treatments. I started doing yoga last summer while the kids were away at camp. Susan and I would wake up early and go to a 6:00 am class in the “Flow” style. I am just starting to do yoga again after taking a long break during the interferon treatments and the recovery from those treatments. At this point I just do some of the poses and stretching I learned over the summer, more of a restorative type yoga. Focusing on the breath puts me in a good place for the treatments.

If the treatment is early, say 9:00, then I just have breakfast and take a nice walk to a local business center where they give the treatments. Then do my Yoga practice and a little reading and writing in the afternoon.

In the morning it is very pleasant, about 70 degrees F, but by afternoon it reaches the 90s and at that point I am really thankful for the sun hats that I brought with me! Most of the shops in the local business center are open for a few hours in the morning, then they close until the late afternoon. They open again around 4 or 5 and then stay open until 9:00 or so at night. I had to copy some documents and it took me a couple of trips to center to figure out the shop hours.

At this point I am receiving 3 or 4 different treatments. In the morning there are multiple treatments and they all blend together so I am not exactly sure of the distinct number. The morning session begins with sitting on a table and the technician anointing my body with oil in different places with particular attention paid to the hands and the feet. This is followed by a mesmerizing head massage! They have a special oil that they use exclusively for the head and the technician spends 15 minutes or so standing on a stool in front of me and working on the head and neck. I like to supplement the work the technicians are doing with some visualization techniques, so for this part of the treatment I think of the lymph system in my head and how the massage is helping the lymph to flow freely. Due to all of the surgery I had this summer, no doubt the lymph system on my head is quite compromised, so I see this massage as helping to help move any lymph that may have stagnated.

After the head massage I lie on my back and a second technician comes into the room. They stand on either side of the table and spread sesame oil completely over my body. Then in unison they massage the chest and stomach in a circular motion. With my eyes closed it is hard to tell that there are two people, it just feels like this giant pair of hands working on me. After that, again in unison, they make quick long vertical strokes that start at the waist, go up the body and then down the arms and then back to the waist. After many sequences of that I can really start to feel the heat build up under their hands.

They then move to the legs and go through a similar process. After the legs have been warmed up they then go through a series of strokes that go from the feet, up the legs, up the body, down the arms and then back again. In my mind I envision that the sets that work on the mid, upper and lower body separately are loosing the waste materials that have built up in my skin, then when they do the complete body strokes they are moving those materials up (or down) and out through the hands (and feet). They finish the whole process by quickly scrubbing the hands and feet . Next they have me flip over on my back and they bring in these gauze bags that are filled with herbs and warmed on a oiled and sizzling skillet. Similar to the long body strokes they pound the bags of herbs starting at the hands, up the arms, then down the body to the feet and then back up to the hands. After each “round” they go and get another set of bags that I assume have been sitting on the skillet. They do this three times each with a new set of bags then do the long total body massage strokes again. Flip over……repeat.

The final treatment of the morning is what they call a back basti. They take two rings made out of dough and place them on the upper and lower back. They use water to seal the rings to the body and then fill up the rings with warm oil. I am not sure if they are using chakra points or what but I usually doze off pretty quickly. They refill the rings two more times before the morning treatment is complete and it is time for a shower.

I find the treatments to be very powerful. I physically feel tired afterwards and usually go back to my room to snooze or read until lunch. This effect has seemed to build over the past few days. However, usually after lunch and a drinking a lot of water I feel good and I am ready for the afternoon.