Wrapping up at the Clinic

Friday is my last of 28 days of treatments at the clinic.  My flight leaves Hyderabad at 4am Saturday morning.

At the beginning of this week, I would have said this week was painfully slow, but as we all know time moves at its own pace.  I have counted the days and now I am counting the hours!

I did have two fun outings this week.  I went for a wonderful lunch at the beautiful 5-star hotel, the Taj Falaknuma Palace with Greg from Iowa.  Alan wrote a post called A TRIP TO THE PALACE, if want to see more photos of it.  It was a delight to be out of clinic and enjoy historical tales and great food from the area.  I also went to a local temple one morning for travel blessings with a few other guests.  It made me miss our Friday night services at Lakeside, which I will be attending promptly upon my return!

On an early response to a blog post, friend Karlin said she thought this trip might be about “letting go” for me.  I have come back to that thought so many times over the days.  There are so many levels of letting go.  The first and most pronounced is in response to the entire “India time” thing.  Everything moves here on its own timeline and you might as well let go, or you will burn so much energy being frustrated.  I have been very proud of myself on so many occasions where I would notice my desire to make a suggestion on how to “improve” something.  Then I would practice my ability to just let it go.  In fact, I am doing it as I edit this post.  We were to have a special pulse reading at 4pm this aftermoon, it is 4:45 and no one is in sight!

The way the clinic is run, or better yet not run; is a huge source of frustration and provided much dialogue for many of us.  There have been many opportuntities each day to keep  letting go.  The clinic would certainly would not cut it in terms of cleanliness or efficiency in most countries, but the truth is that is not why we came to the clinic.

We came for the wonderful Dr. Raju and the ayurvedic treatments. They were both outstanding.  So many of us will come again, fully knowing the place needs a really good general manager and chances are there won’t be one.  The clinic has plans to build a wonderful new building and we all pray that dream will happen for them.  But no one expects to see it next year!

I have been incredibly emotional most of this week and have come to realize it is all part of the cleansing process.  I have experienced being terribly homesick, which was so intense and new for me.  I would often tear up on the massage table or when Priya was massaging my feet at night.  Again I would practice letting it go.  I did come to realize that these feelings were more intense when my energy was off, which it has been in this last days.

I will miss Pryia and Sunitha, my treatment techs tremendously.  Words almost can’t describe the wonderful care and love these young women gave me each day.  They were so kind and funny; and the challenge of the language blocks melted away.

The last five days, they have added what they call the “eye treatment” to my mix of daily treatments.  It is the only treatment that I found really unpleasant.  They use the chickpea dough and build walls around your eyes, almost like eye goggles.  Then they put melted ghee (clarified butter) infused with herbs on your eye lids. You are instructed to open and close your eyes.  The treatment lasts for 20-25 minutes and stings!  I would count to ten or fifteen then open my eyes quickly, and then start over to pass the time.  I endured it because I have heard really good results from the treatment, including Alan who completely healed his eye damage from a cancer drug.  I would just like some improvement in my prescription!

Friday morning was my last treatment.  I was given Nasya, which is a nasal treatment, done as the last treatment. First I sat on a small stool over a large pot of boiling water infused with herbs and towels over my head for 20 minutes, breathing the medicated steam into my sinuses.  Then I was moved to the massage table, where the techs brought steaming hot towels for my head and chest in a continuous rotation.  This felt incredible and would be a great addition to American spas.  Finally the doctor arrived and gave me nasal drops.   Resting on the table and then is in your room is required.  You aren’t supposed to wash your head until early evening.  So I wore this fun turban for the day!

I did have a blood test yesterday to check my thyroid levels.  I am doing really well at the lower level of medication and have almost none of the annoying side effects the medication has been plaguing me in the last years.  I am really pleased with how much calmer my system feels.

So far I think this has been a wonderful experiment for my well-being.  It has not been an easy ride; there were many days of not feeling great and frustrations.  I would also say this was probably the hardest alternative healing program I have participated in, yet the most powerful and profound.  I will be curious to see how I feel when I am back in my life. Alan and I will be taking some of their herbs at home and following many of their diet suggestions.  They say the cleansing process continues for three months after the treatments.

I am flying home on another airline that is new to me, Etihad.  I will have a brief layout in Abu Dhabi before flying on to Chicago.  I am so excited to return to the USA and all it’s benefits!  We have a few days before the kids return from the camp at the end of the week!

And by the way, thanks for all those that checked in about the power outage in India.  Hyderabad is in the southern part of India, so we were not affected.    Electric power is a huge issue in this country; the demand is too great from the huge population.  One way they manage the challenge is the electricity goes out every day for about an hour at 7am and noon.  You can set a clock by it.

Thank you for reading the blog and travelling with us on this amazing adventure.  We loved all the comments, side email messages and watching the blog stats.  One day this week we had just over 100 people having a read!  We can see what countries where people are loggin on and have had readers in Germany and Angola!

We will put a post from the US with a final update.