Thyroid Treatment – Susan

Today is Thursday morning, we have been gone from the States for two weeks and I notice I have really slowed down. Our days are patterned around what time Dr. Raju checks our pulse, when we have treatments and when meals are given.  We are exhausted and go to sleep by 9 each night, I even like that there is no David Letterman to entice me.

This morning I started the thyroid treatment.  I am instructed not to take the daily herbs we were given, my daily thyroid medication or eat or drink anything in the morning.  After my morning pulse check, I walked over to the doctor’s residence with a couple of guests for a special treatment.

This picture with my young friends was taken while we are waiting outside. Annalisa (Fairfield, Iowa) is on the left and Helena (Sydney, Australia) is in the middle.  I am wearing some new very light Indian pants and cotton scarf to keep me cool in the early heat.  This picture is of the Raju family house.

We are invited one by one onto the porch by Dr. Raju’s wife.  She is holding a yogurt drink with herbs for me to drink.  The herbs are an important part of the treatment and the Raju family holds them as multi-generation secret.  Mrs. Raju says a blessing over yogurt mixture.  Then asks me to face east and pray to my God and ancestors for healing.  I close my eyes and ask God, my parents, paternal and maternal grandparents by name to help me heal.  Plus I ask for Alan’s healing while I am at it; figure it can’t hurt! The drink tastes good and I am happy to drink it on my empty stomach.

During the thyroid treatment I will be given rice for lunch and dinner.  I have had the lunch serving; it was plain basmati and tasted delicious to me. I ate every bite! I understand I will have three serving of plain rice, then there will rice with some chili powder on the side for three meals and onto some other spices or herbs with the rice in three meal intervals.

At lunch today, I get a bit choked up when chatting with my new pals about being on the thyroid treatment.  I realize that I have waiting for about 16 months since learning about this approach and I am really thrilled that I am really doing it! I plan to remind myself how pleased I am about it, especially if I get really tired and sick of the rice meals!  The treatment could last anywhere from five to twelve days.

I understand I will have the yogurt drink with herbs early this evening and then tomorrow morning and that portion of the treatment will be over.  There is also an extra treatment applied to my neck and thyroid area when the treatments will be given this afternoon.  It is a special herbal pack that will be applied like a face pack to dry.  I understand that it is supposed to help reduce or melt the scarring around the thyroid, so it can operate properly.  The reason I am not taking the daily thyroid medication is to see if my thyroid will get back to work and stop counting on the synthetic hormone I put in my body on a regular basis.

Dr. Raju is monitoring our blood levels throughout the treatments.  The blood was taken on Sunday and the results have not been returned yet, as the results are waiting to complete from a lab in the US for the Vitamin D test.  Vitamin D is actually a hormone; it was misnamed as a vitamin.

I am reading a wonderful book by Thrity Umrigar called Bombay Time.  She also wrote The Space Between Us, about a middle class Indian woman and her maid; one of my all-time favorite books.  Bombay Time is on my IPad and I can’t seem to get it away from Alan is now reading Fifty Shades of Grey on it!