I am the last person I expected to hear a diagnosis of “Osteoarthritis”…
yet, there it was, advanced sufficiently to be clearly recognizable, in
undeniable black and x-ray. My mind screamed “but I cannot not run or do Yoga again; what can
I do?” The doctor was saying that I will definitely have to have hip
replacement but there was something we could do to delay the timing of it; I’m
thinking, “yeah, ok, but what am I going to do so I can run and do Yoga again?”
In addition to the Osteoarthritis, there were clear indications of Calcium
buildup and inflammation from injury; they
were the cause of my pain during yoga practice, and the only reason we discovered the Osteoarthritis when we did. He
continued to tell me I have three immediate treatment options to delay total
hip replacement as much as 10 years:
- 1. Glucosamine
and Chondroitin.
- 2. Cartilage
Injection directly into the hip to replace the diminished cushion.
- 3. Surgically
remove the Calcium build-up.
Part of the reason for my surprise at the diagnosis is
that I have taken Glucosamine and Chondroitin religiously for 3 years; I took
it believing doing so guaranteed that I would never hear this diagnosis! We agreed that I will continue taking it
at the maximum dose and that we would do the Cartilage injection as soon as possible
then postpone the Calcium buildup removal surgery until mid-July to allow the
inflammation time to subside. If we rushed into the surgery, and inflammation
was present or too much, that surgery would be a waste of my time. Somehow I missed the part where the
Cartilage injection may not work! To
my mind, it sounded like a sure thing to buy me time with only the duration of
delay a question mark. And, I surmised optimistically, with the speed of
technological advances these days, by the time I needed something more done
there is no telling what they will have invented that is safer, easier, less
invasive and shortens recuperation time than total hip replacement - like I
imagined this Cartilage Injection would do for me. Six days later, procedure
complete, the doctor tells me, “we will know in 3 – 4 weeks if it worked.” I
was surprised; it never occurred to me that it might not work!
I did hear, and was very focused and concerned, on the
insight that the mid-July Calcium buildup removal surgery may not work. To me,
that meant no more Yoga and a return to constant back pain – HORROR! He told me
that if he got inside and discovered it is still very inflamed; he will simply
retreat and I will be no better off and face the recovery of a failed
surgery – which would be of a much shorter duration than if the surgery is a
successful one. This just did not sound like a good plan to me but what else
could I do? But what else could I do?
Following the Cartilage injection procedure, the doctor
gave me 10 days of “pain medicine”, which I Googled and learned was a
non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory. I wasn’t in a great deal of pain but the
“anti-inflammatory” aspect appealed to my need to reduce inflammation for the
subsequent surgery to succeed; I took them religiously for the next 10 days. On
day 12 I was introduced to the Ayurvedic Centre in Petaling Jaya, a suburb of
Kuala Lumpur.
As a huge fan of Deepak Chopra for 20 years, I had heard
of Ayurvedic and even learned a little about it. When friends of ours here in
KL had a difficult time managing and controlling their young daughter’s asthma
with “Western medicine”; the dad, being Indian Malaysian, returned to Indian
traditional medicine, Ayurvedic. Over time there was significant improvement
for their daughter. The mother, who suffered crippling migraines that had
reached a daily level and severe pains in her stomach, received treatment as
well and no longer has any symptoms
of either at all. I was impressed and asked if I could tag along sometime when
they visited the clinic. At the time of my request, I had curiosity and no known
need, but the Universe fixed that! On day 12 following Cartilage Injection I
tagged along to the Ayurvedic Centre; my friend, however, had called ahead and
made an appointment for me to see Dr. Siby while we were there. Since I had had
all this show up recently, I thought, “what the heck! Might as well see him…”
Truth is, I was excited and totally
fascinated with an Ayurvedic body, mind and spirit integrated healing concept.
My friend explained that when she first saw Dr. Siby, she
neither described her symptoms nor explained the reason for the visit; rather,
he took her pulse, examined her fingernails and then told her exactly what her
Western Doctor’s medical tests told him. I found that fascinating; yet, when I
entered Dr. Siby’s office and sit down, right off he asks me what brought me to
him. I blurted immediately that I had been diagnosed with this Osteoarthritis
and I don’t want it. What I do want is
the ability to run and practice my Yoga without pain. Cut to the chase I guess.
He had me lie down and go through a range of motions to duplicate the pain,
which at that point in time, could now be felt with touch because of soreness
from the MRA and Cartilage injections; previously remember, pain was only felt performing
specific Yoga postures and not even then could I feel or duplicate the pain
with touch: pushing, prodding or massaging the area. It was too deep.
In the end Dr. Siby told me that it can be totally cured
but only if I strictly follow his treatment plan for 3 months; and, the first
28 days will be as a patient admitted to his hospital. Shock one: it can be totally healed without surgery? Osteoarthritis and the Calcium buildup??? Shock two: 28
days, inpatient???
Today is Day 8 of my 28 days. All I can really say is
“naandree” – Tamil, and probably spelled completely wrong but it is how I hear
it – for “good” and “thank you”.
The first 3 days were a challenge because my body was
filled with desserts and steaks, chicken and cheese, white flour and white
sugar; these had to leave my system and did they ever! Too bad they couldn’t
have been as pleasant coming out as they were going in. Although I enjoyed
eating them, these foods had created a toxic environment inside my body which
impedes, if not prevents, the body systems from performing at their peak
potential and that included repair and restoration of the cartilage in my hips.
It also created the environment for inflammation to thrive. Imagine your auto
mechanic trying to repair your car in a closed garage filled with exhaust
fumes… he or she will definitely find it more difficult to get the job done and
ultimately, won’t be able to work at all. Metaphorically, that’s what we do to
our body when we fill it with toxins.
The reason this treatment works is because it restores
the right conditions – balanced, oxygen rich environment, ideal ph - within the
body so that it can heal itself. I remembered an Andrew Weil quote from years
gone by that, paraphrased, went something
like this, “the natural state of the body is healed, and when it is injured or
ill, it moves heaven and earth to get back to the healed state.” It made
perfect sense to me…
Still, Day 1, I cheated a bit. You know, that stick your
toe in the water before you jump-in syndrome. I arrived at 9am and left at 3:30pm
not yet convinced that I could commit
to the regimen… The facilities are not
what I am accustomed to; yet, they are simple, clean and orderly. KL’s Prince
Court Hospital boasts their 6 Star Resort status; this would likely earn a 3
Star status because it has hot water and air con – yes, many here in Southeast
Asia are without amenities that we Westerners take for granted. An older house, converted for their use, the rooms
are semi-private, which was a God thing through the first few days. A nurse
from Singapore, here for a 5 day Detox Cleanse to stabilize her hormones and
lose some unwanted kgs/pounds; she got to fine tune her nursing skills with me
for a roommate. A very kind, compassionate practicing Buddhist, I think she was
very glad to help. With the only television downstairs and always tuned to a
Tamil station, no internet, I imagine she was a bit glad for something, anything to entertain her.
Day 1, the treatment was heavenly. With warmed and
medicated oils I was basted better than any Thanksgiving Turkey I’d prepared.
In spite of the oil, the motion, pressure and friction of my therapist’s hands
warmed my neck, shoulders, hips, knees and ankles; my insides* knew they wanted this treatment and that this
treatment is good for its recovery. When it came to the oral “medicines”, on
the other hand, I and my insides, were
not too sure. None of them tasted
good! If it doesn’t taste good, how
can it be good? By the end of day 1,
my stomach was nauseous and I had a slight headache.
By noon of Day 2, I was miserable and by nightfall, I was
womiting! Thank God for Lin Dah; she
encouraged, comforted and assisted me through. Vomiting is how I knew my
experience yet my sick, miserable ears heard this sweet roommate angel lady
asking me if I was “wahming” or maybe she was saying “warming” with a Southern Drawl
but no, it was womiting which I
eventually figured out is “vomiting” without the Chinese accent.
Language is a challenge here; fortunately in Malaysia
many people speak English, so we have not been forced to learn Bahasa. However,
we recently began Bahasa lessons and made some progress in understanding a bit
of what’s spoken to and around us; however, the people who work here are not Indian
Malaysian. While they have an impressive basic ability
to communicate in English – far better than my ability to communicate in Bahasa
– Tamil is their primary language. Without Lin Dah here to help me translate; I
decided I better proactively learn some Tamil. So, I decided to begin with my
therapist’s name. I heard her say
Isudee; I asked her how to spell it: “Ay”… and somewhere in the rapidly
sputtered long list of letters I heard “t” and “h” and I opted for another
approach… spell it how it sounds! She asked me how the pressure felt; I asked
her how to say “good” – I heard her say “naandree”… sounded like “laundry” with
an “n”… I like “naan”, a tasty Indian bread, so translated it as “naandree”.
They seemed pleased to hear my efforts; so, this morning I asked, “How do you
say thank you?” Isudee laughed and said “naandree” with a beautiful roll of her
“r”… I decided, a better approach might be to recruit an Indian Malaysian
friend, well versed in English, to help me learn a few phrases via SMS. We’ll
see how that plays out over the next 20 days.
Day 3, I still did not feel GREAT; in fact, I awoke dizzy
– the room spun like a carnival ride. This really made my stomach unhappy. They
delayed my treatment until 3pm, halfed my dosage of “medicines” and had a very
difficult time understanding me. Again, thank God for Lin Dah to help
translate. The staff and therapist were convinced my symptoms were the result
of my not eating; I could not get them to understand, even with Lin Dah’s help,
that I couldn’t eat because it caused me to “womit”. They were so fearful that
I wasn’t eating because I didn’t like Indian
vegetarian food and continued all day to entice me with fruit and porridge
which is watery, salted rice; for the record, I love Indian Vegetarian food. I
tease that I think I was Indian in my
most recent past life because I love their food, colorful clothing, shiny gold
jewelry, and fascinate with their religion, and … I got my nose pierced. Sadly,
I didn’t get to keep it pierced because my nose is too thin; so, the little gem
stuck out and looked ridiculous rather than exotic and now decorates a drawer
at home.
The other thing that came up on Day 3 was intense pain in my hip. Following the
MRA for my Western doctor my hip hurt for days. It wasn’t unbearable just
noticeable and annoying. When they injected the cartilage, following a similar
path as when they injected the dye for the MRA which is a MRI with dye added,
the pain increased but thankfully not to a crippling level. Day 3 in the
Ayurvedic Centre however, without apparent cause, the pain began rapidly
approached crippling and by Day 4, I was in big trouble and quite confused.
Sitting was impossible and no way I positioned myself – propped or straight,
side or flat – was even slightly comfortable. Resting was difficult; sleeping
was impossible. This came as a total shock. When I very first launched into
this adventure about 6 weeks ago, curiously requesting an X-ray, the ONLY pain
I felt was when I did several Yoga postures; why am I now experiencing this
intense pain? Am I being punished for attempting to be proactive and prevent a
crippled state?
My Ayurvedic doctor, Dr. Siby, surmises that the pain
medication had just simply, worn off.
Interestingly, I complained that the pain medication did
not work; the only reason I took it
all 10 days was for the anti-inflammatory benefit. To its credit, it did not appear to ease any pain because the pain
from the MRA injection sight seemed to have worsened after being used for the
Cartilage injection sight. And, worse yet by my standards, my back had started
bothering me again. The whole reason I began Yoga in the first place was to
ease my left over back pain from 3 bad accidents. The Yoga practice,
specifically Bikram Yoga, performed in a 105o F/40o C
room had been the last of a long string of alternative treatments I sought to
recover; Yoga worked, but only for as long as I regularly did it. Interruptions
from my trips back to the US, or to play, always set me back; so, when both
doctors told me there would be an extended period of time when I would be
unable to practice, I cringed. Sure enough, by the time I entered the Ayurvedic
Centre for treatment, and throughout all 10 days of pain medicine, my back hurt
– seemingly untouched by that pain medication. When the doctor suggested that
the pain medicine had simply worn off, I wondered, would I have hurt this bad without having taken it? I
guess we’ll never know.
Fortunately, I complained of my left over back pain when
I first visited Dr. Siby. So, as part of my treatment, following the massage,
the therapist slathers my back with medicated mud, wraps me in plastic wrap and
allows me to absorb it for 2 hours. I was so impressed, following the first
treatment my back felt better – in fact, it did not hurt at all and has not
hurt since Day 1. Beginning on Day 4, Isude added the medicated mud pack to my
hip and has continued it every day since. Each day there has been a noticeable
improvement in both ranges of motion and diminished pain; today, Day 8, my hip
still troubles me but only when I am up and moving about and even then, nowhere near as much as Days 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Nausea
and headache a distant memory, this Ayurvedic Treatment and my vision to
run and practice Yoga again are looking most excellent.
*Insides – a “gut
feeling”, a term I use for an inner, abstract knowing or certainty that
I cannot otherwise explain but have learned to trust completely.
Blessings,
janet lee
www.BeliefChangeBook.com
www.AttractYourSoulmate.com
www.TheSecretSolution.net
www.APCD-Institute.org
www.MasterMindcleanse.com
© jan gentleman-ingersoll Eastern Shepherd, Inc. 2010
