Full Power?

So despite yogic energy and trillions of needles, herbs and antibiotics, the second Lump continued to grow – like a red hot volcano – under my arm until it took over my consciousness. I took the hint from the thousands of Tibetans walking around telling their prayer beads, and brought myself a set. A strange type of meditation, but with an uncanny ability to pacify, and therefore to save the few brave Indian boys who were vying for my attention from the lash of my overflowing temper. Eventually, the volcano erupted, but it did so through the first incision. As pus leaked out of my arm Bruno led me to Mcleod's Community Health Care Clinic. I could almost see the same friendly Nepali nurse sigh, as she realised that she would have to – yet again – deal with the woman with her personal volcano of pus. I was instructed to lie down, while she wrestled with The Lump. And wrestle she did. I was wishing to be unconscious. Meanwhile, the friendly Nepali nurse kept apologising for the pain she was inadvertently directly causing. I tried to muster the strength to a reply 'no worries, thank you' and let her continue to pump the volcano. About a fistful of pus was extracted. In the end she held up a swab to my face and said 'ah it looks like chocolate'. I was thankful for Kolkata for giving me the strength needed not to throw up over her.

With the extraction of so much of the infection the pain subsided a little but The Lump was still hard -like a stone- and I was still worried. I went back to the hospital. Experience had taught me that after paying my ten rupees it was necessary to bypass the enormous queue and to head directly upstairs to another doctor, who for some reason never had any waiting patients. My lump was inspected by yet a new pair of eyes and I was told that I was still on the wrong antibiotics. Hmph! This might explain why this had been going on for nearly three weeks. Now I am taking tablets every six hours, even waking up in the night to religiously swallow the little blue pills (and no they are not viagra, but cephalexin – which coincidently sounds like a suitably complex match for Staphylococcus Aureus) and something seems to be working. However, the hours of queuing alongside entire Tibetan families and entire congregations of monasteries was not totally avoided, and the doctor at Delek Hospital sent me to have my blood sugar tested to see if there was a link between The Lumps and diabetes and, unlike Vijay, try to find out if there was a physiological reason why I had developed two infected lumps in succession. After three hours it was concluded that my blood sugar was 'normal'.

The other 'something' was a meeting with a man from England who lives in Denmark and who has just received his 'masters in Reiki'. This does not mean that Master Reiki has studied Reiki for years at a special university for slightly 'alternative' people, but it means that here in Mcleod Ganj he has done one of the fast food courses in alternative training. (On a side note, Mcleod Ganj has made me see 'trained' alternative therapist a little differently. I am amazed at how anyone can apparently learn an ancient healing art, based on intuition and age old symbols in just seven days.) Anyway, Master Reiki kept appearing in my days and kept offering his healing hands so I decided to give Rieki a go. After one and a half hours of 'healing' the pain had certainly reduced, even if it was only temporary, and I felt much more relaxed. Master Reiki asked me to lift my arm and asked me if I still felt pain – I assured him that of course I would feel the pain, after all I still had a big infected cut under my arm and on top of a large hard as stone Lump. Apparently I also gave Master Reiki my headache – or rather shared it with him - as this was still very much on top of my head. I have no idea to what extent the Placebo Effect had to do with my pain barrier, or indeed if there can be some more 'scientific' explanation for how the placing of hands on a body can bring relief but, ultimately I was still left with a large burning hard as stone Lump. Still feeling incredibly sorry for myself, all that had really changed is that now I had too many new old questions such as – what exactly is an aura, how can some people see them and others cannot, why does Rieki apparently work for some people – or rather how? Master Reiki told me my arm was healing.

However, gradually the volcano simmered down into a hard plate, which is still under my arm (under its daily padding of Tibetan herbs – the smell of which I am actually becoming fond of; perhaps I'll suggest Dr Palden starts his own 'Tibetan Herbal' range of strong smelling sticky brown pastes? ) I revisited Delek Hospital today and a smart Tibetan doctor (with an American accent and wearing rangi changi multi coloured yak wool socks) told me that I need another 5 days of blue pills. This is going to make a total of 22 days on antibiotics. Dr Palden Tsering is still determined to bring up the hard lump to the surface, although he has stopped sticking needles into me. Every day he still tells me 'not to eat sweet' , 'no drink milk' and 'no eat onion' and a strange word which we eventually worked out (with the help of his vegetable tray) was 'garlic'. This advice echoes the concerns of the Western Tibetan doctor who tested my blood for high levels of sugar. On reflection I guess sugar is food for Staphylococcus Aureus. Perhaps the avoidance of milk is because of its mucous forming potential. And as for onions and garlic- I have no idea, but the link between food and illness and treatment is certainly very interesting. In fact The Lump has indirectly taught my a great deal. During my many acupuncture sessions Dr Palden has been indirectly been held hostage to a barrage of questions. I have asked him everything which popped into my head: how do you find acupuncture points, what are meridians, what are the herbal medicines made from, are they home made or bought, and if so from where, how long he has been in India, what is the difference between Chinese medicine (453 pressure points)and Tibetan medicine (157 points) and so on and so on. What has fascinated me is his holistic way of viewing the body. He told me that he once visited Italy and was amazed to learn that they have a doctor for every different part of the body: “they even have a doctor just for the eyes” he told me. In fact Dr Palden was so shocked by the 'eye doctor' that he went to visit one and told him that his patients need to have their liver tested and not their eyes. I used this opportunity to ask him if my sore knees (which I blame long distance cycling for) had any connection to my organs? He replied that my stomach was too cold and I needed to heat it up. What about sickness? “A cold stomach” came the reply. And Insomnia? “A sad heart”.

So I apologise to You and to Bruno for being so self absorbed and 'serious' and although I am still not 'full power' I am certainly 'half power' and with Master Reiki sitting next to me offering me another 'healing', Dr Palden's compress of herbs under my arm, a new prescription of blue pills and medical advice over flowing my gmail account, I guess I am in safe hands after all.

Hopefully – not to be continued.