Ayurveda Daily Journal – Day 7

Feb 9 (Day 7):
General Impressions:
Rough day today. Had a dizzy spell going into lunch. I didn’t even realize it, but one of the men who gives out medications noticed I was circling and weaving a bit. It got worse while I was at the table, so they called the doctors…pretty embarrassing. They both came running upstairs and helped me to my room to lie down. Rested a bit and a couple of hours later went to the consultation room to wait for the therapist to take me to my treatment…felt weird while talking with the doctor and he had me lie down on the sofa. Long story short, I had another little fainting spell this afternoon as well. It got better after they gave me some coconut water so they think my potassium or sodium might be out of whack. Either way, they’re keeping an eye on it. They may not let me do the ghee treatments tomorrow if we can’t solve this. That’s upsetting; I won’t lie.

THE DOCTOR:
Another crazy twist: In an attempt to test the source of my stomach pain, Dr. Sankar gave me a new medication last night. As the medication was a test for ulcers, he didn’t want to tell me what might happen in advance.

He explained to me later (this morning) that pain and burning in your stomach and esophagus is almost always caused from one of three things: 1) Inflammation or ulcers in the stomach lining itself 2) Indigestion as a reaction to food or 3) Stress. The medication was his way of testing whether my main issue was inflammation and ulcers in the stomach lining itself or something else.

Anyway, I had such a severe response to the “test” medication that I pain all night and on through this morning — couldn’t sleep at all. It felt like my heart was on fire. So I guess…inflammation and ulcers, it is!  Dr. Sankar has been adjusting my meds and treatments all day today, trying to dial back my pain in case I start the ghee tomorrow. Wish me luck.

THE TREATMENTS:
To help ease the burning and pain in my stomach I got a special treatment today. Since coconut oil is evidently great at cooling down parts of the body that are too hot, they massaged it into my stomach and my hair this morning. No french fries today! Today, I feel like I’m wearing perfume…Love it!

WORDS OF WISDOM:
Four Aspects of Ayurveda – All are required, for proper treatment
1. Doctor
2. Delivery of medicine
3. Therapist & nursing staff
4. An receptive patient who accepts the process