Today is Friday, and I am sitting in our room in India, waiting for No. 1 to return from one of the ‘procedures’ that he will receive while he is being treated at Nu Tech. Today’s is called a Deep Spinal Muscle procedure, or DSM, and is a relatively simple injection into the muscles in the back of his neck.
Lying back for awhile.
Forty million stem cells will then (hopefully) travel into his brain, where they have the most work to do, and continue their job of breaking down and repairing the areas that have been damaged by the Lyme bacteria that have been living there the last five years. Other patients have been through it and have assured us that it’s really no big deal pain-wise, and that the anticipation of the event is worse than the event itself. Afterward, he will be brought back to the room and required to lie still for an hour. He’ll have one more round of ‘physio’ this afternoon, and then he’ll be free to rest or take a walk or join me for yoga or whatever it is he wants.
Aside from the DSM, today is just another typical day here. In fact, the schedule is so regular that some of the patients and their caregivers began joking that they feel they are living a live version of the movie Groundhog Day, as each weekday (especially by Wednesday or Thursday) begins to blend into the one that preceded it, and we all start to lose track. And it’s true. Without arranging to get out of the hospital to sight-see (which the staff is more than happy to help you do), the only events that might help one to keep score is whether or not yoga will be held in the basement that afternoon.
Hurray for the ice cream man!!
And even then, you may just end up opening your laptop to check because (at least for me) time in India has such a unique way of both stretching out and speeding up at the same time, making hours feel like only moments in time and whole days feel like several. Remember when you were a kid standing in the middle of your summer vacation, and you felt like you’d been off for a while, but there were still several weeks of swimming and sleepovers and cookouts to go? It’s kinda like that. Only not. I don’t know. You may have to come and experience it for yourself to know what I mean.
So, what does a typical day here look like? Well, in the morning, it’s always busy. We adjusted really well to the time change and wake up almost without fail at around 7:45. Between eight and eight-thirty breakfast arrives (always two poached, boiled, or scrambled eggs for each of us or a simple omelet). We eat, and before nine one of the ‘sisters’ (read: nurses) comes to give No. 1 his first injection (or occasionally an IV drip). Maybe we have time to Skype with a parent or two, and then No. 1 heads down to the basement for physical therapy by ten.
No. 1 at 'Physio'
While No.1 is in physio, I am either down with him, taking pictures, or cleaning up our tiny 10’X12’ space (folding up my bed, washing dishes or a small load of laundry, ordering our meals from Rita- one of the many warm and smiling faces at the hospital), receiving packages, returning emails, and updating facebook. I have to work quickly because, by the time No. 1 gets back, Rita and the ward boys are also waiting to wash our floors, empty the trash, change the sheets, and clean the bathroom. (They are always so efficient and quick, I’m beginning to wish I could take one of them home with me!) Anyway, after morning ‘physio’, No. 1 comes back upstairs for a short rest, another quick Skype session, or a visit from one of the doctors, and before we know it, lunch is here. All of our meals are brought to our room. Lunch is always Indian food, which we have come to look forward to it despite having only tried it once before coming to this country. Even for hospital food, it is really, really good. And after a few weeks now, we even have favorite dishes that we are always excited to see on that day’s menu. Our faves so far? Butter chicken, chicken in yogurt, dry curry chicken are a few (Seeing a theme here? There is a lot of chicken served here. No beef, but we have found that we like the lamb and mutton here, too. It’s not gamy at all like it can be at home.). Immediately after lunch, it’s time for ‘physio’ again, and so it’s back to the basement for a half-hour. But after that, and until No. 1’s evening stem cell shot, we are free to make the day our own.
Tomb of Iltutmish
On most days, as with most of the patients who are here, we play the afternoons by ear. Stem cells will take their energy from No. 1 first, and sometimes that means that he’s wiped out and needs to rest. This is normal and expected, and so, when he feels like resting, that’s what we do. Some days, however, like yesterday, we try to get out, whether that means taking a walk to Green Park Market that’s just a block away or renting a cab to the mall or one of the nearby tourist sites.
History in Motion: Dancers at Qutab Minar
Though a tuk-tuk is far cheaper, ‘cheap’ here is a relative term. For ten American dollars, we can rent an air-conditioned cab to wait for us wherever we go for up to four hours. We have found a wonderful driver at the Taxi Hut (literally a dilapidated kiosk where the boss waits for customers and the drivers wait outside on cots under a makeshift overhang for the boss to put them to work) named Gyan who told us he is from Nepal and is bound and determined to take us to Agra to see the Taj. We told him that won’t be for a few weeks, but with a bright smile on his face and a very excited demeanor, he tried to convey to us that it didn’t matter as long as we didn’t use anyone else.
Qutab Minar among the ruins.
Yesterday afternoon we had him take us to the Qutab Minar complex where we marveled at the ruins for hours. We took a gazillion pictures of the tombs, mosques, towers, and local dance performers, and though the air quality was bad, our moods were very, very good.
Afterward, Gyan mumbled some kind of question about whether we wanted to see something else, and without asking for clarification we agreed and soon found ourselves being ushered into a basement shop in a narrow alley that carried the most beautiful silk and cashmere rugs (from Kashmir, no less) and other handcrafted items. They showed us how the rugs were made on an old wood loom, sat us on a white leather (or was it pleather?) sofa, and served us a delicate and aromatic tea they sold on site in a beautiful China tea set. All the while, they rolled out carpet after carpet, working (very well, I might add) on the hard sell. Had we known what a deal they were offering, we might just have bought one. But as we hadn’t done much price comparing and had no idea what a rug should cost us in India we bought a few other items (an elephant sculpture made of camel bone, a purple- and red-striped pashmina shawl, and a walnut box made in an unusual hut-like shape) and skedaddled outta there. We probably will go back, though. They had so many beautiful things, and we think we got a good deal on what we did buy. There are a hundred other markets to see before we leave, though, so we’ll have to wait and see.
Nu Tech @ Night
The end of the day is always the same. Dinner is brought to our room. No. 1’s second injection is administered around the same time. We spend a couple hours reading, writing, Skyping, or hanging out downstairs with our new friends on the patio, and before too long, it is time for bed. By ten or eleven o’clock we are snuggling down under the blankets- No.1 in his hospital bed and me on my foldable chair/bed on the floor- and quickly falling asleep. Outside, the noises on the street finally start to settle, and the dogs take up where the cars left off, creating a wholly different form of traffic that is all their own.
Tomorrow will be much the same as the day before it. But the rhythm here is becoming a part of us, we like it, and we’re finding health, hope, and happiness inside India’s steady beat.
Hold On To This 