In God's perfect time
April 2014 By Vishwanath Giriraj Despite his efforts, Vishwanath Giriraj was unable to find a cure for his chronic respiratory ailments and dry eyes, until the time was right
One of the dominant memories of childhood is the regular visits to the doctor for my cold, cough and mild wheezing. It became so routine that Govindan, the hand rickshaw puller, knew where he had to go and what he would be paid, and that the doctor would immediately write out the prescription without asking anything. As for me, I knew the taste of the mixture I would have to take for the next three days! The moist air of the rainy season, the winter chill, or any cold item were enough to start a bout of sneezing and running nose (two days), followed by cough (five days), and a steady recovery. One ‘attack’ in three months was certain! This continued till age 40. After childhood, I took no medicines, as I felt there was no allopathic cure for this chronic problem. Instead, I ventured into naturopathy and yoga. Full rest, fasting, jal neti and steam inhalation helped. In my 40s, I realised that the disease was intensifying. Instead of the usual cough, the cold was followed by steadily stronger sinus headaches. The post 1995 explosion of refrigerators and air conditioners everywhere further aggravated my problem. Barring these bouts, I was energetic and healthy, frequently travelling and discharging heavy responsibilities like being a district collector or other government assignments, reasonably well. In 2005, I first felt dryness in the eyes. My air-conditioner intolerance began to increase. Often, when I entered my colleague’s room, I would ask him to tone down the air conditioner. I also developed a permanent head cold. In 2006, I developed a constant gritty sensation in my eyes which gave me unbearable pain. The ophthalmologist diagnosed it as drying up of tear fluids, and suggested I put eye drops every few hours. Simultaneously, I was also experiencing great exhaustion with zero tolerance to air conditioners. Despite visiting the best eye hospitals of country, and even a specialised ayurvedic institution for eye disorders in Kerala, I did not find a cure. Hugely disappointed, I plunged into depression for months, but slowly overcame it by will power. In my search for a cure, I tried homeopathy too, but without success. I went on trying for 18 months with ayurveda, homeopathy, nature cure, unani, even acupressure. One doctor suspected I had Srogen’s syndrome, a situation when tear glands, saliva all slowly dry up. Website searches based on symptoms were quite frightening, though in real life I was better! During this period, almost intuitively, I learnt what to do and what to avoid. The sea breeze (which refreshes everyone else), or wind in my face during a car/train journey, were like a knife attack on my eyes. So I avoided them, or kept my head down. Steam inhalation and foot baths were two zero cost nature cure treatments which gave immediate pain relief from sinus pain. Likewise curd, spicy, oily foods were a strict no-no. Daily oil massage on face, eyes and feet helped in reducing the dryness of the eye. I mentally also started working on Plan 2, of taking some teaching job (where there were no air conditioners) in case I had to leave my present job. On a friend’s suggestion, I started reciting Sankaracharya’s Dakshinamoorthi Stotra, the essence of Advaita, every Thursday after lighting a lamp. It gave immense peace. In 2008, I asked a business visitor to my office whether he knew of any reputed homeopaths, as I wanted to try again (four good homeopath’s medicines had not worked so far). His daughter, a homeopathy student, suggested a renowned homeopath, whose appointment I had not managed to get the previous year. This time, surprisingly, I got an early appointment. The doctor assured me that with his prescription, I would slowly become better over months. I took his homeopathic drops, but with no big hope. (After all, I had visited 40 doctors in the last two years). After three days, I suddenly felt lighter and unusually better. It was almost as if a crocodile which had been clutching me for years had released its hold. Soon after, I developed a sensation of ants crawling over my body, which I was told was part of the healing process and to ‘hold on’. Soon, these sensations subsided and I was oozing self-confidence. The curing process took months, but day by day I became better and more active. There was a tectonic shift in my attitude as well. Earlier, I had the habit of imagining more than necessary about future situations, and protecting myself against it by over organising. Now I started facing situations as they came. Possibly, the homeopathic medicine triggered this big psychological change, I know not. Not only has my dry eye problem disappeared, but my 50-year-old cold-cough-sinus problem came greatly under control, and I felt for the first time, that I was now stronger than my problem. I have been extraordinarily active and functional in the last five years, thanks to alternative medicine. Lessons learnt: - Not to be carried away by allopathic diagnosis, disease names or prescriptions. Going to specialists like ENT for sinus or orthopedic for spondylitis is not wrong, but very often disease may have it origins elsewhere.
- Despite the opinion of well-meaning relatives or friends, the patient has to take her own call on line of treatment.
- How each person ‘experiences’ a dis-order or pain is different, though the medical condition may be the same. One person experiences a migraine headache as something ‘splitting’ his head, while another as ‘compressing’. Appreciation of this fact leads to proper diagnosis in alternative medicine.
- One should not sweepingly dismiss alternative medicine doctors or entire systems just because it does not work for us. In my case, four of the best homeopathic doctors were unable to heal me. In alternative systems, identifying the correct doctor is most important, which can be done by checking with teaching colleges, and students as to who are most respected in their profession. Whether the doctor is on track or not, can be experienced from our comfort level.
- Chronic disorders, embedded in our system over years, will take time to heal. Take the full course of medicine.
- Working on the mind, changing food habits, reading spiritual literature, prayers, chanting, mantras all help. In the famous book, Anatomy of An Illness, Norman Cousins says watching light slapstick comedies like Laurel and Hardy helped him heal.
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