Poison Ivy Girl

Ha, I have been down and up since Friday… I have been pretty nervous whole week about the knee. Then it was getting better as I said in my previous post… On Friday, I went to pick up the MRI. I took it to the doctor who looked at me two weeks ago. He was just finishing his shift for the day. He just looked at the report and briefly to the pictures and said you have micro tear on your meniscus! I was devastated. I asked if it heals and he said, “No, it does not heal… You can have an operation but I do not think you would be up for it, so you have to make your quads stronger.” I told him that my quads are pretty strong… and tried to describe the strength exercise I have been doing which M told me to do. His response was “you are on your knees when you have knee pain?”. I tried to tell him that I do not do anything that hurts my knee but he was frustrated, and I guess he was tired from the Friday shift and he told me that I will probably tear my meniscus fully if I go on like this :| I began feeling dizzy, faintly. I throw myself out of the emergency and ran to the other hospital which is across the street to make an appointment with the first doctor who examined me and requested the MRI. Then, I ran to do studio for the teachers meeting. S was there also, so I could cry to him and he was “it is okay, I had the same pain too, so I have it too then, what to do, we will continue to practice in a way we can…” It was great to have him there, because he is the only one who could understand me. Otherwise, I would sit there with this heaviness inside me, but having his support made me feel all right. Then I taught my class… After a drink with S and another person who took the class, I got home feeling very sleepy.

In the morning, I went to the hospital, with what will happen next mood… I went into the doctor’s office, he took the MRI pix on his bright board and the first thing that came out of his mouth was “Your meniscus is healthy”! I could not believe what I was hearing because I was just about to tell him, that there is this micro tear… He said that there is inflammation at the tip of the femur. I told him that I was told that there is micro tear in my meniscus, and the report, which came along with the pictures, also says something like that… He told me that he would not call this a meniscus tear, then he looked at the report and read it “there is an impression of micro meniscus tear…” His explanation was that he does meniscus operation; therefore, he knows how it looks really and he sees me and knows my symptoms and my symptoms do not match with a meniscus problem and the lab people only sees the pictures… they do not do operations nor see the patients… He told me that there is inflammation due to some trauma and pointed to the area exactly where I have the pain and he told me that it will heal in 3 to 6 weeks with resting the knee. I was so so so happy and so grateful! I believe he is correct because with one week of taking it very easy with the knee, it began feeling better. When I told him this, he said “so, two more weeks and you will be fine!”

I got out of the hospital on top of the clouds. Yes, I was overly excited, happy… I was so Vata, flying in the air! I know it is no good to go to such extremes. I could have thorn it and then what? I would have to deal with it, I was not going to leave everything. This whole experience taught me so much: I became much more attentive to the students with tight hips; I became much more aware that everything is impermanent and so I should enjoy what I have at the moment rather than longing for more or different; I realized that I have to keep going no matter what, the practice will be possible with or without injuries and will keep teaching me and nourishing me; I do not have to aim for the super duper always, just be happy that I can practice; take care of the body, be nice to the body and feed it well…

Then what happened? Well, David’s homeopathic treatment could go on since the problem seemed to match with his diagnoses and therefore, his treatment of poison ivy was relevant. He wanted to give me a large doze of poison ivy,then I would not have to take it everyday. He told me to pick it up from the studio. I went to the studio on my way to meeting Ken to explore the other side and asked if David left me a medicine. They gave me this small cone which had tiny tiny little pills in it, really tiny like mustard seeds. I thought for a moment, “is this the one I am suppose to take?” Well, the label said rhus tox which is poison ivy… so just like that, I swallowed the whole cone of tiny pills. Later, David called me to ask if I found the pills. Then he called again to ask if there were more of it and I said no. He also asked whether I touched it or not, no I did not…. Then he called me again and asked “Maya, how many you took?” and I told him that one cone. And David “Maya! you took the whole cone? You overdosed, you took so much! That is a huge amount of poison ivy, you were suppose to take only one of those!” He was kind of freaking and at the same time trying to stay calm and telling me that I am healthy and strong, so I should be okay and asked me whether I felt anything weird. I told him I was just feeling my lips a bit numb earlier and as I said this, I realized I was a bit high too ☺… so much poison ivy!!!! Then he called me one more time after I arrived home and he told me that if I feel any side effects, which I had to ask what they might be, to drink coffee, he said “side effects can be anything, if you get too angry, if you get too sleepy and cannot stand it… just go to Starbucks and begin drinking cups of espresso!” I was like “ha, that is why I did it, to have coffee finally!” Well I apologized for my goofiness. I was mostly concerned that I finished all this medicine which he was maybe going to give to other people as well! I guess I only got the sleepiness, the heaviness. Therefore, after teaching the led class, I came home with Flor for breakfast on my balcony and I had the coffee!!! Yeah it was great. But I know I should stay away from it until London. This was just not to be so dozed all they long with the over doze…