After the 4th lumbar puncture
It is getting increasingly hard to keep track, but last Friday was my 4th (of 5) lumbar punctures. And it went very well. I am feeling like an old hand at this… The recovery was a bit faster than usual, although I rested most of Saturday and was tired. Sunday morning (yesterday) I actually felt energetic enough to go out of the hospital with my Mom for a little over an hour. We walked to a wonderful little park near the hospital – just set beside a road with a lot of trees and flowering plants, well-tended, some grass, and a little calm lagoon. There was a man fishing in the lagoon, and a woman washing clothes. And this not 50 metres from a major road! The little bridges and walkways are really pleasantly done, made out of stone, carved what seems to be by hand. Absolutely lovely. And we walked by a little space where there were some public exercise machines, apparently put there by the city to encourage citizens to get out and exercise more. In that park, they would get me out that’s for sure! And there were a number of people using them. Mom figured if they put a playground for kids next to it, it would be perfect. The weather is very humid here – so much so that we have rarely seen any blue sky, much less a clear sky like in Calgary. And it has been raining a lot. But yesterday the rain was not so cold as it has been, and no wind. It was a pleasant spring drizzle, and the sun even shone through the clouds briefly and warmed me up (Mom was warm from pushing me around!) Hangzhou is truly a beautiful city. Little parks like the one I mentioned are everywhere. The people here seem to take collective pride in making their city beautiful and a lovely place to live in. For me this was only the second time I have been out of the hospital since I arrived, and so the trip proved a good omen. The time I went out before, the cold and wind gave me a bit of a chill, and along with the exhaustion I felt from the treatments, I didn’t want to risk getting sick and thus delaying or having to cancel some of my treatment. The price was too high! But I feel stronger on all levels today. My spirits are good, and physically I felt strong. The improvement in bladder function that I noted after the third lumbar puncture last Monday seems to have stuck, and so I have gone to the bathroom only once during the night in each of the last 4 or 5 nights. Hooray! And I seem to be sleeping better, which I sense is deeply healing on many levels. I have more dreams and awake with the crazy, new sensation of feeling – wait for it – rested when I get up in the morning!! lt is one of those things that it has been so long since I felt rested that I had forgotten what it felt like. What a blessing. So I feel more peaceful overall. The sleep has dovetailed with the spiritual growth and transformation that has taken place and that I have been working hard on. I now feel I have done at least a large part of what I was here to do, and there is peace and a deeper gratitude – a calm after the storm of intense spiritual work. Not, of course, in the ego sense that I am somehow “there” or “done” growing - there are new horizons opening up on all fronts. But that I have a little respite from the heavy going. So I am appreciating that. One more lumbar puncture on Wednesday Apr. 8, most likely at 2:00 pm here again, and then a couple of days of recovery and the treatment will be over. Given that I seem to be recovering more and more swiftly after each successive puncture, I am hopeful that by the weekend I will feel good and will be able (finally) to do a little sightseeing. The weather will hopefully cooperate, and my Dad’s colleague Dr. Chen and his wife have been so kind and earnest in wanting to take me out to see some sights (they have taken Mom and Dad out, albeit seperately, a few times) that I would really like to be able to go with them, even if only for a few hours. There is a famous place nearby called West Lake that I would like to see. And it would be fitting to end the trip on such a happy note with Dr. Chen and his wife. They have been an integral part of our stay here – so helpful and kind and generous for one thing, but on a deeper level too. I found out yesterday that the amazing way in which my Dad was able to come here (because Dr. Chen just happened to live in Hangzhou, the same city the treatment is in) is actually even more miraculous. My Dad told me yesterday that in fact he had not sought out Dr. Chen in this at all, but that in around November 2008, Dr. Chen had emailed my father out-of-the-blue regarding his daughter wanting to come to the University of Calgary to study mathematics as my father’s student!!!! Then my father mentioned my treatment an everything fell into place. Wow!
5 comments April 6th, 2009
