WHY AYURVEDA

Five decades of association seemed to be snapping every day. Yes indeed I am talking about my stale relationship with my own legs! Desperate with pain and helpless about a way to come out of it I started writing poems about my warring legs.(refer my blog Viji’s  Musings).

I started knocking at the doors of a long list of orthopedic   people (physicians, surgeons and physiotherapists) A long array of suggestions followed-from Amway products to ointments and exercises .When my parameters started sinking and walking even a short distance became a painful task, my doctors made me go through all the fact finding tests-bone density test, repeated x rays and MRI scan and finally came the bomb shell “madam you have to go for a knee replacement surgery”.

The MRI scans showed that my knee bones have started degenerating and the ligaments torn were not visible at all (my son quipped in with an idea of filing an FIR to find my invisible ligaments!)

Then began my endless Google searches, you tube viewing of knee replacement surgeries and visits to doctors. Every doctor I consulted seemed to differ from the previous one .One asked me to go for a partial knee replacement while another told me that he would never recommend it. One physician asked me to procrastinate my surgery as long as possible while another was of opinion that earlier done the better. One told me to go for a key hole surgery for my ligament tear while another emphatically told me that a key hole surgery was surely not going to help me any way! They differed in the warranty guarantee part of the replaced leg too. While one doctor gave me twenty years for it another one won’t go beyond ten years and a third none settled for middle fifteen years. Oh God if only I knew how long I was going to live! I wanted climb on Mount Everest (high hopes indeed) and yell at the top of my voice –“oh God why am I having so much information ‘Now I seemed to know why exactly ignorance is bliss.

 More I thought about it more confused I was getting. Cursing my genes I realized that my mom and dad never had any problem with their legs and my father lived past ninety without ever needing a doctor. Then it struck me from where this dirty painful gene of mine came from .Of course from my father’s side! My father had seven sisters and all my aunts had knee problems. Many of them lived past seven and eight decades leading an active life till the end .Each one them were great cooks ,taking care of their big families. I even remember one of my athai’s  preparing vadams and pickle for the whole family to last a year even in her seventies. This gave me a sudden fresh lease of hope .In fact what did people do when there was no knee replacement surgery? Bang came my answer from my heart-Ayurveda.Then began my Ayurveda days.

Now my visits were confined to the renowned Ayurveda hospital in Coimbatore. My soft-spoken gentle doctor looked at x-rays and scans and told me-“you have bone degeneration as well as ligament tear and this treatment is beneficial to both so let us give it a try.”

I was admitted for a period of three weeks where I learned that Ayurveda was not only a treatment but a way of life.I was put on simple non oily no fat vegetarian diet along with the treatment  that  included-abhayangam,pichu,pizhichal,kizhi etc to name only a few .Three weeks of bitter concoctions ,cleansing and a lot of oil application  and absolute rest without any electronic gadgets (no you can’t watch TV) later, I started feeling like a new being  .Going back to your roots always brought you some peace and solutions.Of course I am not rid off my pain entirely but I know how to manage it –at least for a few more years!