As I sit preparing to pack for my return to India, I am well aware of why I’m going and know what I’m leaving. It is harder to go back this time. I am enjoying myself here, not a life on the couch but a life outside in the world, with sun on my skin and wind through my hair. No, I’m not describing my mother driving me on the couch down the freeway, though I am sure she has contemplated doing just that. I leave my life, that of a teenager, which I have not had in many years. I leave my friends, family, and pets behind.
That is my world, India is my adventure, my journey to wellness, a promise I made to focus on my health even if that means leaving all else. My friends will still be here when I return. School is on hold. Pets and family will continue their lives, slightly altered as my mom and I journey to India.
I go to India for only 4 weeks of stem cell therapy this time. “Oh that’s a long time” one friend said at the news. Not all of my friends are accustom to my coming and going. It is hard to understand how one can so suddenly pickup and leave for months at a time. Friends with Lyme or long-term illness understand the necessity. You find the treatment that works best for you, wherever that may be. Before India, it was hyperbaric oxygen therapy and before that, it was hockey therapy, haha. I.V. antibiotics have been the constant and most effective over the years for me prior to stem cells, though I have done homeopathic, hyperbaric, to antibiotic and everything in between.
“That’s short,” another friend told me. That friend comparing the lengths of my previous trips to the one I prepare to depart for now. Five months total out of last year in India, my first trip being three months, two the second and two in for hyperbarics the year before that. This friend knows I must go but also knows where I have missed pointing at a picture I am not in, of a celebration I should have been at.
Now I sit in the afternoon sun reading a book or I go skating with friends. Yes, my newest improvement I can read and remember what I read! I find it difficult to want to go to doctors appointments. I have done minimal treatment, stem cells aside, over the past year because the doctors don’t find it necessary. I can write and with the confidence to write a blog.
The stem cells work. That is why I return, that is why I leave. I go with no expectations other than for another adventure in a place I truly love. I will see friends, some like family, and make new ones. I am ready for the road ahead. Worlds away from home, it is for sure, the path less traveled. A journey not to be taken lightly. I know how hard it can be to retrace and relive the worst of my worst days. I know the hard work and effort needed and welcome the challenge once again. I go with an open mind, ready to bloom, a smile on my face.
Elaine In India 