February 19, 2016

My battle with air born allergies continues.  A week ago Tuesday, I went to the Ayuervedic day clinic in Kundasalle.  There is a big institute there as well as a hospital.  I had heard about the place but have never had cause to go.   After struggling far too long with severe "colds", I finally decided that I had to see a doctor.  Needless to say, I was not interested in seeing an allopathic doctor as all they do, especially here, is write prescriptions for antibiotics.  So I put the word out to my book club for a good Ayuerved.  What came back was the institute in Kundasalle.

My next problem was how to get there.  Of course, I could take a tuktuk, but it is quite a distance from my place and I was already feeling like crap.  45 minutes in a tuktuk was not going to help.  As I lay in bed thinking about it, I got a call from my friend Tamami saying she wanted to go out there and she would pick me up with her car.  Then a call from Clare saying that she had been there and we really needed an interpreter but that Yoshitha had volunteered to do that.  So arrangements were made and Tamami, Yoshitha and I headed out there. 

After getting a little bit lost even after asking a gaggle of policemen on their way to work at the prison, we found the place.  It was crowded, but not chaotic like all the "channelling" centres where you have to go here to see a regular doctor.  Thank god for Yoshitha.  She befriended a security lady who got us in the right line to get a number.  That did not take long.  The reception referred us to room 4 but the security lady said that there was not real need to go to the room they assigned and just to look for the fastest moving line.  We did just that and after just 1 hour, we were in with the doctor.  God only knows that you can wait longer than that in a doctor's office in Canada even with an appointment.

Both Yoshitha and I had issues.  The doctor spent an hour with the two of us.  As Yoshitha was consulting her, I was watching the other two doctors in the consulting room.  They too were paying close attention to their patients and not rushing to get them out the door after writing them a prescription.  After intense questioning, taking my blood pressure (they seem to believe that everything here is due to high blood pressure) and listening to my heart and lungs, the doctor wrote out a course of action.  She prescribed two things that would get to the cause of the problem and two things that would relieve symptoms.  She also advised me what to eat and not, when and how to take a shower, when and how to protect my head and ears.

Then it was off to the dispensary to get our stuff.  The queue for the dispensary was truly crazy plus, the doctor had written just enough to last us one day as all the services, including the medications are free.  Yoshitha and I decided to go to Bowata, the big ayurvedic pharmacy in town.  And so we did.  There is an ayuerved on duty there as well who was very helpful to me to sort everything as it was all written in Sinhala.  Of course, I had written down what the doctor at the clinic had said, but I had to match it to the liquid, oil, powder, paste and tablets that I was getting.  Everything in the end cost me LKR.430, about C$4.

I finished the acute cure stuff on Tuesday, 7 days after I saw the doctor, and lo and behold, I am feeling almost back to 100%.  I stopped using the symptom relievers as the symptoms subsided.  I am continuing with a longer term preventative until my immune system can cope with all the air pollution.

I can't say enough good things about the clinic.  Needless to say, Tamami and I were the only foreigners in sight.  Yoshitha told me afterwards that the doctor was thrilled to have seen me as I was the first foreigner she had ever treated. 

The precinct of the institute, hospital, day clinic and administrative offices is beautiful.  They have extensive gardens where they grow their own ayuervdic herbs.  Later my friend Billy told me that here mother in law was treated in the hospital with very good results.  Should I ever need hospitalization for anything other than a broken limb or surgery, I am going to that place.  They even have ambulance service.  Thank you government of Sri Lanka.

The other big news is that my visa is settled.  After submitting the second application, the department admitted that they had been in the wrong and issued the visa on the spot.  I didn't even have to go to Colombo.  So I am good for another 2 years until November 2017.  Hooray!

February 5, 2016

Happy National Day to Sri Lanka yesterday.

Seems since my last post, I have been plagued with bodily ills.  First it was flea bites contracted from my cat.  I hold her up on my left shoulder when I pick her up, which is frequently.  For the first time ever, she passed her fleas on to me.  Admittedly, I have never noticed fleas on her and she does not scratch inordinately, but given the climate and the fact that she is an outdoor hunter, she must have fleas.  Well this time, she definitely did.  So I had about 50 or more bites from just above my left boob right up to my left ear.  They are very itchy and take about 2 weeks to clear up.  I was bathing in either Sidaleppa (a local herbal balm that is very effective) or aloe vera which I got from the plant that I grow just for such a purpose. 

Here is the sweety sleeping with me sans fleas

After I got over the flea bites, I managed to get a whiff of Mortein (a really disgusting insect repellent, in this case the kind for killing crawling insects) at my friend Ava's.  She told she had sprayed when I arrived.  I thought it would be alright since she had only squirted a little and all the windows were open.  But apparently not, because by that night I had a scratch throat.  Now 2 weeks later, I am still a little sniffly.  Of course, just as I was rallying a little from the allergy, I got back a milder version of the stomach ailment I had before Christmas.  I am just on the tail end of that one as well.  Thus far 2016 has not been great physically.

There is the usual critter infestation.  Mostly snails, but what snails.  A French chef's dream.  There have been various flying things as well.  Some of them very delicate.

Some kind of lovely water bug.

Perhaps some of the bugs are attracted by the Queen of the Night which was in full bloom and  emitted the most exotic scents after dusk.

Doesn't look like much, but it sure smells like all that.

 We had art group at my place 3 weeks ago.  It was a good time.  Judith worked on her cobra.

Rather effective I think.

I had mentioned that I was in a fashion show on December 8 last year to celebrate my hairdresser's new salon and 20 years in the business.  Finally, we got some photos both from the Daily Mirror.  It was also written up in Lanka Woman but they did not include photos of Arlene and I.  Ageists!

From left to right, Arlene, Sundari, me

Sundari did the body painting on all the young men.  Looked awesome.

Finally got some word on my visa application.  Seems they lost 100 to 150 application in the period after the parliamentary elections.  So now I have to submit a whole new app.  Should go in sometime this week and then we will see.