No More Hungry Leeches

My balcony, on the first floor, where I love to sit and write

My leg didn't stop bleeding after yesterday's session with the leeches, and I tied a supermarket plastic bag over my foot when I went to bed, to limit any damage to the bedding.  This is not free-flowing blood, but nasty sticky stuff that is probably the cause behind my cellulitis and I am glad to see positive results as my body gets rid of it. My foot was quite anaemic when I woke up in the morning, but the swollen shin is much reduced.

The medical team are delighted with the results, while I am still somewhat bemused. I will wait until I've been home for a week or two before I pass final judgement on the healing, but after the sessions with the leeches, the skin of my leg has substantially cleared up and feels much better. I had expected leeches again this afternoon, but I have now fed all of them, and there are no hungry ones left. The doctor has asked for a month's notice if I come here next year, so that they can collect a good team of leeches with healthy appetites, with which to treat me, if I still have circulation problems in my shins..

The day started on the massage bench, and my body has become used to the vigorous and somewhat painful massages, to the extent that it now raises grunts and groans rather than screams, shouts and squeals. I can more or less walk up the stairs, and then trot down, rather than taking one step at a time; stairs were a laborious climb and perilous descent when I arrived in early December. I doubt if my balance will ever fully recover from my prosthetic hip, but I am pretty mobile, especially after the work the masseurs have done on my hip and thigh muscles.

There are things I shall miss from the regime here at Mattindia, and I shall definitely dream of the amazing sensation of the Hot Oil Bath. I wonder whether I might make it back here in 12 - 18 months' time.

I have a lazy final day. I originally thought about going shopping, but I am really about "shopped-out." I love lazing around in my lunghi (sarong) but there's a limit to how many I can wear around Lincoln. I will find excuses to wear my scarlet kurta (thigh-length shirt) but not on the bus with the fellow-pensioners going to the bus-station or ASDA. I have also stocked up on all my Indian spices at 40p per packet rather than £1.95, and even bought a kilo of super-fine flour for making chapatis. I have paid my bill, (including the £15 Leech surcharge!) so today is a very leisurely day but I might try to find some creative ideas to finish off the training materials for my work next week.

Most of the staff work here seven days a week, and the environment is virtually stress-free. Here in India, the whole idea of 5 days work and 2 days play seems to be unknown outside of the corporate world, and the result is that the doctor, the masseurs and all the staff have a very holistic way of life. In Europe, and probably elsewhere in the "developed" world, we have a severance between life and work that creates an inevitable contrast and contradiction. When I sit here on the balcony, writing on my laptop, people make comments like "Working again!" "You should take a break, you're on holiday!" and so forth. But that's not true, because I love what I am doing - whether it's leisure writing, like this, or planning some new exercises for the training I am, running in London next week. If I am entertaining, people comment about "All that work, cooking all that food!" But I love it! I try to integrate totally my life and my work, and enjoy whatever I am doing.  I have friends (you may be one of them) who groan at the thought of having to switch on the computer, but for me, when I have access to the internet, I am let loose in an infinite library.

Tonight I shall leave for the airport, and then it's about 24 hours till I unlock my front door in Lincoln.  I shall enjoy the same work and life mix back home; but I'm not sure about the snow!