Prayers for SATTVA

[Modus.Ponens]

Sattva, you are in my thoughts. May you overcome, once again, another difficulty. Metta.

[sattva]

Hi and thanks MP


They sent me for a bone scan. I can't remember what day it was now lol I think Monday, but i have so many appointments, it is hard to keep them all straight in my mind. I found out that the bone is infected.

Yesterday, I had a picc line put in at the hospital. I saw the doctor today and will start on antibiotic treatment on Friday. Hopefully, the insurance company will cover it. They would normally teach a person to give the medications to themselves, but my eyes are so bad that i don't trust myself to do it right. Getting it done every other day at the hospital will allow the doctor to do blood draws to keep an eye on my kidney function. So, it may be for the best anyway. I will have about 6 weeks of treatment. So, definitely no surgery for awhile. I don't know if this is all one big cosmic joke. It is just almost too much to believe and i would question whether it was a put on if someone was telling me this story, but i am living it.

How strange!!!

Oh, i forgot to add that the reason i will be waiting for Friday to start is because i could only get an appointment in the evening and that would be quite inconvienent for everyone. My dad usually takes me and he isn't suppose to drive after dark. The doctor okayed me waiting till Friday so i could get a morning appointment. If all goes well i will be on a fairly new and expensive drug which will enable me to go every other day for treatment compared to if i did it at home with another medicine twice a day.

[octathlon]

It really is strange indeed, all the things that happen to our bodies. I think our current system of medicine can solve many problems but sometimes causes others in the process, and sometimes they focus narrowly on one problem and miss another in the process. But that's how it works in our system, it's the best we have at this time so that's what we do. In the past we would just die from the initial disease and so there wouldn't be all these new problems all the time. In my case, after they saved my life from one thing, I still continue to have new after-effects crop up, not from the disease but from the treatment, like I just found out I have osteoporosis with a high risk of fracture! I didn't even know that was likely, and it sure happened fast!

Sep. 28th, I remember today was the date they had initially planned to do your surgery. Try not to get too discouraged by the delay. Hope your treatment goes well!

[sattva]

It really is strange indeed, all the things that happen to our bodies. I think our current system of medicine can solve many problems but sometimes causes others in the process, and sometimes they focus narrowly on one problem and miss another in the process. But that's how it works in our system, it's the best we have at this time so that's what we do. In the past we would just die from the initial disease and so there wouldn't be all these new problems all the time. In my case, after they saved my life from one thing, I still continue to have new after-effects crop up, not from the disease but from the treatment, like I just found out I have osteoporosis with a high risk of fracture! I didn't even know that was likely, and it sure happened fast!

Sep. 28th, I remember today was the date they had initially planned to do your surgery. Try not to get too discouraged by the delay. Hope your treatment goes well!

Thanks for the reply!
Yep, i found myself thinking several times yesterday about where i was "suppose" to be if the surgery hadn't been cancelled. I am sorry for your health problems and the osteoporosis. My mom, but mostly my aunt, used to say "Tis Hell getting old" and "Getting old ain't for sissies!" But it does bring up your point about surviving diseases we wouldn't have survived in the past. It often seems to me that we die in pieces, bit by bit. That was true of my mom as her life became more and more narrow with health problems, arthritis, and vision loss. At 92 though, modern medicine has allowed my dad to survive to still live an active, vibrant life (my sister and i often remark about how he has more of a social life than we do). He takes me to most of my doctors' appointments lol. Funny how this has allowed us to become closer than we would have been had i stayed well!

How true about the stupid gown!

[Ben]

Dear members,

Sattva is well known to many of us here at Dhamma Wheel and previously at e-Sangha. Sattva is going through an extremely difficult time with her health. If you practice Metta Bhavana or the sharing of merits - please consider directing your thoughts to Sattva during this very difficult time. Now is the time.
with Metta

Ben

[befriend]

i pray that the devas will protect you. keep smiling. karuna and metta, befriend

[sattva]

I have been thinking that it might be time for an update. After 6 weeks of being on IV antibiotics, I was off them for 9 days before being put back on them for another 6 weeks. This will take me into January. The foot is not healing and it should be if the bone infection is gone.

The doctor at the Wound Care Center wants to try me on hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) to help heal the foot and the bone. She received the okay from my insurance company this week to try 20 treatments (My doctor has asked for 40). This will involve being in a chamber for between an hour or two each day for 20 days straight. I am a little (more than a little) claustrophobic, so i am hoping that meditation while i am in there will help me deal with it. It was cleared today by my cardiologist and my lung doctor to receive these treatments. I do have some concerns though. So cross your fingers.

One of the concerns has to do with my eyes. I am scheduled to go to a city about 60 miles away to see a doctor about the problems i have with my eyes which includes some retinal problems and cataracts. I was hoping to have the cataracts removed without being put to sleep (as no doctor will put me under with my heart in this shape). I read where the hyperberic oxygen treatments can accelerate the growth of the cataracts and so i am wondering what will happen if I don't get the eyes taken care of first. Always something, it seems.

I saw the kidney specialist today and the news was not good. Normal kidney functioning (They look at something called the GFR) for my age and sex is 93. Chronic kidney disease is at 60 for 3 months. Kidney failure is 15. I have been at 25 before and then got back up to the low 30's, but this time my GFR was 22. I am not sure what all that is going to mean as far as performing heart sugery (will it cancel me altogether?) and for dialysis. I am to go back to see this doctor in 1 month and get blood drawn in 2 weeks and again in a month.

That is pretty much everything for now. There are no plans for the bypass surgery in sight.

[Ben]

Hang in there Louise!

You're never far from my thoughts.
Sending you my metta, all my good wishes.


Ben

[retrofuturist]

Greetings Sattva,

I read where the hyperberic oxygen treatments can accelerate the growth of the cataracts and so i am wondering what will happen if I don't get the eyes taken care of first. Always something, it seems.

Silly question perhaps, but what about goggles?



Metta,
Retro.

[sattva]

Greetings Sattva,

I read where the hyperberic oxygen treatments can accelerate the growth of the cataracts and so i am wondering what will happen if I don't get the eyes taken care of first. Always something, it seems.

Silly question perhaps, but what about goggles?



Metta,
Retro.

You are joshing me, right? If not, i think the worsening of cataracts occur because of the increase of oxygen in the bloodstream. Goggles wouldn't help that unfortunately
Metta

[sattva]

Hang in there Louise!

You're never far from my thoughts.
Sending you my metta, all my good wishes.


Ben

Hanging in there, Ben. Thanks for the metta, good wishes, and friendship!

[Ben]

Dear all,

In the morning (east-coast US time), Sattva will be going to hospital to undergo eye surgery to help correct a complication of her medical condition.
As many of you already know Sattva's health issues and frustrations with her treatment plan, have been harrowing. To put it midly.

I ask that you keep Sattva in mind if when you practice Metta Bhavana, sharing of merits, or if you could, recite some parittas for the benefit and protection of our dear friend.
Many thanks,

Ben

[retrofuturist]

Greetings Sattva,

You are joshing me, right? If not, i think the worsening of cataracts occur because of the increase of oxygen in the bloodstream. Goggles wouldn't help that unfortunately

OK, cool. I was thinking of an astronaut in space without a helmet and the vacuum sucking at their eyeballs



Metta,
Retro.

[David N. Snyder]

I ask that you keep Sattva in mind if when you practice Metta Bhavana, sharing of merits, or if you could, recite some parittas for the benefit and protection of our dear friend.

Morning tomorrow on the East coast will be in about 9 to 11 hours from now or click on this link to see exact time:

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/city.html?n=1928

Much metta now and at the designated time.

[Ben]

For Louise:

Bojjhanga Paritta

Bojjhango satisankhâto dhammânam vicayo tathâ viriyam pîti passaddhi bojjhangâ ca tathopare samâdhupekkhâ bojjhangâ sattete sabbadassinâ muninâ sammadakkhâta bhâvitâ bahulîkatâ samvattanti abhiññâya nibbânâya ca bodhiyâ etene saccavajjena sotthi me hotu sabbadã

Ekasmim samaye nâtho moggallânañ ca kassapam gilâne dukkhite disvâ bojjhange satta desayi te ca tam abhinanditvâ roga muccimsu tankhane etena saccavajjena sotthi me hotu sabbadã

Ekadâ Dhammarâjâpi gilaññen âbhipîlito cunda therena taññeva bhanâpetvâna sâdaram sammoditvâ ca âbâdhâ tamhâ vutthâsi thanaso etene saccavajjena sotthi me hotu sabbadã. Pahina te ca âbâdhâ tinnam nam'pi mahesinam magga hata kilesâ vâ pattanuppatti dhammatam etena sacca vajjena sotthi te hotu sabbadâ

[sattva]

Thanks Ben and David and anyone who said a prayer or good word for me. I had eye surgery on Monday. I went back to see one of the eye doctors in the practice today. Although my eye is healing fine from the surgery, unfortunately because of vitreous hemorrhaging, i still have very limited vision out of the eye. When asked to read the eye chart, a lighted chart enclosed in a frame, I said that i could see that there was something on the wall. That is better than I have been seeing out of my right eye. No decision has been made yet about what to do about the hemorrhaging, but i am scheduled to have the other cataract out on Jan. 16. I am much more hopeful about gaining some vision back in this eye as it isn't nearly as bad as the right.

In case you would like to read more about vitreous hemorrhaging.
http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1 ... view#a0104

[Ben]

Bojjhanga Sutta

samsare samsarantanatam, sabbadukkhavinasane;
satta dhamme ca bojjhange, marasenapamaddane.

135. These seven dhammas are the factors of enlightenment, which eradicate all the suffering of the creatures who are transmigrating in the universal flux, and which suppress the army of Death.

136. bujjhitva ye cime satta, tibhava muttakuttama;
ajatimajarabyadhim, amatam nibbhayam gata.

136. Having realised these seven dhammas the creatures had attained the Immortality, the Fearlessness, Birthless, decay-less and sickless stage; they be came transcendental and liberated from three existences.
Oh thou! Let us recite this doctrine of Factors of Enlightenment;

137. evamadigunupetam, anekagunasangaham;
osadhanca imam mantam, bojjhanganca bhanama he.

137. Endowed with such and other qualifications altogether with innumerable qualities, this is a medicinal spell.

138. bojjhango sati sankhato, dhammanam vicayo tatha;
viriyam piti pasaddhi, bojjhanga ca tathapare.

138. The factors of enlightenment are Mindfulness, Investigation of the Dhamma and also Effort, Rapture, Tranquility, and other factors of enlightenment.

139. samadh-upekkha bojjahanga, satte'te sabbadassina;
Munina sammadakkhata, bhavita bahulikata.

139. The factor of concentration, and Equanimity. All these seven are well expounded by the Allseer; cultivated and amplified repeatedly by the Sage—

140. samvattanti abhinnaya, nibbanaya ca bodhiya;
etena saccavajjena, sotthi te hotu sabbada.

140. in order to discern profoundly, to realise the wisdom, and to attain Nibbana;
By this asseveration of this truth, may you be happy forever.

141. ekasmim sarnaye Natho, Moggallananca Kassapam;
gilane dukkhite disva, bojjhange satta desayi.

141. At one time, the Lord saw Venerable Moggallana and Venerable Kassapa suffering and sick, and he expounded the Seven Factors of Enlightenment.

142. te ca taib abbinanditva, roga muccimsu tankhane;
etena saccavajjena, sotthi te hotu sabbada

142. The two Elders also were delighted thereat; and at that very moment were liberated from the sickness.

By this asseveration of Truth, may you be happy forever.

143. ekada Dhammarajapi, gelannena'bhipilito,
Cundattherena tamyeva, bhanapetvana sadaram;

143. Once even the King of Dhamma the Buddha himself was, afflicted by sickness, then the Elder Cunda was requested to recite that very doctrine with due reference.

144. sammoditvana abadha, tamha vutthasi thanaso, etena saccavajjena, sotthi te hotu sabbada.

144. Having delighted the Lord rose up thereupon from that sickness.
By this asseveration of Truth, may you be happy forever.

145. pahina te ca abadha, tinnannampi mahesinam; maggahata kilesava, patta'nuppattidhammatam; etena saccavajjena, sotthi te hotu sabbada.

145. Just as the defilements, annihilated by Magga-conscious, can arise again no more, in like manner these ailments were eradicated from the three Great Sages.

By this asseveration of Truth, may you be happy forever.

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[Gena1480]

may our merit help you

[sattva]

Hi everyone and thanks for all the support. Thought i would do an update because i have met with three doctors this week.

Pulmonary Doctor Visit:
Had 4 chest x-rays (2 positions standing, 2 lying down) before the visit. Result: There is still fluid in the pleural cavity, enough to drain on the right side. However, the doctor doesn't want to drain it because it hasn't increased since the last visit. I will return in about 4 months to see if it is getting better, worse, or staying the same. He does hope to ultimately do some more testing on me in the future. I am to contact him if my breathing becomes worse.

Wound Care Center Doctor: The foot is not healing. She thinks because there is still infection in the bone. The hyperbaric chamber is a no. Although the cardiologist agreed to the therapy, after consulting the experts. they have decided i am to high risk for the therapy. Which leads me back to the---

Infectuous Doctor:
The wound care doctor had the infectuous doctor stop in while i was getting my foot treated today. Result: The 2 doctors are in agreement about infection still being in my bone. He wants to put another picc line in next week and try IV antibiotics (daily) again.

Monday i am to go 60 miles west of here for cataract surgery. I have more hope for this eye because i don't have as much vitreous hemorrhaging in this eye. I am hoping for good weather to cross the mountains. Cross your fingers and toes that all goes well

[Ben]

I am crossing my fingers and toes!
I hope it all goes well for you Sattva!
with Metta,

Ben