Kosish-Long/short term care/Retirement facility

09/08/2022

Sahara(support)...
I guess that all the people reading this post have already figured it out & have a plan in place for an effective & fail-safe 'support system' which would take care of your physical needs on a daily basis as you gradually start losing command over your physical body...well this process could drag on for as long as 2-5 years on an average before you finally kick the bucket...& that is a pretty long time!
And if you are relying on your children or relatives, I would sincerely urge you to think again(no offense meant)!
You would become lonely at some point for your spouse would have left for his/her heavenly abode.
So are you happy to die alone or would you rather prefer to die an expensive death hooked on to machines in a modern hospital?
Have a plan in place, for there still is time!
'Tum besahara ho toh, kisi ka sahara bano'(if you do not have any support, then you can become the support of someone)
www.kosishngo.org

09/08/2022

The wealthy man...
He had to be carried into our Hospice...advanced renal carcinoma with widespread vertebral & skull mets making every little movement of his body to be wracked in pain. And the pain was not just physical...
Clothed in a stained bedsheet & unable to control his urine, which was in a constant state of dribble, he had lost what little was left of his dignity...for now he was completely dependent of his wife & son for all his physical needs...
But during the nights, his late mother would come to him, in his 'visions' & holding his chin, would comfort him, & he would become a little child once again...fearless.
We advised his son to read out the 'kalma' for him.
And we releived his pain...& it was time for him to go back...& his son lovingly picked him up in his arms & carried him out...the son suddenly grew up to be the father & the father became the little child once more.
For not every father would be blessed enough to have this privilege...
Sheikh miya was thus one of the wealthiest men, for He had what money could not buy.

In me alone is everything born, in me does everything rest, and in me is everything dissolved. I am that Brahman, the secondless.
- Kaivalyoupanishad.

18/07/2022

05/07/2022

The Spiritual meal Programme

We have started a unique programme in rural India...perhaps the first of its kind in the world...to create simple, palatable meals for the dying that are culturally appropriate & acceptable to the dying palate...a meal which can restore a sense of meaning & happiness in the last days of life...to bring about healing.
So that suffering can be transcended.
She had spent her entire life in rural settings in Dhanbad district...her little world revolved around her small family & her grandson was the twinkle of her eye...& when the dragging pain in her right hypochondrium forced her to seek medical attention, the devastating diagnosis of malignancy of the gall bladder verily tore apart the coccon of comfort & security that she had so painstakingly woven...spending a month at TMH Mumbai, away from her comfort zone left her traumatized not only physically but also mentally & spiritually...for now she longed to go back...
She came to Kosish in pain...physical & spiritual...the family too was confused & in suffering...Integrative Medicine was practiced...allopathic & Siddha.
'Payesh' was cooked for her...Gobind bhog rice, cashew nuts, raisins cooked with sweetened milk over a slow fire...a dish that most of us 'old timers' can relate to...verily a dish that signified 'happiness' in a household.
And in spite of her anorexia, she instantly agreed to taste the 'payesh'...& she savored every spoonful that she was fed...& then we sent her back home with her little grandson walking by her side, holding her hands...the smile of satisfaction & happiness that played on her countenance as she walked out verily spoke out the basic principle of Palliative Care, " adding life to days & not just days to life".

27/06/2022

Communication...
It is not just verbal but primarily non-verbal.
For a good communication to occur, one also has to be mindful of social, cultural, physical & spiritual factors which interplay.
When I was a medical student, way back in the late eighties, our Professor of Medicine would admonish us if we sat on the patient's bed...almost 2 decades later, during my training in Palliative Medicine at Poland, Prof. Jaeck Luczack, my Guru, taught me that sitting on a patients bed, by his side, touching them, empathising with them & providing compassion, was the essence of good medical practice.
That was the day that I learnt the art of healing...

26/06/2022

With the monsoons around the corner, the inmates engaged in weeding...