when in Rome...

...do as the old men do.

I am now a redhead. Thanks to Ryan, Erin, Kanako, Michael, Fake Rita and henna, my hair is orange. It is kind of growing on me. (Don't worry Clemens, it only lasts a month!)

BEFORE

















AFTER

musings

It's interesting to think that had I stuck to my original plan, I would have left India last week, be back in France at Dechen Chöling and preparing to start the Dathun this weekend (a monthlong meditation retreat.)

I can't even imagine how I could have left last week, but it's strange because my new role (no longer Ryan's official caregiver, but a friend who is living in Delhi) is rather discombobulating. It is particularly confusing after being so directly involved for the first month of Ryan's treatment - I think I might feel differently if I was in Erin's situation (who has always lived outside the hospital.)

I'm elated that Kanako is here and she's doing an amazing job as Ryan's second-in-command, but it's hard not to feel somewhat removed from the situation when I live so far away and can't be there with Ryan all of the time. This is all compounded by the fact that I'm all of a sudden having a lot of freelance transcription work to do (which is a good thing because then I can afford to be here for an extra month), but I feel sort of out of the loop and on my own most of the time.

I don't mind being on my own (in fact, I rather like it) but then I start to feel confused about what I am doing here. What am I doing here? Supporting my best friend Ryan as she receives stem cell treatment. But it seems like such a huge challenge to truly do so when I live so far away, am often busy with work or going to the gym, and am wanting to give Kanako the space to support Ryan in the way I was able to for the first month.

It's a tough situation to be in. I miss "checking in" with Ryan every night before we went to sleep and being there for late night fun with the webcam and ice cream runs. But I had my turn, and now I have to figure out how to support Ryan in a different capacity.

With all of that said, I can't even imagine leaving now or last week - I'm so glad I've had the opportunity to stay for the second month of Ryan's treatment. I can't imagine being anywhere else while she's going through this.

I suppose it will just take some time to sort of reassess my role here, and until then I'll continue to bumble around, say the wrong things and feel slightly uncomfortable until I figure out where my new place is.

four people and one wheelchair in a rickshaw

as promised, photos of my apartment

my bedroom, with an air conditioner (!) and my beautiful new quilt I bought at Fabindia. (Don't tell Clemens or my mother, please.)

the living room, with a real TV and dvd player - I haven't used them yet, but I'm looking forward to the Olympics

the terrace, with lots of nice green plants like okra and eggplant

the bathroom, with one of the most interesting placements of an electrical socket I've ever seen - actually IN the shower. How can that be safe?


I don't think this map turned out at all, but it gives you some sort of idea where everything is in South Delhi. To give you an idea, it costs me around $1.25 to get to the Green Park Hospital from Visant Vihar. It costs Erin around $1.00. It costs us about $.75 every time we go to the Siri Fort Sports Complex to work out/swim. Not bad.

i miss my grams

It's very strange, but being in India makes me really miss my grandmother, who passed away in May of 2007. It's remarkable how many times she comes to mind while I'm here in Delhi.

Part of the reason is that they use a lot of mothballs in India, and so many places I visit smell an awful lot like my grandma's house, which of course brings her to mind.

I also think of my grandmother a lot here in India because of the prevalence of elephant iconography in Hinduism (and India in general.) My grandma collected all things elephant (but only with their trunks up!) and every time I see an elephant (which is like every hour or so) I think fondly of my grams. It's been over a year since she's been gone, and I still forget and think about buying her something beautiful with elephants on it whenever I see it here.

Another reason I think she comes up a lot is because I'm once again spending lots of time with my dear friend Ryan. Ryan and I have quite an understanding in terms of our relationships with our grandmothers as her grandma passed away just a a few months before mine did, and we both know how difficult it was for each other. For that reason, being with Ryan makes me often think about our grandmas and inevitably that makes me miss mine (and Mildred too!)

There are parts of India that would very much appall my grandmother, raised in the Midwest during the Great Depression. The poverty, the filth, the smell - I really can't imagine how she would react to those things (but probably not too favorably.)

But there are so many things here that I know she would have loved: the colors, the (good) smells, the beauty, the shopping and bargain hunting, and just the very fact that I love it so much.

One of the most notable things for me about being at the Taj Mahal this weekend is how much my grandmother would have liked it. Not necessarily for its seeming permanence or meaning, and particularly not for its Islamic Mughal origins (Grams was quite a Christian.) But I know she would have been in awe over the sheer majesty of it. It was just so large and visually compelling, and I really think she would have been enamored.

I talked to Ryan about this later and realized that this was probably my favorite quality of my grandmother's: the ability to be genuinely moved by so many different things. Ryan mentioned that she loves that about my family at Christmas - we all relish each and every present that we open, and spend the time genuinely thanking each other for our gifts. (I hope it's authentic relishment and gratitude!) She mentioned that my grandmother was always the best at this - every gift she opened was like the best and most amazing thing she had ever seen - and it was entirely authentic enthusiasm.

I joked that I could have given my grandmother a pile of dog poop and she still would have considered it to be the greatest thing she'd ever received. A letter in the mail could absolutely make her week. Shortly before she died, I sent her a pretty batiked scarf with elephants on it from Nepal and the thank you note I got back was genuinely grateful for such a perfect gift.

I have been known as the "woman of superlatives" - out of laziness and a passionate appreciation for a variety of things, I'm apt to call seemingly mundane things the "best thing I've ever seen" or the "funniest thing ever."

In some sense these superlatives are not entirely unwarranted - I am moved by many things, just as my grandmother was. But I aspire to be genuinely moved by the most pedestrian of items - the ability to be authentically present so that each and every moment - each and every wonder from Taj Mahal to the beautiful saree I see on the street - will move me like it moved my grams.

"a teardrop on the face of eternity" - Tagore

well. I've finally done it: seen the Taj Mahal.

Despite the drama that ensued during our trip to Agra (please see Ryan's blog, and know that it included Ryan's chair strapped to the roof during rain storms, more than a thousand cows hanging out in the middle of the street, forging rivers that used to be roads in a very small car which later would not start, climbing slippery marble stairs to get to our second floor room which hadn't been cleaned since the last gringo tourists slept there, and EATING AT INDIAN MCDONALDS!) we made it.

It was beautiful, and marbley, and pretty incredible. It also cost like $19 to get in and they made me throw away two packs of gum, my Fruit and Nut bar, and a peanut butter and guava jelly sandwich Ryan had made me. I've also never seen a greater accumulation of white people in one place (except, of course, in Western countries.)

But yes, it was worth it. It was serene and majestic.

And (as always) it was quite an adventure!

one month down, one to go

Kanako is here! Erin and I picked her up at the Delhi airport very early this morning and I happily passed over the reins as Ryan's official "caregiver."

Today I officially moved into my new apartment. Here are the pros and cons of my new pad.

Pros:

• I have the whole 3-bedroom apartment to myself, at least for the next three weeks
• air conditioning
• wireless internet
• I am paying much less than it is actually worth (see the first point)

Cons:

• location - it's a bit farther out than I had hoped for, tonight I had some difficulty getting a rickshaw that wanted to go that far (but I still only spent $2.00 to get there, and it took about half an hour)
• location
• location

I accidentally left my camera at the hospital today, so I'll post some pictures of it tomorrow. Instead, please enjoy this photo of two monkeys on leashes, one wearing a dress and the other about to bite me in the face.

she's training for the big fight...

And we're back at Green Park hospital with internet access. Phew.

I'm sure you'll read Ry's blog, but just to report she's doing fine, though disgruntled that she is unable to shower for another 24 hours - five minutes after we got back she was washing her hair in the sink.

Ryan's catheter coming out of her back today was pretty much the grossest thing I've seen in quite a while. I won't frighten you with the details, but let's just say it's going to be some time before I'm able to eat Angel Hair pasta again...

On a more pleasant note, here is another video that Erin made of clips from Ryan's physio. This video should be helpful for my little sister, who has agreed to take on the responsibility of being Ryan's primary physiotherapist when she gets back to Colorado (since her primary physiotherapist (Vendena) will be remaining in India and her secondary physiotherapist (me) will be returning to France). So, Emily, and everyone else, enjoy our new favorite Indian song and take notes...it's time for physio!

day one of the three day procedure

I'm back at the Green Park hospital for a bit so I could pick up some necessities that I forgot to bring (namely, toothbrush and toothpaste) and to report that everything is going quite well for Ryan in day one of the three day procedure.

She's not feeling any pain at all, and no headache, which is great. In this procedure, Dr. Ashish (the anesthesiologist) put a catheter in her cerebral spinal fluid (just outside her spinal cord) at L4, and then twice a day they inject a stem cell/saline mixture into this catheter.

The catheter then runs from her lower back up her spine (safely secured with tape, see photo) to a little clip thing that is taped to Ryan's shoulder. It's very interesting. Her first injection into this site occurred this morning when Dr. Ashish gave her the catheter and she was crouched on her side in the fetal position. Tonight, he just came into our room at the other hospital and injected the stem cells into the clip on her shoulder while she was lying on her back.

The worst part about this is that she has to lay flat and inverted for a few hours after each injection, I'm assuming to assure that the stem cells have lots of space to do their thing. Lying inverted for that long means that much of the blood rushes to her head, so they make her get up very carefully after each "rest" - lying on her side for a while, then sitting up, and finally getting into her chair.

Today she had to lay flat for something like five hours and they were also giving her an IV with an antibiotic, and we all thought she wasn't going to make it not being able to pee for so long, but she did. And once she got up, oh did she pee!

I have to either come back to the Green Park hospital or find a coffee shop with wireless every day for work, so I'll be sure to post another update with more photos tomorrow.

PS - all of those weird looking things on Ryan's back are just lines from her hospital gown - this was taken about a minute after she got up from lying on her back for five hours. It looks much less scary in person, I promise!

some physio video/pictures

some more standing... and even a few steps!

Ryan with her physiotherapist Vendana

standing pictures

Ryan has caliper pants!

Please tilt your head to the right, press play, and see Ryan standing!

some pictures from Erin's birthday at the Imperial hotel

super fancy

yesterday we saw an elephant on the road

phew. today was exhausting, and I barely left the hospital.

Ryan had her second procedure today, but thankfully it was a somewhat minor one and we got to stay here at the Green Park clinic rather than going to the Guatam Nagar hospital. She also only had to lie down for one hour after it, rather than six like last week. This made my life much easier, as I was fortunate enough to spend the day as the "official caregiver" of both of my good buddies.

Erin called early this morning to tell me that she was feeling absolutely awful - chills, a fever, dizziness upon standing - the works. She's been complaining of a pretty bad headache for the last few days as well, and all of these symptoms in combination with the fact that she's stopped taking her anti-malaria pill because of the side effects - we were worried.

I managed to find her apartment in Defence Colony, get the taxi driver to wait out front and get her upstairs to bring her here to the hospital. In the clinic, the doctors took some blood and Dr. Shroff insisted that she have her own room, right across the hall from Ryan and I's.

Erin got an IV, antibiotics, the whole shebang, and a few hours ago we found out the malaria test was negative. So apparently she has some crazy viral infection. But don't worry, she's feeling much better now - the medicine has reduced her fever, her head and body ache is gone, and she feels somewhat lucid now. They are even discharging her this evening, but she has to come back for antibiotic injections every morning and night for the next three days.

Edit: I forgot to finish this post last night, so I'm going to do it now. Erin ended up spending the night last night because Dr. Honor said he would take care of her, which made her feel better. She woke up feeling kind of icky, but is about to get her injection and take her medication and then that should make her feel better.

craziness!

Pictures from the Delhi Mango Festival last week

not your average massage - this is LONG

The other night, I was fortunate enough to experience a true unique lifetime experience: an Ayurvedic massage.

Ayurveda, which means the science of life, is an amazing ancient system of health and wellbeing that originates from India. I've been interested in Ayurveda for a few years, ever since I first learned about it from Deepak Chopra, an Indian Ayurvedic doctor who writes and speaks about health and spirituality in the States (http://www.chopra.com/)

Ayurveda is based on the principle of balance, both internal and external. You can learn more about it here: http://www.whatsyourdosha.com/ and even take a test to see what your dosha is, or your basic constitution or mind and body type, and based on that, you can figure out what diet is best for you, what oils and herbs are most helpful, etc.

Anyway, the point is that I've been interested in this for a while, and the experience at the Ayurvedic doctor was really quite fascinating.

So, here I will outline my experience with an Ayurvedic massage:

I arrived at the clinic and was escorted into a small room with a bed that looked a bit like a sleigh (see the photo) and a small bathroom attached. The two lovely Indian women who were going to give me my "synchronized massage" handed me a robe and what one called "disposable panties" and showed me into the bathroom to change.

Once I changed (I think I was wearing the disposable underwear backwards, whoops) I came back out and one of the women asked me to sit down next to the bed. She then realized that my hair was wet (I had showered before I came) and apparently that was not conducive to an Ayurvedic head massage, so she spent the next few minutes with a hand towel trying to dry my hair, which ended up giving me a distinctive Afro-frizz hairstyle.

Once my hair was sufficiently dry, she poured a bunch of medicated oil onto my scalp and proceeded to give me a very nice scalp massage. The whole point of all of the medicated oil is to get it to enter your skin so it can actually benefit you, so she was really going at it to get the oil to go into my scalp. She then began to whack me all over my head, which at first was a bit disconcerting (but never painful) but then became somewhat pleasurable. I thought she was actually using some sort of instrument (an Ayurvedic head whacking stick, perhaps) but it turns out it was just a very skillful hand clasping that was thwacking my skull. Apparently all of that thwacking helps the oil enter the scalp!

After this part, I was escorted to the sleigh-bed and asked to lie on top of it. I'm not sure you can really grasp the essence of this bed from the photo - it was basically like a typical massage table, but with a very ornate edge to it. I learned fairly quickly that this was to keep all of the medicated oil on the bed and it turned out that the edges helped me (all oiled up) to slide around on the massage table without falling off of the bed.

I was lying there in this sleigh with nothing on but my lovely disposable underwear (backwards). This was the first distinct difference between a Western massage and an Ayurvedic one: there was no discreet sheet or blanket to cover me up - I was lying there on that table in all of my glory. (okay, the head thwacking was probably the FIRST major difference)

At this point, the two women decided to pour medicated oil all over my body - and I mean EVERYWHERE. In my navel, between my toes, on my neck - everywhere. It was great. And this is where the real fun began.

The two women, bless them, then began to exert a full workout on my body. I'm not kidding - they were sweating. And the synchronized part of it was remarkable. They had like a routine memorized. Everything that one of them was doing to one of my legs the other one was doing simultaneously to the other. It was a pretty amazing feeling.

Here is another important difference between Western and Ayurvedic massages: whereas in the West, the point of the massage is to work on your muscle knots and help you relax, as I mentioned before, the primary purpose of these women's work on me was only to get the medicated oil into my skin.

With that said, I was sliding and flopping all over the table while they swooshed all up and down my body. All of my body. I won't go into details, but let's just say there is very little left untouched in an Ayurvedic massage. (But don't worry, it was entirely professional!)

There was one point where I was on my stomach and the women motioned to a part of the top of the bed that was actually designed for me to hold on - I would have slid all over the place otherwise. It was great.

After the women were certain my body had been stuffed with medicated oil, I was able to get up off of the bed (with lots of help because I was totally slimy) and go for my steam. Taking a steam was a bit different than stepping into the 6-person steam room like I do every week after swimming in France. This was a solitary steam box, and since in Ayurveda you are not supposed to expose your head to extreme temperatures, my head stuck out of the box. (If you look at the picture, the steam box is on the back right - with the doors open.) I was still really slimy and oily, and all of the steam made it even worse. It felt great!

After 15 minutes in the steam box where my disembodied head got to watch the women hose down the sleigh-bed, they got me out of the box and one of the women took me into the bathroom. I showered, dressed, and came out to find a glass of hot water with Ayurvedic herbs for me to drink, and then one woman took some red Ayurvedic powder and put it on my head, behind my ears, and made me snort it into each nostril. Then they sent me on my way.

I left the clinic feeling refreshed, energetic, still very oily, a bit confused and elated with my experience. It was so crazy! I came back to tell Ryan and Erin about it, and unfortunately they did not share my enthusiasm (I told them I'd buy them each a session for their birthdays, but they weren't too into it. Ryan has since said she might be interested in the head massage.)

Perhaps I'm a glutton for interesting cultural experiences? That was just too new and weird and exciting. Oh, and for the hour massage and 15-minute steam, it cost me 1000 Rupees, about $25 US. What a steal!

I'm going back next week.

"we can help"

It's been an eventful morning here at the hospital and my brain sort of feels like it's swimming with thoughts and emotions.

Dr. Shroff and Dr. Ashish (the anesthesiologist who does the more complicated spinal cord procedures) came down to Ryan's physio this morning and Dr. Shroff was talking with Ryan about her frustration with not being able to decipher which of her leg movements are real/new/notable and which aren't. Dr. Shroff is so straightforward and direct, and she said something like, " you really want it, but you're afraid, so you're not letting yourself believe it. You have to get over that fear and stop being so cynical. Things are happening. "

It's probably true on so many levels. Ryan is so good at anticipating disappointment that she is able to redirect her emotions to not expect anything. This is great in that she's excellent at protecting herself from disappointment and hurt, but it would probably be really good for her to be vulnerable and open, particularly for this experience. I suppose after a certain amount of time, vulnerability is pretty freaking scary, and being skeptical and protecting yourself is probably the safest way to live - I say that from personal experience! (but I promise, I'm working on being open-hearted and opening up to my vulnerability and the idea that I can't control everything in my world. I'll try to teach Ry how to do that as well!)

So that was interesting. Dr. Shroff even taped some of Ryan's leg movements coming from her crazy hips, and showed her on the video camera that SOMETHING is happening that wasn't before. I think she knows this - her feet look better, her skin looks much healthier, her hips are moving all over the place - but it's just so difficult to really lean into it.

After physio, we went to a meeting with the doctors and all of the patients. There are two patients here that are back for their second visit - a spinal cord injury and a Lyme disease patient - and another incomplete spinal cord injury that has been here for three months and is about to go home, and the rest of us have all arrived within the last couple of weeks. So this meeting was mostly for us, to be able to talk to the doctors and ask questions about the treatment and the process in general.

Lots of crazy ideas and bits of information are now floating through my head, bumping into the many varied emotions I feel about these things. Some of the tidbits are as follows:

• one patient said that stem cells, in five years, will be used as widely as penicillin
  
• there's a potential in the future for stem cells to treat pretty much any ailment - physical (muscular), neurological, developmental, psychiatric, etc... Dr. Shroff and Dr. Ashish have sucessfully treated patients with everything from Alzheimer's to Asperger's - from spinal cord injuries to cerebral palsy. Of the patients here right now, there are a few spinal cord injuries, two people suffering from Lyme disease, one with a rare muscular disorder that has led him to lose most of his muscle mass in his limbs, a man with Alzheimer's (from Bahrain!), someone with diabetic retinopathy (I didn't know what that was, but thank god for wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diabetic_retinopathy) and a man with ALS.
• stem cells have cosmetic benefits - one of the spinal cord patients has had his gray hair turn dark again, and perhaps in the future it will be used for cosmetic procedures as well - like the next botox?
• human embryonic stem cells are legal in India only for ailments that are incurable and terminal. That means I can't get stem cells to go to my brain to cure my neuroses, unfortunately :(
• stem cells have homing devices to go directly to the places that are needed - and nobody knows how
• it was really apparent to me how early the research of all of this is - Ryan really is involved in the infancy of such a huge and amazing thing. I of course knew that before we came, but hearing the doctors talk about the possible future of human embryonic stem cells is just remarkable.
• Dr. Shroff is the only doctor in India working with human embryonic stem cells. There are other doctors working with other types of stem cells, but she's the only one working with human embryonic ones.
  
• this is huge!
  

So, there are a just a small assortment of what's going through my head right now, along with the subsequent emotions and feelings of being totally overwhelmed with information and ideas.

But don't worry, not all of the emotions I'm feeling are necessarily scary and undesirable. Some of the emotions are also inspiration and pride and awe and appreciation. So it's all good.

more later... just my immediate thoughts as we wait for lunch.

don't get the masala lassi

This afternoon we went to evergreen sweet house so that Ryan could calm her spazzy stomach with a sweet lime soda. The last time we went there, I tried getting the jalebi, pictured here, which I have figured out is basically like fried sugar. It was yummy, but Ryan refused to eat any of it, so I ended up eating 100 grams of fried sugar and feeling sick to my stomach for the rest of the afternoon (and it was only 12.5 rupees, like 30 cents!)

I also tried a sweet lime soda last time, and determined that it tasted like an alcoholic drink, so this time, I decided to try something different. I've been familiar with a yogurt lassi, which is a drink made with yogurt and ice water and flavoring. The ones I have had in the states have been flavored with mango, and are super sweet and yummy. I've had one lassi here in India so far, a sweet one, which just tasted like yogurt and sugar. It was pretty good.

Today on the menu, I saw a few different flavors, but only one that I recognized: masala. Masala means spices, or spiced, in Hindi, and as I've mentioned previously, what we westerners know as 'chai' is what Indians refer to as 'garam masala.' So, I figured that a masala lassi was something like a chai lassi, sugary spiced yogurtness.

Boy, was I wrong. Masala really does only mean spices, and some of the food is called masala as well. What I got was basically a very sour yogurt drink with some Indian curry spices mixed in. It was quite possibly the foulest thing I've ever tasted, and I felt horrible for taking one sip and then nearly retching and leaving the rest for them to throw away. I couldn't even take it with me to give to a begging child because the yogurt was getting all soggy and soaking the plastic cup.

I also picked a random item from the list of desserts and ordered that. What I ordered was rasgullah (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rasgulla, if you're interested) which was like a disgusting empty dumpling soaked in sugary rose flavored syrup. The texture was horrific.

I should have gotten gelatto like Ryan and Erin. That's what I get for being experimental.

watch erin's movie!

erin made this.

where's the party tonight? on the dance floor...

today we spent the day at the gautam nagar hospital, dr. shroff's other medical facility nearby, where she mostly treats indian patients and her fertility patients.

there was this beautiful little baby in the lobby when we arrived this morning, she was the most adorable thing i'd ever seen. she was probably about 3 months old, super tiny, and she was dressed up like a little woman - she had a bracelet on and, like a hairdo (i think that was natural). i was really tempted to steal her for ryan. she needs an indian baby.

the procedure today was injecting a larger quantity of stem cells directly into her spinal cord. because the spine is a pretty important and complicated organ of the body, this is the most risky place to inject the stem cells (but also, obviously, the best.) for this reason, the procedure had to be done in an official operating room (the "operating theatre" as the signs said) with doctors and nurses and scrubs and the whole deal.

after the procedure, which took about half an hour, ryan returned to the room and had to lay (lie? i'm losing my english!) inverted (with bricks under the foot-end of the bed) for 6 hours straight. which sucks. i was lucky enough to go to the gym for a few hours, but poor erin had to sit there, and even poorer ryan had to lay there, upside down, for 6 crazy hours. without a pillow under her head. yuck.

and the crazier thing is that this was the shortest procedure of them all. there is also a 24-hour procedure and a 3 day one. good lord. looking forward to those....

some random musings.

- did you know that there is McDelivery (McDonald's delivery) in India? But still no hamburgers made out of beef...
- postal stamps in India are not self-adhesive. You have to use glue to put them on letters.
- Ryan's right knee is really resistant to my own brand of physiotherapy, and it kills me. The left one is doing fantastically.
- "chai" in Hindi (or maybe in India in general) means "tea." If you ask for chai, they will show you the tea menu. The spiced tea that we all know as chai is actually called Masala Garam. Consider yourself forewarned.
- it is smart to speak to a stranger about your crazy situation every once in a while because you can learn some interesting things and synthesize and process your emotions. It is particularly curious when that stranger is a journalist from the Toronto Star.
- Books in India are super cheap. I didn't realize that books were going to be my biggest weakness down here (but I probably should have!)
- according to Ayurveda, you should turn the temperature of the water down before you turn the faucet on your head or your feet in the shower. This is why the "steam room" is actually a box you sit in with your head and feet outside. It is NOT simply comical. There is a good reason.
- there is no traffic in the world like traffic in Delhi. Cars, bikes, rickshaws, and motorcycles are going in every direction, and horns are blaring incessantly. There is often no room to walk in between the cars to cross the street, particularly for Ryan whose wheelchair is a bit wider than the average person. Please see attached video and photos.
- BBQ sauce in India (at least at Nutech Mediworld) is actually pretty good.
- Somehow, Ryan, Erin and I are able to piss away entire days doing very little.

how much of this is mental?

When we first met Dr. Ashish, the doctor second in command to Dr. Shroff, he said something to us about how something like 20% of these stem cells working is all mental. He talked about how a big part of this would be yoga, and meditation, and really willing the stem cells to work.

Dr. Shroff even suggested we paint Ryan's toenails blue or orange, because the stem cells like that. We're still on a mission to find toe nail polish in Delhi - I'll paint mine too, just in case it helps.

Part of the mystery of these stem cells, and why Ryan is getting injections into all parts of her body (not just her spinal cord, which is a much more intense procedure that she'll have done for the first time sometime this week) is that they are able to move through her body and go directly to the places that they are needed most. For Ryan, this is her spinal cord, where her injury was, and parts of her legs, where she has various scars and skin grafts. Possibly her brain, too. Just kidding.

With that said, I'm not sure how much of the success of this experience will actually be scientifically based. They don't even really know how it works! But it's obvious that the most important thing that Ryan needs to receive some benefit from the stem cells is a positive outlook and some strong determination. All of that certainly can't hurt from the rest of us, either!

Last night, I decided that the stem cells needed some welcoming into Ryan's body. She's had six shots now, so she has a few thousand stem cells swimming through her bloodstream and lymph system as we speak. We put some temporary tattoos on her legs and feet that were encouraging for the stem cells. I think that the stem cells will like this contribution just as much as blue or orange toe nails - at least until we find some nail polish in the markets!

today's the day.

Ryan got her first dose of stem cells today (thousands of them, the sisters said) in her hand and i got really emotional. I'm not entirely sure why - it was just like all of this - years of wondering if stem cell research could be useful for injuries like hers, months of supporting Ryan in making her decision to pursue this treatment, subsequent months of anticipating this trip and freaking out about it, a week of hanging around Delhi and pretending to be on vacation - all of it came down to this first injection.

Here we go.....

Let's Get Physical....

This morning I went for the second time to the new gym that I belong to. This might be the most interesting cultural experience I'm going to have here - I'm the only gringa there and I have to be in constant, direct contact with the locals.

Working out in this humidity, as my new friend Agita said, is like getting double the impact with half the effort. I've only been doing it for two days, so I've yet to reap those sweaty benefits, but I'll certainly keep you posted.

Back in the States, my workouts were somewhat sporadic, but the general idea was always the same: I would stretch for a bit, then spend 45-60 minutes doing cardio - generally on the elliptical machine, and then lift just a few weights, stretch out, and be done. I was under the impression that, cardio-wise, it didn't matter how fast or hard I was going as I kept my heart rate up, continuously, for that long period of time.

Here in Delhi, that's not really an option. There are generally about 50 people in the gym, and everyone is waiting for machines. Therefore, you are not allowed to be on one machine for longer than 15 minutes.

So instead of that long endurance workout I used to have, I get to have three brief 15 minute workouts (complete with warmup and cooldown) in a row. I do this on the recumbent or upright bicycle, the elliptical, and the treadmill. Who knows if that is actually helpful or productive on any level whatsoever, but at least it feels good.

It's interesting because I think I'm becoming a bit notorious around the gym, particularly among the older women who work with the female trainer, Angela. The attendant that takes your membership card introduced me to Angela yesterday and she sort of showed me how things work around there (in the very typical Indian way, I'm coming to discover - which means I still have no clue what's going on).

Apparently she's talking about me with all of her clients, because I had a few older women come over to me today while I was working and say, "hello, Sarah. How is your workout?"

In fact, one of them told me that she used to be a bursar for Delta, and she could tell that I lived in France because of my accent. I responded to that BS politely (I don't even speak French!,) but inwardly was both confused and elated.

I am having quite a dilemma about the gym, however; it has to do with my clothing. In the past, because I hate sweating and being reminded that I'm sweating, I've chosen to wear as little clothing as possible while I'm working out - generally a tank top, a sports bra, and athletic shorts.

I read before coming to India how disrespectful it is for foreign women to wear tank tops, and I'm proud to say I still haven't done it. But I can't do this working out in a t-shirt thing for much longer. It just hangs on me and the sweat drips off and I look like I got pushed in the pool.

I've seen only a few women wearing tank tops at the gym, and all of them have been wearing pants. That's the other issue - most women working out there are wearing long pants - not the short athletic shorts I have on.

I hate bearing so much skin, particularly because it feels really culturally insensitive. But it's so freaking hot! So we will see...

Today we met with the doctors and it was fairly overwhelming but exciting. I'll write more about that later.

And jeez, write me some comments already!

love sarah

i was never this good in Amsterdam

Things I Have Seen as Cargo on the Backs of Bikes:

• rugs
• stacks of beautiful Indian Saree fabrics (covered in canvas to protect them)
• three propane tanks (one on top, two on either side)
• people riding side-saddle
• concrete blocks
• wooden panels

This list will be updated regularly.

Hi from Delhi!

Here is a video we made to prove to you all that we're still alive.

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We're down to the final two... vote for India's Next Top Model!

Please disregard the blue men's pants and the white bra... our airbrushing machine is currently being repaired.

physiotherapy pictures