Guest guest Posted November 7, 2008 Report Share Posted November 7, 2008 ---------- Forwarded message ----------Pooja Chodankar <poojaq8Fri, Nov 7, 2008 at 11:53 AM Miraclepoojaq8 I remember it was almost Christmas because carols softly played on the radio in the nurses' station. I walked into Jimmy's room. A small seven-year-old, he seemed dwarfed by the big, indifferent, mechanical hospital bed with its starchy white sheets. He looked up at me through suspicious eyes, hidden in a face puffed up from the use of steroids to control his kidney condition. "What are you gonna do to me now?" they seemed to ask. "What blood tests are you gonna order? Don't you know they hurt, Doc?" Jimmy had a disease called nephrotic syndrome, and it was not responding to any therapy we had tried. This was his sixth month with the illness, his second week in the hospital. I was feeling guilty -- I had failed him. As I smiled at him, my heart felt even heavier. The shadow of defeat had dulled his eyes."Oh no," I thought, "he's given up." When a patient gives up, your chances of helping that patient lower dramatically."Jimmy, I want to try something."He burrowed into the sheets. "It gonna hurt?" "No, we'll use the intravenous line that's already in your arm. No new needles." What I planned I had tried a few weeks earlier without success. I gave him intravenous Lasix, a drug that is supposed to "open up" the kidneys. This time I planned a new twist, which the nephrologist said probably would not work but was worth a try. A half hour before I injected the Lasix I would inject albumin, a simple protein that would draw water from the bloated cells into the bloodstream. Then, when I gave the Lasix, the water flooding the bloodstream might flow into and open up the kidneys. The problem was, if it didn't, the "flooded" blood vessels could give Jimmy lung congestion until his body readjusted. I had discussed this with his parents. Desperate, they agreed to try. So I gave albumin into his intravenous line. A half hour later I came back to give the Lasix. He was breathing harder and looked scared. I had an idea. I never believed in divine intervention, but Jimmy came from a very religious family. "You pray a lot?" I asked."Yes, "he answered. "I pray every night. But I guess God don't hear me.""He hears you," I replied, not knowing in all honesty if God did or didn't, but Jimmy needed reassurance. And belief. "Try praying as I give this medicine to you. Oh, and I want you to pretend you see your kidneys -- remember all those pictures of them I showed you awhile back?" "Yes.""Well, I want you to picture them spilling all the extra water in your body into your bladder. You remember the picture of your bladder I showed you?" I figured I might as well try visualization. This was in the early 1970s. Some articles had been written about visualization and some evidence existed that it worked -- in some cases, anyway. "Yeah.""Good. Start now. Concentrate on your kidneys." I placed my hands there and shut my eyes, concentrating -- just to show him how, you understand. Then injected the Lasix. Jimmy closed his eyes and concentrated, and mouthed a prayer.What the heck. I also prayed, even though I knew it wouldn't work. I did not believe in divine intervention. When I died I would have a few choice questions for God about why he allowed certain terrible things to happen to certain children. One of my friends suggested that when I did die, God would probably send me the other way just to avoid me. But in for a penny, in for a pound. "How long will it take to work?" the nurse asked as she adjusted the dripping intravenous line. I motioned for her to step from the room."In a person with normal kidneys, maybe twenty minutes -- fifteen minutes tops," I replied. "With Jimmy, I'm hoping a half hour. But I have to tell you, it's a real long shot. Stay with him. If he has trouble and needs oxygen, call me. I'll be at the nurses' station writing all this down." I sat down and opened Jimmy's cold, metal-jacketed chart, almost cursing the irony of the Christmas carol on the radio: "Oh Holy Night." Before I had scribbled one sentence, the nurse stuck out her head from Jimmy's room. "A half hour to work?" she asked. "For normal kidneys.""Otherwise fifteen minutes 'tops,' right, Doc?""That's what I said.""Well, the floodgates have opened: He's urinating like crazy. Within just two minutes he asked for the urinal. I've got to go get another." Two minutes? Impossible. I went to the room as fast as my cane would allow me to walk. Jimmy had already filled the plastic yellow urinal. The nurse rushed in with another two. He grabbed one and started filling that one, too. He grinned at me, the light back in his blue eyes. I left the room, a numbness coursing through my mind and body. It couldn't be. If he diuresed -- if his kidneys opened up -- he was on the way to a cure. No, it just could not happen that fast. Impossible. Medically impossible. And yet... Was it sheer pharmacology and physiology breaking the rules? Was it the visualization?I could clearly hear a fragment of a carol on the radio. I felt goosebumps: "Fall on your knees, oh hear the angel voices..." A paraphrase of the last line from Miracle on 34th Street came to me: "And then again, maybe I didn't do such a wonderful thing, after all." -- Dr. Pooja Chodankar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 30, 2009 Report Share Posted December 30, 2009 Udupi: Ayyappa’s Canine Devotee – Miracle or Coincidence? Pics: Inchara DigitalsDaijiworld Media Network – Udupi (RD/SB) Udupi, Dec 20: The innumerable devotees of Swami Ayappa from all over the country are flocking to his abode at Sabarimale in Kerala chanting, Swami Sharanam Ayyappa engaging buses, tempos and such private transport to travel to the destination. These apart, there are few other devotees who walk a long journey as an extreme penance to appease their revered Swami Ayyappa. Chandrahas Shetty, a native of Innanje near Shankarapura here and residing in the western suburb of Mumbai began his holy pilgrimage to Sabarimale on November 23 traversing the distance walking along with other 23 devotees from Andheri, Mumbai, who were at Shankarapura here on Friday December 18. Uniqueness of his pilgrimage is that a black coloured dog has been accompanying the group on his journey. The dog joined the group at Khandala Ghat and since then has shunned non-vegetarian food as if following all the rituals of a true Ayyappa devotee. However, one needs to wait and watch as to dog will reach destination Sabarimale. The dog following pilgrims to Swami Ayyappa on their pilgrimage to Sabarimale has created much interest among the people en-route their journey. The locals of Katpady offered the entourage a grand welcome when they arrived at their locality. The devotion of a dog to Swami Ayyappa seems to be a miracle in the modern era. Miracle or Coincidence? Speaking to Daijiworld correspondent, Chandrahas said that it is nothing short of a miracle. Further it is a strange coincident that in a similar fashion another dog had followed Chandrahas in his earlier entourage to Sabarimale about seven years ago. The dog is now at his ancestral house in Innanje. This dog was allowed only till the precinct of hill shrine. The dog’s devotion was also tested by keeping the meat in front of it, which it refused to eat,†he recalls. Chandrahas has been a staunch devotee of Swami Ayyappa and has undertaken Sabarimale pilgrimage thrice so far. This is the fourth pilgrimage that he has embarked on. Chandrahas and other devotees in his group walk daily about 35 to 40 kilometres in order to cover 1,700 kilometres to Sabarimale from Mumbai in about 40 days. Rousing Welcome in Kerala Chandrahas and his group are cared by the locals, once the group cross Karnataka boundary to Kerala. The fellow devotees wait for Chandrahas led group of pilgrims on either side of national highway and offer prayers and prostrate before them. The INTERNET now has a personality. YOURS! See your Homepage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 30, 2009 Report Share Posted December 30, 2009 REVERED AYYAPPA,THERE IS NO LIMIT TO LORD AYYAPPAS MIRACLES, SOME REAQLISE THIS AND SOME NOT. WE ARE ALL BELLLSED TO BE PART OF THIS WONDERFUL YOURNEY,THE JOURNEY TO BEING ONE WITH LORD AYYAPPA. I HAVE JUST STARTED FROM CARACAS VENEZUELA TODAY TO REACH SBARIMAI ON IST NIGHT ,EARLY MORNING OF 2ND. WISWH I COULD ALSO PROSTRATE THE AYYAPPAS FROM ANDHERI. MOB. O9868282376. SWAMIYE SHARANAM AYYAPPA.2009/12/30 K. Mahendra Menon <k_mahendra_menon Udupi: Ayyappa’s Canine Devotee – Miracle or Coincidence? Pics: Inchara DigitalsDaijiworld Media Network – Udupi (RD/SB) Udupi, Dec 20: The innumerable devotees of Swami Ayappa from all over the country are flocking to his abode at Sabarimale in Kerala chanting, Swami Sharanam Ayyappa engaging buses, tempos and such private transport to travel to the destination. These apart, there are few other devotees who walk a long journey as an extreme penance to appease their revered Swami Ayyappa. Chandrahas Shetty, a native of Innanje near Shankarapura here and residing in the western suburb of Mumbai began his holy pilgrimage to Sabarimale on November 23 traversing the distance walking along with other 23 devotees from Andheri, Mumbai, who were at Shankarapura here on Friday December 18. Uniqueness of his pilgrimage is that a black coloured dog has been accompanying the group on his journey. The dog joined the group at Khandala Ghat and since then has shunned non-vegetarian food as if following all the rituals of a true Ayyappa devotee. However, one needs to wait and watch as to dog will reach destination Sabarimale. The dog following pilgrims to Swami Ayyappa on their pilgrimage to Sabarimale has created much interest among the people en-route their journey. The locals of Katpady offered the entourage a grand welcome when they arrived at their locality. The devotion of a dog to Swami Ayyappa seems to be a miracle in the modern era. Miracle or Coincidence? Speaking to Daijiworld correspondent, Chandrahas said that it is nothing short of a miracle. Further it is a strange coincident that in a similar fashion another dog had followed Chandrahas in his earlier entourage to Sabarimale about seven years ago. The dog is now at his ancestral house in Innanje. This dog was allowed only till the precinct of hill shrine. The dog’s devotion was also tested by keeping the meat in front of it, which it refused to eat,” he recalls. Chandrahas has been a staunch devotee of Swami Ayyappa and has undertaken Sabarimale pilgrimage thrice so far. This is the fourth pilgrimage that he has embarked on. Chandrahas and other devotees in his group walk daily about 35 to 40 kilometres in order to cover 1,700 kilometres to Sabarimale from Mumbai in about 40 days. Rousing Welcome in Kerala Chandrahas and his group are cared by the locals, once the group cross Karnataka boundary to Kerala. The fellow devotees wait for Chandrahas led group of pilgrims on either side of national highway and offer prayers and prostrate before them. The INTERNET now has a personality. YOURS! See your Homepage. -- P G Sudhakaran Technical & Operations Manager; Petrolera IndoVenezolana EL Tigre, Venezuela.00 58 416 6849713 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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