Suffer A Blessing

It started some years back, the pain. There was something odd about it. It would begin at sunset and then build up until Aruna's feet felt like they were on fire. At some times it would be less bad and then on other days it would be awful and she would be writhing in pain all night.

She had been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes just about then, and all the doctors at first ascribed her pain to that. Bring the sugar under better control, they'd say... but nothing seemed to work. Then one doctor suggested that it might be something called fibromyalgia and another said it was probably myofascial pain, still another concluded that it was restless legs . There were no real meds for this, they said, but perhaps this one or that one had helped some people, so why not try? There were also a few 'friends' who 'felt led' to share some less charitable opinions with us about unrepentant sinners, God's judgement, and so on.

The pain went on for some years. It was chronic and it was debilitating, but Aruna managed somehow. Then, in September 2012 came the fall. one night while closing the gate, she slipped on a wet stone at our doorstep and went down hard. She had had falls before as her right leg was a bit weak from childhood polio, but nothing like this fall. When we picked her up her foot was out at right angles and the bone poking out. We called the ambulance and rushed off to the hospital where x-rays showed a complete break, and they had her in surgery the very same day.

As she came out of the anesthesia, Aruna had a hard time, nasty dreams, savage images and odd incidents from her past seemed to be repeating themselves live. Then her` recovery was slow, but the surgery had gone well and everyone was confident that she would heal up just fine. However, after 10 days, the healing was not happening and in fact there seemed to be areas of flesh that were breaking down, so another surgery took place where a big pad of tissue was placed over the non-healing zone and covered with a skin graft. The plate was replaced by a pin, and then we waited, and waited. The wound seemed to heal well, but her bones were not knitting up as expected.

Aruna slowly gave up on walking properly again. She could hobble around with a walker, but most of the time she stuck to her wheelchair. There was no further observable progress. And the pain in her feet was back, with a vengeance and was creeping up above her ankles. Now, even her hands had started to burn.

Let me tell you, there's nothing more horrible for a human to experience than chronic pain!

Now, the questions began in earnest. What had she done wrong? Why were all these bad things happening to her? Needless to say, some of the most 'helpful' friends were back with their painted smiles and zealous counsel... and inevitably, come on God! You've already taught us the pain lesson, do we really need this to top it off?

Right about then, Sumi and Kiron (Aruna's brother and our sister-in-law) and my sister Anita put their support behind a proposal to visit Vellore's famous Christian Medical College Hospital. Additional pressure was brought to bear on us by Sumi's parents, the Muthiahs, as Mrs. Muthiah had herself taken treatment there for a broken ankle, and Mr. Muthiah was one of CMC's consultants and knew that it is an excellent hospital.

It would be difficult and it would be beyond our means, but help was offered by all of these caring folks, and so we decided to give it a try. At least, one last consult wouldn't hurt, and perhaps CMC would find some way to help Aruna to walk a bit better and with less pain. A two day trip was planned, and our very good friends Paru and George Peter offered to come along. George's brother J.P. Peter is a special officer at CMC and he too offered his help, so off we went.

The consult with the orthopedist Dr. Korula Mani Jacob was right to the point, Aruna had a neuropathic joint and that would not heal. Why the neuropathy? That question was answered by Dr. Vivek Matthews, who did a thorough exam and said he suspected a much more serious cause and that we should come back for comprehensive testing that may take as much as one week as an in-patient. We booked the room and went back to Coimbatore to eventually return after a month. It was a very controversial decision with some folks saying we were wasting time and money and that nothing practical could come of it - but with some more encouragement, we decided to give it a try.

The one week stretched to two, she went to the operation theater twice and had consults with a host of different specialists. The ortho and physical medicine teams simultaneously worked out a solution for her walking. They came up with a footwear design, specially molded and designed for her that allowed pain free walking. In the meantime the neuro team concluded that it was clearly a case of CIDP, chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (and asymmetric to boot).

This was frightening to hear - an incurable autoimmune disorder! But there was a ray of hope. It had been caught early and before Aruna's muscles had lost their strength AND if treatment was started we could probably arrest its course and keep the CIDP from damaging any more nerves. And the biggest surprise of all was that the leg pain was not diabetic neuropathy and it was not fibromyalgia-myofascial pain, it was definitely the CIDP that was the culprit and eventually her leg pain too would abate as the immune system was readjusted by the treatment.

Wow! All of a sudden here was hope.

To put our 'struggles' into a little perspective, that was when we heard from our dear friends Gary and Susan Frede that Susan had decided to go into hospice care and to stop fighting the very terminal stage of ovarian cancer that she was in. What a witness they have been to God's love right through such suffering! I was specially privileged and amazed to hear her cheerful "Hi Sam!" one last time...

In hindsight we now know that with her CIDP there was no chance at all of her ankle healing, for without healthy nerves, bones won't heal! On further thought we realize that had it not been for that awful broken leg , the two operations and then the subsequent failure to heal, we would just have got on with things as we had been and largely ignoring the leg pain as 'just one of those things'. In hindsight we know that we had been unresponsive to her pain signals, so it took something extreme to get us moving in the right direction. The added suffering, far from being a curse, was actually a blessing. Finally, if we had ended up going to any hospital other than CMC Vellore for diagnosis and treatment, it would have been disastrous!

Now, because God had blessed us with that kick in the pants of some additional pain and suffering, we've been led to a new understanding, and if not a cure, at the very least we have some answers. The future has become one of hope, not one of despair.

The thought that we might just have gone blithely on, and Aruna's muscles would have slowly deteriorated and then wasted away and soon there would have been no hope, only a terribly bleak future... that thought shows us that suffering is the first step to wisdom, so suffer the blessing!

Our greatest blessing: Aruna and her famous smile!




People to especially thank, not only for what they did but even more for how happily and lovingly they support us:

Close friends and family: George Peter, Paru Peter, Sumi James, Kiron James, Anita Jeyaveeran, J.P. Peter, Usha and Leslie Bonney, Mr. and Mrs. Muthiah (Sumi's parents), Gary and Susan Frede, Sudhir and Sowdha James, John and Sheila Selwyn, and our own wonderful family doctor and close friend Dr. Ravi Thiagarajan.

Our home gang: Furkhan and Fareed (our house guests), and all our wonderful young people (Rom and Saran's friends - our adopted kids) Manu, Vasanth, Ijaz, and Farah, and with our good friends Sundari and Xavier and  Christy and Christopher Karunakaran, their lovely daughters Lydia and Sarah, who are both part of the previous gen of adoptees that also includes Karthik Babu and Senthil, all of whom spread their love all around us like a lovely warm blanket!

At CMC Vellore: Dr. Mathew Alexander,  Dr. Vivek Mathew, Dr. Korula Mani Jacob, Dr. Anil Kumar B. Patel, Dr. Ajith Sivadasan, Dr. Suresh Babu, Dr. Ajoy Oomen John, Mr. Sam Kirubakaran (PT), Dr. Sudha Jasmine, Mr. Joseph (Annexe), the nursing team, attenders, and cleaning staff at the A Ward. There are many more who need to be thanked who were never introduced to us, but we thank you all for being a part of our blessing.

Those who came all the way to visit us and to pray with us at CMC included Professor Sundaram, Prakash Percey, Jayaraj Alexander, Rajkumar Richard and then that cloud of faithful witnesses who supported us in prayer and love from a distance...

Sam's Broccoli Based Green Chutney (or dip, or spread)

broccoli

Ever since coming to India 30 years ago, I've been fascinated by the amazing variety in Tamil cuisine - particularly, the chutneys, pachadis, kootus, and thuvayals.

I have only recently become bold enough to experiment with various types of South Indian vegetable purees (chutneys), and the results have surprised me.

As a curious amateur cook, I have been somewhat afraid of trying my hand at any of these as the process seems mysterious, the ingredients myriad and exotic, and most frightening of all, there seems to be no connection between what one starts out with and the finally edifying but unrecognizable product.

Here then is the result of my most recent dabbling...
Broccoli in Tamil is called Pachai Pookose, so this then is Sam's Pachai Pookose Thuvaiyal:

brussels sprouts

THE INGREDIENTS:
Broccoli, a head (~100 g)
Brussels sprouts, 4-5
Onion, 1 medium sized
Coriander leaves, a handful (fresh)
Garlic, 4 cloves
Green chillies, 2-4
Curry leaves (fresh), a handful
Mustard seeds (black), 1/2 teaspoon
Caraway seeds, 1/2 teaspoon (or cumin)
Peppercorns, 6-8
Red chilli  powder, 1/2 teaspoon
Turmeric powder, 1 large pinch

black mustard

Asafoetida powder, 1 small pinch
Sesame seeds (white), 1 teaspoon
Lime, a squeeze (about 1/2 teaspoon)
Indian gooseberry preserved in honey, 2 segments (1 teaspoon)
Oil, 3-4 tablespoons (sesame or rice bran preferred)
Water, 1 cup
Salt to taste.

PREPARATION:
Take the broccoli and divide it up into small segments discarding any thick stems. Cut the brussels sprouts in half. Dice the coriander leaves. Put all these three into a small saucepan, add the 1 cup of water, and bring to a boil. Add a couple of pinches of salt. Once boiling, reduce the flame to a simmer and let cook for about 5 minutes.

caraway seeds

In the meantime, on a cutting board, roughly dice the onion, cut the green chillies in half (discarding the stems), and peel and lightly crush the garlic cloves. Place a large saucepan on the stove and heat the oil.

COOKING IT UP!

Once the oil is fairly hot, throw in the mustard seeds, peppercorns, and caraway seeds. Once the mustard seeds start popping, add the garlic, the green chillies, and the curry leaves, and stir on a medium heat for one minute. Then, toss in the onion and add the turmeric powder, red chilli powder, salt to taste, and asafoetida powder, and stir for another minute.

curry leaves

coriander leaves

Next, add the sesame seeds and again stir for about 30 seconds. By now, the broccoli should have cooked down fairly well but should not have gone dry. Pour the entire contents of the broccoli-brussels sprouts-coriander, with the remaining water, into the still cooking spice mixture. Stir the whole on a medium heat for no more than a minute. Remove from the stove and allow to cool.

green chillies

FINAL TOUCHES:
Once cooled, empty the entire contents into a mixer (blender). Add a small squeeze of lime/lemon juice, and last but not least, the honeyed Indian gooseberry, and frappé the lot. At this stage, after a bit of a mix, I like to sneak a lick or two and make any small adjustments that may be needed, like a dash more salt, or whatever.

This broccoli based chutney can be used as a dip or spread, e.g. its great with boiled broccoli... In Tamil Nadu we usually enjoy this sort of thuvaiyal as the main side dish for our idlis and dosas.

NOTE: Those who have tender tongues may want to reduce the number of green chillies and the amount of red chilli powder. Variations on the theme are usually not disastrous, so feel free to go ahead and experiment!




The final product should look something like this.


It's very rich, chock a block with vitamins and antioxidants, and also, unfortunately, a bit high in triglycerides (but absolutely no cholesterol). If you do have trouble with triglycerides, then reduce the amount of oil!




Acknowledgement: Aruna Carr, my mentor, coach, consultant, and primary guinea pig!