The Chiropractor, the Tibetan Monk and the New Age Doctor

Obviously, I was in desperate need of a good chiropractor but knew instinctively the normal type manipulations this kind of doctor does wouldn’t be used; exactly what would be used, I had no idea at the time. And again Adel’s contacts proved to be invaluable; one of his colleagues in New Jersey had a similar multiple disc problem a year or so ago and said this lady chiropractor had saved his life.

Only problem was, this chiropractor was located in Chatham, New Jersey, a fair distance from Cairo, Egypt. The thought of having to fly that distance with a constantly painful back was daunting but something had to be done. Before Adel had time to react, the general manager of Lufthansa sent over two first class, round trip tickets to Adel’s office for me and refused reimbursement. Two seats, so that I could lay down during the flight -- the man was a saint!

Just after we put Places in Egypt to bed, I flew to New Jersey through New York where I was met by Adel’s colleague and his family. The wife had booked me into an adorable B&B just two blocks from the doctor’s office, and they took me to dinner that evening. All I really wanted to do was lie down but I couldn’t refuse after all they had done for me. But, I did get a decent night’s sleep and was in the doctor’s office the next morning.

After examination and more Xrays and MRIs or whatever they used back in 1988, Caroline, the doctor, determined for sure one of the three slipped discs was ruptured and she further diagnosed me with Sacroiliac Joint Dysfunction. SJD is basically when your pelvis kind of tilts and twists its way out of position and this can cause other things (bones, joints) to go out of whack.

Caroline then told me about SOT or Sacro Occipital Treatments which, in very lay terms, is using spinal blocks and the gentle manipulation of the tissues in and around the damaged area with only the fingertips. Now people, I may have gotten some of this medical stuff misrepresented, so sue me. The fact of the matter is, the woman got me back on my feet with twice daily intensive treatments over 10 days.

Within two weeks, I was back at my desk, even though I was advised I’d need continued treatment. But I couldn’t just stay there until it all healed as this would take months; besides, Chatham, New Jersey can be quite expensive!

Adel had everyone he knew searching Egypt for a doctor who could perform something akin to chiropractic, but thus far, to no avail. So I was using ice to keep inflammation down and trying to be very careful with my movements.

Caroline told me walking was very good for me, so I again started walking back and forth to work and made an attempt at taking frequent breaks throughout the day to stretch. I say made an attempt because I was always one to become so absorbed in my work, everything else was a blue and would soon be forgotten.

Then along came the Tibetan monk. Yep, a real Tibetan monk who was away from his monastery for a period of six months. His mission was to move about into Third World Countries such as Egypt and help where he could. I don’t remember his name so let’s just call him Monk. He was an acupuncture specialist but not in the traditional sense that I had come to understand. He used extremely long needles, but he also put something on the ends that were not in your body and lit it. I could feel slight heat going into my body but nothing uncomfortable.

I’ve googled high and low and cannot offer you a name for this, or a site that might lead to better understand what this combination of using ‘lit‘ needles is all about but I will tell you it is not fire cupping. Perhaps it was something Monk invented, I really don’t know because his English was broken to say the least and we often had a difficult time understanding each other.

He gave me daily treatments for three weeks, but after that, he was moving on to another country. I will attest that his treatments helped me considerably for, after this time was over, I didn’t have nearly as much pain when sitting or standing.

By this time, an American journalist friend of mine, Muriel, told me about someone she was seeing; a Bosnian Internist who had converted to holistic medicine. This doctor's name was Sharia and at my first appointment, she asked me a lot of questions, put me into one of those open-backed hospital gowns and told me to lie down and close my eyes. We continued talking, but since it was taking some time and I was curious, I peeked from beneath slit lids… and saw that she was waving a talisman over my body.

Sharia was a bit upset to see that I had discovered her secret but she calmed down after we talked. Then she explained it was a semiprecious stone (something obscure, the name of which I don't recall) that she used as a diagnostic tool, and since most people were leery about things like that, she swore me to secrecy. To this day, I’ve never told a soul, including my friend Muriel.

After Sharia's initial diagnosis, she told me she could increase the circulation to the muscles and tendons around the injured discs and that she could help with the pain. And then she gave me shots containing saline, primarily in my upper body area. The shots themselves were painful and the areas would swell up, but after a couple of hours, my pain was greatly lessened. I took weekly treatments from Sharia for almost a year and almost felt like my old self at the end of that time.

Oddly enough, when I googled saline injections, I found something called Biomesotherapy Saline Injections which is described as useful for: “Increased circulation, fine nerve endings stimulation, muscle relaxation, influence acupuncture points and meridians, pain alleviation.” Well, I can tell you it worked and I’ve often wished I could find a ‘Sharia’ since I returned Stateside!

Of course, during all these varied treatments, Barbara and I continued working on Places in Egypt, and I am happy to say that it was becoming popular among the tourism trade and the visitors. Before very long, we had an agreement with airlines such as Lufthansa, Swiss Air and Delta to provide Places in their first and business class seats -- at a small fee plus the price of a full page color ad, of course. And, we had a welcome letter as the first page in each addition signed by none other than the Minister of Tourism himself, Fouad Sultan. We were very proud to print that letter every month, believe you me.

Places was going places and it showed in our advertising. All of our covers were sold with a year’s contract and we had many full page color ads inside, as well as multiple half page ones. We had engaged the services of freelance writers who were also journalists, Egyptologists, and/or professors at American University in Cairo and knew the country well. I’ll share some of these articles with you in the future.

Adel was amazed that after only 8 months we had actually made a profit… LE102 which was only about $34 in those days, but hey, it was pure profit and after we made a small payment toward our loans to the guys! I swear I think we got some of the advertising accounts just because of the novelty of doing business with two American women having the balls to start up a business in Egypt, but I didn't really care.

Barbara and I were getting along very well and my back was holding up. By this time, we had freelancers calling us to write for the magazine and we even had some potential advertisers call us; now that’s real progress. But, it was getting crowded in Barbara’s spare room and we knew we’d need a real office very soon. It simply was not looked upon as professional to run a business from your home, not in Egypt, not in 1988.

Jane
Another Blogger