This is the first of several stories I wanted to share about our pilgrimage to Kailash.
Preparing for Mt. Kailash isn’t complete without proper medicines and a self health check. Anytime you are traveling to an elevation as high as 15,000ft, you need to be physically prepared for the lack of oxygen. Part of this is exercise and part of this is medication to handle the change in altitude. In this post I wanted to share a story of a lesson Mt. Kailash had weaved for me centered around medications.
One of the recommendations – almost requirements – of taking this journey to Mt. Kailash is to get a prescription for medicine to avoid altitude sickness. And so, I made an appointment with my doctor and arrived on the day of the visit. In the waiting room, I saw a friend who I occasionally bump into at spiritual events. It’s awkward to meet at a doctors office because you don’t really want to ask ‘what are you doing here’?
So neither of us asked, instead we talked about other things. Then she asked the seed question: ‘Are you going to Kailash with that big group?’ Ah, well, now my reason for being at the doctor was out. ‘Yes! I said in excitement. That’s why I’m here, for the altitude medication prescription.’
This was the sliver of opening that she needed. She had been before and gave me a lot of good recommendations. And just as I was being called in, she recommended I ask my doctor for a prescription for a certain inhaler. I didn’t have a chance to get more details, but I told my doctor about this and she said it wouldn’t hurt. If someone was desperate for air, they could use this pump. So I got the prescription, not really knowing more than what my doctor had said about how to use it and when. It was more like an emergency use case item, if someone urgently needed help breathing. We packed it along with the growing list of things we were collecting. I even considered taking out when my medicine pack was getting too big.
Fast forward to the first day we arrived in Tibet, three days before we started our trek around holy Mt. Kailash & the first day of noticeable increase in altitude. My husband became very sick and a couple of doctors who were in our group diagnosed him with pneumonia. Though we were in wonderful care, the experience was a bit scary given we were in such a remote place, Xigatze, Tibet. You’ll have to zoom in alot to see it on the map!
The doctors were able to get him on antibiotics (one type that had come in ‘accidently’, unordered in the previous day’s pharmacy run by the sherpas.) That in itself was a miracle for us since every day we were going to a smaller and more remote town. To have a specific antibiotic in hand right when we needed was surely divine intervention. And there was more. Along with the inhaler he had already received the day before and these antibiotics, he needed to be on another inhaler to be able to handle the next two days of increasing altitude. The doctor told me they had asked the sherpa to find it at a local pharmacy but we would have to see if it’s even available. And so all of a sudden there was a big question mark on how he’d be able to manage the rest of the trip.
I remembered the inhaler I carried from home and asked the doctor if that would help. Guess what? It was the exact inhaler he needed. And it had enough pumps to last him the entire journey. Amazing grace. The universe gives you what you need when you need it. The sherpa could not find one like it, by the way.
My husband was able to recover enough to join us to the North Face of Mt Kailash and back. He didn’t miss anything. If you have been to Mt. Kailash or are considering it, you know how every decision is critical.
So. Much. Grace.
A chance meeting with a friend at my doctors appointment to get a prescription for the trip.
Her out of the blue suggestion to ask for a specific inhaler.
My doctor’s willingness to prescribe it.
The need for this exact inhaler in remote Tibet. Unavailability of it otherwise.
I didn’t appreciate any of these events until the last one happened. What we needed was there. As if predestined. If we knew how to appreciate everything, knowing the power in every moment, life would be realized! We are all so blessed in so many ways all the time, but most of the time, we don’t even recognize it.
Had I minded my own business and my friend kept to herself at an awkward place like a doctor’s waiting room, we would not have had the inhaler we needed. Had she not been open heartedly sharing information & had my doctor not been open minded, we would have been on a return trip without experiencing Mt Kailash. So much gratitude for them!
To wrap up this story, I went back to the same doctor for my annual physical 6 months after returning from Kailash. I told her this story since she played such an important role & frankly everyone who knew we were taking a trip to the Himalayas was interested to know more. When I narrated the sequence of events, she paused with gratitude and amazement. She said she prescribed that same inhaler for several other patients who were taking similar trips.
There are so many lessons in this story.
Most importantly, the reality is that most people take the trek around Mt Kailash as the pilgrimage. But the pilgrimage starts at home before you even go. And how much you let life flow through you are all part of the lessons that the holy Kailash spirit is always teaching us. Which makes our entire life a pilgrimage to holy Kailash, really. Because Kailash is not just a place.
Kailash is in you. You are in Kailash.
from a conversation with God I was having the day we left for Kailash
In hidden and known ways, we are always at an opportunity to serve, to help each other, to be instruments of the divine. The choice is ours. Be open. Share. Receive without judgement. Be grateful. These were the lessons from this one small thread that wove from June 2019-Jan 2020.