8th Dec 2008 Morning Shift 6am – 12noon
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At 6.30am when I went into the ICU, Bhadra balaram Prabhu was arranging all
the deities pictures behind Guru Maharaja’s bed. Then he told me to hold the
Their Lordships Sri Radha Madhava picture infront of Guru Maharaja. Guru
Maharaja told us to start the mangala arati prayers. We did Guru Maharaja
full mangala arati program together.
Soon after the morning program he had his fruit. Then he told me he wanted
to take rest till 9.30am, have his breakfast and go for physiotherapy. Today
at 10.30am Guru Maharaja had an appointment to go to physiotherapy
department. All this while the therapy was done in the ICU but today is the
first day Guru Maharaja will be taken to the physiotherapy department. The
therapist suppose to make him to stand. So Guru Maharaja was eager to be
there on time.
When I went in again into the ICU at 9.30am Guru Maharaja was still sleeping
soundly. I tried many times to wake him up but I failed. I thought to let
him sleep but at the same time I did not want him to be late for the
physiotherapy department. As we know he is very eager to go there and try to
stand so I woke him up anyway. While having breakfast Guru Maharaja told
Dr.Shiromani to check whether the appointment to go to physiotherapy
department is still as per schedule. Unfortunately due to some unexpected
events the appointment was delayed to 2pm.
Meanwhile we did facial therapy, speech therapy and physiotherapy for Guru
Maharaja inside the ICU itself. After we finished doing all these therapies,
we made him to sit on the edge of his bed with his legs dangling down and
with both of his hands he was holding the table in front of him. This
exercise is done mainly to help strengthen Guru Maharaja’s back. With so
much effort Guru Maharaja managed to sit and hold the table without any
support for 15 minutes.
At 1.15pm we fed lunch to Guru Maharaja. At 2.15pm we took Guru Maharaja to
the physiotheraphy department by wheelchair. This physiotherapy department
is located in another building across the road which is connected with a
bridge. Since Guru Maharaja’s immune system is down and we have to take Guru
Maharaja out of the ICU area we put a face mask for Guru Maharaja.
On this first day session of physiotherapy Guru Maharaja was made to stand,
holding on to a set of parallel bars on either side of him. He stood for
about 20 minutes in two sessions with the support of four therapists. At one
point Guru Maharaja asked Mr.Nirmal Narayan (one of the therapist),”I want
to walk, baby step!” Mr.Nirmal Narayan said,”Step by step swamiji. First you
have to stand steady. Then we go for baby step.” This scene appeared to be
like how a mother teaches her baby to walk. Then Guru Maharaja was taken to
another corner and was given a ball to him to pass from one hand to another
hand followed by picking up and dropping small metal bars.
At 4pm Guru Maharaja was brought back to the ICU. One of the therapist
followed us to the ICU and continued to give few other exercises for Guru
Maharaja. Guru Maharaja was seen very exhausted and we made him to take
rest. After having some buttermilk as a refreshment he took one and half
hour rest.
JPS Servants