Member- Dec 24, 2013
- 933
- Tinnitus Since
- (1956) > 1980 > 2006 > 2012 > (2015)
- Cause of Tinnitus
- Ac. Trauma & Ac.Trauma + Meds.
"The Lama Doctor" SPOILER ALERT! For those of you (younger perhaps?) who like fast and quick posts with Twitterati efficiency, be warned. When you see my icon, that triangular rock [at 11,000 ft., in a lake, in the Ansel Adams Wilderness of the High Sierras' in California = totally natural by the way]...probably skip and read another. I seldom seem to be able to write in short bytes. It feels too insufficient. And I'm 63, and I was a writer before my tinnitus mauled me badly in its 'third jump up' December 2012, and I'm retired - so cut me some slack, I'm old school.
So Neenie had inspired me, to start a few stories about "not so wacky" tinnitus cures I have tried. If you check my profile you will see I've been around the tinnitus block for quite a while and traveled the world on it too. This one was in Bangkok.
It was 2007 and just a year and a half after I got the REAL BAD TINNITUS + the new added HYPERACUSIS, from the ototoxic antibiotic cocktail the docs gave me. Before that I had lived a near normal life with loud (sound/trauma induced) ringing, though always protected my ears in high noise environments, etc.....I was now, desperate, suicidal, sick, a total mess. I knew what I was up against as I had been researching tinnitus for decades and always on the lookout for a cure. A gun was tempting but I hated the NRA and my Brit roots are too civilized for such a mess. So what could I do???
"What about the guy who raises the dead?" my wife asked.....Ummmmm, you mean from 2,000 years ago??? "No in Bangkok, my sister is one of the few people who is close to him, I can see if she can get you to see him. Now my wife at the time (Thai) really, really believed in this guy too as he was supposedly the next in line to be the Dalai Lama in Tibet, but left in a hurry when the Chinese moved in. He was a monk and Lama, so everyone just called him "The Lama Doctor", and he was in Bangkok mostly...and I had a possible "in".
"OK, let's do it! I'll try anything...and while I'm there we can visit Bumrungrad and see what they have to say". Bumrungrad (Google it) is considered by many to be the best hospital in the world and about 1/5 the price of medical in the USA....and believe me it IS INCREDIBLE! (But that is not this story).
So with my aircraft carrier earmuffs on and full earplugs I do the journey thing, and the noise and bedlam in Bangkok, and the whole catastrophe. Having in-laws family there made it a lot easier and at least we could stay in a sort of quite place in the suburbs...with just the usual barking dog packs, loudspeaker vendors from hell, and so on. But the air was a bit better. And the "Lama Doctor" was in town...and was still "healing people like there was no tomorrow". GREAT!...Let's do this!
Not so easy. When one is a rock star there are lots of fans and even with family connections it took a week to see him the first time. Over 6 weeks I joined many others to be blessed, slapped around a bit in a strange way, hands held over my ears (and gut - I've had big time gut issues since bad Giardia long ago), plus chanting and prayers....But I was not getting any better. Maybe even worse!
This was not good for me, the relatives, the believers or the propaganda machine. Maybe because I was "Farang" (Westerner) it would not work? The "Lama Doctor" scoffed at such limitations. "Special treatment next week"...Just for me, alone with him, in his private small worship temple. "Alright!" I couldn't wait.
Finally the day, (night actually as the moon had to be right) arrives and another tedious journey through mazes of bizarre back roads to this obscure place that looked like a replica of a bomb shelter in India...In other words, not pretty! Well who cares, it's the cure that counts. I get led blindfolded I believe (I was out of it a lot) to this inner chamber where just the "Lama Doctor" and a room full of bizarre Oriental icons, Buddha statues, dragons in bronze, jars of herbs and potions, incense, candles and a mess of other stuff was cluttered in every available nook and cranny.
The "Lama Doctor" beckoned me to kneel. The he laid these hot hands on my head and started to chant in some language that was not Thai...ancient Sanskrit I think. Then after a while he looks at me, grimaces a bit and goes over to a small space in all the sacred clutter. For about ten minutes he mixes this, that and another thing, then heats it all up in a funky old aluminium pot. After sniffing and adjusting he dollops in a huge spoonful of what looked like honey, then told me to drink it! Ahhhhhhhhhhhh....remembering my sensitive gut and all, and the dubious hygiene, I hesitated. But what choice did I have? I drank it...Gahhhhhhhhhhhh, thank God for the honey!!! It was incredibly awful tasting and bitter.
As I was gagging he said: "Pray"....so I prayed. Actually, I'd say I begged. I begged and beseeched that after 6 weeks in this noise drenched and polluted city, with my noise drenched and polluted head full of tinnitus and screeching...that I would be cured. Or SOMETHING!!! PLEASE SOMETHING!!!
Sigh...I got nothing. But I really tried. I gave it the whole hog...and how many people get to rub up to a supposed be/nearly be Dalai Lama on a private basis like that???
I was glad to get home eventually. Exhausted and the ringing and tinnitus was maybe a little less, BUT NOT because of the "Lama Doctor". That is another story, and this one is already a million times too long for the Tweet generation. maybe no-one will even read it, so I should try and see if I can sleep now. It's 3:00 am California time...maybe I can, because at least there are no howling packs of street dogs as in the "Soi's" of Bangkok to keep me awake!!!
Take care all... Best, Zimichael
So Neenie had inspired me, to start a few stories about "not so wacky" tinnitus cures I have tried. If you check my profile you will see I've been around the tinnitus block for quite a while and traveled the world on it too. This one was in Bangkok.
It was 2007 and just a year and a half after I got the REAL BAD TINNITUS + the new added HYPERACUSIS, from the ototoxic antibiotic cocktail the docs gave me. Before that I had lived a near normal life with loud (sound/trauma induced) ringing, though always protected my ears in high noise environments, etc.....I was now, desperate, suicidal, sick, a total mess. I knew what I was up against as I had been researching tinnitus for decades and always on the lookout for a cure. A gun was tempting but I hated the NRA and my Brit roots are too civilized for such a mess. So what could I do???
"What about the guy who raises the dead?" my wife asked.....Ummmmm, you mean from 2,000 years ago??? "No in Bangkok, my sister is one of the few people who is close to him, I can see if she can get you to see him. Now my wife at the time (Thai) really, really believed in this guy too as he was supposedly the next in line to be the Dalai Lama in Tibet, but left in a hurry when the Chinese moved in. He was a monk and Lama, so everyone just called him "The Lama Doctor", and he was in Bangkok mostly...and I had a possible "in".
"OK, let's do it! I'll try anything...and while I'm there we can visit Bumrungrad and see what they have to say". Bumrungrad (Google it) is considered by many to be the best hospital in the world and about 1/5 the price of medical in the USA....and believe me it IS INCREDIBLE! (But that is not this story).
So with my aircraft carrier earmuffs on and full earplugs I do the journey thing, and the noise and bedlam in Bangkok, and the whole catastrophe. Having in-laws family there made it a lot easier and at least we could stay in a sort of quite place in the suburbs...with just the usual barking dog packs, loudspeaker vendors from hell, and so on. But the air was a bit better. And the "Lama Doctor" was in town...and was still "healing people like there was no tomorrow". GREAT!...Let's do this!
Not so easy. When one is a rock star there are lots of fans and even with family connections it took a week to see him the first time. Over 6 weeks I joined many others to be blessed, slapped around a bit in a strange way, hands held over my ears (and gut - I've had big time gut issues since bad Giardia long ago), plus chanting and prayers....But I was not getting any better. Maybe even worse!
This was not good for me, the relatives, the believers or the propaganda machine. Maybe because I was "Farang" (Westerner) it would not work? The "Lama Doctor" scoffed at such limitations. "Special treatment next week"...Just for me, alone with him, in his private small worship temple. "Alright!" I couldn't wait.
Finally the day, (night actually as the moon had to be right) arrives and another tedious journey through mazes of bizarre back roads to this obscure place that looked like a replica of a bomb shelter in India...In other words, not pretty! Well who cares, it's the cure that counts. I get led blindfolded I believe (I was out of it a lot) to this inner chamber where just the "Lama Doctor" and a room full of bizarre Oriental icons, Buddha statues, dragons in bronze, jars of herbs and potions, incense, candles and a mess of other stuff was cluttered in every available nook and cranny.
The "Lama Doctor" beckoned me to kneel. The he laid these hot hands on my head and started to chant in some language that was not Thai...ancient Sanskrit I think. Then after a while he looks at me, grimaces a bit and goes over to a small space in all the sacred clutter. For about ten minutes he mixes this, that and another thing, then heats it all up in a funky old aluminium pot. After sniffing and adjusting he dollops in a huge spoonful of what looked like honey, then told me to drink it! Ahhhhhhhhhhhh....remembering my sensitive gut and all, and the dubious hygiene, I hesitated. But what choice did I have? I drank it...Gahhhhhhhhhhhh, thank God for the honey!!! It was incredibly awful tasting and bitter.
As I was gagging he said: "Pray"....so I prayed. Actually, I'd say I begged. I begged and beseeched that after 6 weeks in this noise drenched and polluted city, with my noise drenched and polluted head full of tinnitus and screeching...that I would be cured. Or SOMETHING!!! PLEASE SOMETHING!!!
Sigh...I got nothing. But I really tried. I gave it the whole hog...and how many people get to rub up to a supposed be/nearly be Dalai Lama on a private basis like that???
I was glad to get home eventually. Exhausted and the ringing and tinnitus was maybe a little less, BUT NOT because of the "Lama Doctor". That is another story, and this one is already a million times too long for the Tweet generation. maybe no-one will even read it, so I should try and see if I can sleep now. It's 3:00 am California time...maybe I can, because at least there are no howling packs of street dogs as in the "Soi's" of Bangkok to keep me awake!!!
Take care all... Best, Zimichael
