Love Infusion

Chester was released from the hospital on Thanksgiving day and is back home at the Bakery Loft. This visit to the hospital was particularly challenging and Chester is relieved to be home. We are discovering that even in Berkeley, even within the progressive hospital environment of Alta Bates, there are effects of institutionalization that weigh heavy on the whole Body Mind Heart. Especially for those few patients like Chester who are actively "choosing consciousness", the hospital environment is not always conducive to healing or rest. It is a valuable exercise to begin picturing what a true "healing hospital" might look like.

Yesterday Chester received one more appendage to be ever mindful of- the IV bag of antibiotics. A home nurse (once again a very Berkeley experience, yet another left-handed, Buddhist-practicing, slightly sassy health professional) visited the Loft and taught us how to change the IV bag every 24 hours, changing the tubing and flushing the PICC line with saline, all hooked up to a timed pump that doses the antibiotic in a 12 hour cycle. The tubing and bag was akward at first, but we trust that soon Chester will find an elegant way to integrate it into his movements. The IV line is one more call to vigilance for both Chester and his Allies.

As I was flushing Chester's IV line yesterday, slowly guiding saline into his vein, I breathed with the intimacy of the act, of the peacefulness and gentleness of the moment, of the vulnerability and nakedness of all of us. I thought about medicines ancient and new, about the potions and prayers we use to interface with the mystery of our bodies, about holding one another in reverance and gratitude. As the syringe flushed through the thin plastic tubing and into Chester's vein, I sent a swirl of love with it, exhaling my deepest thanks for this breath, this blood, this life, this teacher.