Dr. Gerasmova introduced two of her collegues. Introductions in Russian, I smile, nod my head, can see that these guys think this is crap, but she's their boss, so they'll tolerate me. Okay. Fair enough.
And so it began. I was thrilled beyond any possibility of ever expressing. Who would understand how wonderful this all was? I had indeed crossed over an energetic ring of fire, and the people and the land itself had given me permission to be what I could be there. In 1991, although Dolores Kreiger had begun to train nurses in theraputic touch, there wasn't a hospital in America that would have let a lay healer into a burn unit, let alone provide access to patients or documentation of day to day events and their medical significance, if any.
That night, I couldn't sleep. The excitement and sense of anticipation in my body was as profound as when I came close to the due dates for delivering each of my two children. Recently, an old school chum reminisced about our days in elementary school. "You were so audacious. I remember the day you told the teacher you were going to need two chairs to hold you're art project because it was going to be really big."
One patient I saw that first day was Sergei, a man in his late twenties had suffered third degree steam burns on both hands. He was also a brittle diabetic which complicated his situation. Our first meeting was incredibly frustrating. Waves of red light flared off his bandaged hands, which the initial interaction between our energy fields did nothing to change. I focused on Sergei's solar plexus in an attempt to repair his pancreas and stablize the diabetes. The next time I met with Sergei at Sklifosovky, he specifically asked that I accompany him to his debridement procedure. I'd heard about this procedure. I asked for a bit of prep time with Sergei before the doctor began. Energetically, my hands on Sergei's shoulders, a white light came through, creating a block at the shoulders so the pain signals from Sergei's hands wouldn't reach his brain. I stood behind Sergei, my hands placed gently on his shoulders, watching the energy and keeping our fields aligned.
A few minutes into the procedure, the Doctor excused himself and went out to get Stas. Stas began filming. When the procedure was over, Sergei thanked me profusely. I was just grateful he'd been given pain meds before the began procedure because he left the debriding room calm and completely composed -- he looked like he'd just gotten out of a nice, hot, relaxing bath. I learned during our afternoon tea that, in fact, while Sergei had felt no pain at all during the debriding procedure, he hadn't had any pain medication at all because there wasn't any to give him.
Morphine and the dwindling supply of drugs Gerasmiva had in her arsenal were saved for patients burned over seventy-five percent of their bodies. Everyone else just suffered through their healing. Perhaps this is why Dr. Gerasimova confined my activities to the men's ward. Perhaps the male patients managed their unmedicated pain better than female patients. Perhaps Dr. Gerasimova was protecting me from more overwhelming distress and suffering than already pervaded the men's ward.
I remember Dr. Kharisov's caution not to mention to Dr. Gerasimova that I'd never worked with burn patients. I realized Kharisov didn't think I had the stomache to do the work. He thought I was just another pretty face. He wasn't the first, he wouldn't be the last. Kharisov got a call from Dr. Gerasimova about the outcome with Sergei, and more doors opened. I seemed to have a limitless supply of energy available, as well as a little extra time, so Dr. Kharisov asked me to see some patients at Firm Doktor, his general medical practice in a building in the old part of Moscow not far from the Kremlin.
