The Health Hotel

I'm starting to write this while in the salt room of the  Health Hotel, undergoing speleology treatment.  I'm to be here for 45 minutes -- sitting, breathing, and listening to New Age music.  That's 30 minutes longer than yesterday, and 30 minutes longer than I can sit without a great deal of figetting.  

When Slava and I arrived at the Health Hotel in Kislovodsk, the doctor who checked us in over-ruled the doctor in Ekaterinburg, who said I have feeble limbs (see August 7 posting on "Health Problems").  The treatment for me here would be for "chronic bronchitis in remission."

Breathing ions in a room walled with bricks of salt is one prescribed treatment.  Five minutes daily of inhalation therapy is another, using a face mask to breathe in air moistened with narsan mineral water.  Every other day I bathe in narsan water; on alternating days I have a "circular shower" for blood flow stimulation.  On alternate days I also get a ten-minute spinal massage.  And every day I get a mug of phytochai, a herbal tea concocted for better breathing.

Slava is getting several different treatments.  He gets a strong underwater massage, magnetic treatments for his knees, and a herbal tea appropriate for his Type A personality.

Actually I don't think that I've ever seen Slava as relaxed as he is here.  He knows the routines of a Russian health spa, and like most clients here he readily accepts the prescription of resting between treatments.

All treatments are scheduled for morning hours.  The afternoons are hot, and without air conditioning or electric fans.  Our sluggish bodies frequently end up napping.  We do, however, often take walks in the afternoon or evening.  We've climbed the hill to Red Rocks, walked to the Valley of Roses, gone off trail to pick pears at an abandoned orchard, and (my favorite) walked 15 minutes downtown to use the public access computers at the main post office.

Good health...good access to the Internet... I appreciate both more than ever!