I woke up on Saturday feeling pretty good. My back was not in pain, but I had taken some painkillers in the middle of the night and could not tell if they were still masking some pain or if I was really feeling better. I decided not to take any more and see how the day progressed.

After breakfast at Tina’s, four of us headed over to the swanky Emerge Spa at the Windflower Hotel on the outskirts of Mysore.  We had booked a few treatments each and planned to spend the day relaxing and hanging out. And that we did.

The treatments were just what the doctor ordered. I started with an ayurvedic treatment called Kati Basti, which is for lower back pain.  The beginning of the massage was much like the ayurvedic massage I had gotten in town, but they ended with a special treatment in which they set up a little donut-like thingy on my lower back and poured hot oil into the center allowing it to pool on my lower back and heat the muscles. It was pure relaxation. I almost fell asleep on the table.

After that I had an invigorating coffee massage – yes, coffee. I truly am attached to this stuff!  The treatment started with an all over body massage with a combination of oil and strong coffee. That was followed by a thorough head-to-toe scrubbing with coffee grounds. Afterwards they wrapped me in some warm towels and left me to marinate in the coffee for a while.  Some time later they came and woke me up and led me to the shower to rinse off and prepare for the final step – a warm soak in the Jacuzzi.  Two hours after entering the treatment room I emerged happy and relaxed…and feeling no pain. Even though I had not had any painkillers for about twelve hours, my back felt fine! Yay!

We relaxed by the pool and then had a tasty lunch at the Olive Garden….poor choice of names, but great food! I had the Vegetable Hyderabadie dish which was nice and spicy and probably not on my list of foods to take.

All in all, a great Saturday. I paid about $65 total for the two treatments and lunch. Pricey for India, but a steal by U.S. standards. And the transport to and from my house was complimentary!

If you told me yesterday at 5:00 pm that I would feel this way 24 hours later I would not have believed it. Must have been the coffee. Heh.

Tomorrow is 5:00 am led practice and I plan to be there but to take it easy and stop my sequence if any of the pain comes back.