Reia Organa

It was in the fall of 2004, that I met Tedy Kanjirathinkal. It was a Saturday afternoon at the library, and I was at the check-out counter issuing the books he had picked. The reason why I noticed him, was that he was clutching the left side of his neck, massaging it, and his face reflected a strong vibe of pain and exhaustion.

Having been with holistic living, yoga and massage therapy for long, and a strong passion to help people with what I have, I couldn't help but ask him "Is everything okay?"

He released his hand and waved off with his right, "oh... yeah... its... um... its just this migraine problem I have..."
I continued, swiping the books, "Had it for long?"
"Yeah... for a few years", he went back to doing his clutch thing with the neck.
"Why do you clutch that part of the neck?"
He seemed a bit bewildered from the questions that came from the librarian, but chose to answer, "Well... it kinda seems to start from around here".
He dug his fingers into somewhere behind his neck towards the side. "Then the pain spreads into the head and eyes"
"Hmm... that's how, huh? Want me to take a look..? I might be able to help" I passed his pile of books to the pick-up counter.
He seemed to be even more bewildered "uh?"
"Well, I'm qualified... and if you would like some help, you could wait in there - I'll come over in a minute" I pointed towards the leisure room.
He hesitated for a moment, then said a bewildered "sure, thanks", picked his books and walked towards the leisure room.
I called in for a colleague to cover me for a few minutes, and stepped out of the counter.

I started off explaining to him that I was a professional, so that he trusts me with what I was about to do; learned from him a bit of his background, on what he does for a living, his daily routines, pressure at work etc. He was a software professional, worked for a multinational company, and was at Irving executing an out-sourced project for a US telecom giant. His day started at around 7 am with conference calls attended from bed, then a hurry with morning chores and a rush to office to begin a busy day. Meetings & conference calls were his prime activities, fixing high-priority issues with the software his team developed was his responsibility... he rambled on for a while, and I could just sense all the pressure, strain and tension in his narration. His day ended at around 1 am, when he mostly dozes off tired, with his laptop still running.

He practically had only two parts for a day - a sleep session for around 4-6 hours, and a work session for around 18-20 hours. He had no exercise, no entertainment, and he ate fast food.

I put an end to the short discussion, and went around him to examine his neck. I didn't have to search much, to find a small lump at the place he used to clutch - in technical terms, a hardness of the pericranial trapezius muscle, a muscle of the neck, just below the skull. Now, the scene was all clear - his migraine was nothing but a tension-type headache, caused by the hardness of pericranial muscles. I gave him a short massage, to relax the specific muscle, and exclaimed a minute later that he felt a lot better.

I explained him that his migraine was nothing but a result of lifestyle - over work and unbalanced life. I advised him to take it easy with his job for a while, may be take a vacation immediately to help the condition, start exercising, and eat healthy. He seemed quite awed by what I said, and replied positively to all my suggestions. With a session of thanks exchanged, and a promise to catch each other later, we parted for the day.

I work in shifts, and have got weekly offs, so there is no real guarantee that you'll always find me at the library. I didn't see Tedy for a couple of weeks since then; but I met him again on the third week, on a Wednesday.

"Hi, Reia", he waved at me with a smile while at the queue for checkout.
"So, how are you?" I asked him eagerly when he was at the counter with his books.
"Couldn't be better!!!" he exclaimed
"Yeah?" My face shone too
"Absolutely! The headache disappeared around a week ago... and I did nothing other than jogging for an hour daily, proper meals, an hour at starbucks reading Harry Potter every evening, and getting around 8 hours of sleep everyday"
"Well, your body is a wonderful machine, you know..?" I smiled happily "Treat it well, and it will treat you well"
"Yup", he nodded rather enthusiastically.
"So, stay healthy, where ever you go, however you go, okay?"
"Of course", he kept smiling and nodding
"Alright, then... there your books are... Have a wonderful evening... and catch you later!"
"Alrighty, thanks a bunch, Reia... You too have a wonderful evening... catch you later"

I watched him walk off happily, and got back to my work with the gratification of having touched one more life!