Papaya Leaves

I don’t even have Papaya as a fruit. I don’t like the smell and the memories it brings of recovering from illness.

But when you are told your child has dengue and papaya leaves are the best medicine for her-you are looking for them as soon as land is visible from the aeroplane. I was already calling my friend+neighbor who is familiar with the apartment garden, from the taxi on the way home from airport to check if we had a papaya tree. As soon as my daughter was fed and settled in bed, I went down to hunt with my best kitchen knife.

Finding a tree to climb

There was no papaya tree at that spot or anywhere else I could see! My friend’s phone was unreachable, and the building gardener was on leave. Another neighbor I called was sure there was a tree but could not recollect where.

I grilled the electrical maintenance guy: “Yes, there a tree here, we cut it last month.”

I had to restrain myself from using the knife on him.

I think he read my expression as he took a step back and apologized: “We planted two new ones, they’ll bear fruit soon….”

“Oh, you want the leaves?”

I don’t know which one of us was more relieved.

Then comes the JUICE

How do you juice the leaves? The citrus or the non-citrus juicer? The mixie? None of them seemed to be effective. I called friends and searched on YouTube but could only manage to extract a teaspoon of juice from one giant leaf.

I stuck the other leaves in my tall flower vase and moved on to the other juices as the other generic advice was to keep giving her fluids. (One doctor advised 3-4 liters per day, another said 1.5l most friends suggested ‘as much as you can’; I set the target at 3l).

When doctors tell you, there is no treatment but to observe and support; your kid is burning up with shooting temperatures and then falls listless with dramatically dropping platelet counts; you remember all the horrors dengue can cause and yet need to remain calm and reassuring-desperate faith is all you have to pull through.

I think it is that faith that brought unexpected help from different quarters: my maid took over the responsibility of getting fresh leaves every day and juicing them too (with far more efficiency); a friend advised me on diet and even offered to treat her through quantum healing; and another friend made me get in touch with her ayurvedic doctor and explained Baba Ramdev’s video on treating dengue with fruits and herbs.

Since regular allopathy wasn’t helping much. I tried everything else-kiwi, pomegranate and mosambi juices, coconut water, aloe-vera, wheat-grass and of course-papaya leaf extract. 

(New learning: You can’t get a glass-full or even a cup-full of it. The leaves need to be chopped and pounded or ground into a rough pulp and then squeezed to extract a tablespoon of juice. This much is enough, according to what I learnt-more than 30 ml in a day may cause stomach discomfort.
Another one: Too many forced fluids can case bloating and too many frequent trips to the toilet; 2 liters are good enough).

The beautiful part about desperate times is that it brings around wonderful people who care and share and give you strength to pull through. Thanks to all of you, my girl was soon well enough to argue and make her own plans and bully me into agreeing with her. Maybe some of the tips worked, your prayers and wishes definitely helped. The papaya leaves are out of my flower-vase now. Thank you!