Although I am now taking drugs for PD I have not
given up on other treatments. I have continued with therapy based on
traditional Eastern medicine that works on the theories of energy or chi and
the channels through which it moves in the body. Perhaps because of these
therapies I think I am beginning to physically sense the presence of this
energy in my body, something I previously could not.
My PD friend Janet, who I found through PatientsLikeMe, *
recommended a Shiatsu student who needed to practice on a willing
subject. I now get weekly Shiatsu from Matt who comes to my house, sets up a
pad on the floor and spends a good hour or more pressing on acupressure points,
stretching my limbs and joints, and kneading muscle knots in an effort to treat
my chronic and more temporary complaints, and to increase energy flow. It’s not always comfortable, but I am
usually stoic and don’t say a word of complaint. At other times I fall asleep,
so it’s sometimes nice.
The other energy related therapy is something like
exercise, though my teacher says it is not. I have returned to take a series of
beginner classes in Tai Chi Chih. ** It has been a year since I took Siobhan’s
class, and I haven’t tried it since the all day workshop I took last summer,
but it is coming more easily and quickly to me now. Often, while I am
practicing, I notice a new feeling in various parts of my body that seems to me
to be energy moving. It feels as though I am a little dizzy, or that something is filling or expanding inside me. I feel that there
is indeed energy present when I am scooping up energy or moving it with my
hands as I do the movements of Tai Chi Chih.
After three years, I am going again to see Diana.
She uses the energy healing techniques of Donna Eden in her work. Over months of visits to her office,
she introduced me to many ideas that were unusual and hard for me to accept at
the time: the Tibetan rings, the holes in my aura, stuff stuck in my aura. Bizarre! It was to me bizarre, but I had some faith mixed with my skepticism. None of it helped me after months of weekly treatments and many dollars, or not that I could tell anyway. Now, I am going back. I want her to
assess me again to see what she sees in my energy system. And I want to talk.
None of the alternative therapy work I did before the drugs
(Qi Gong, Feldenkrais, Reiki, Tai Na or FSR "Forceless Spontaneous Release," meditation, etc. see past blogs) seemed to be of help in halting or reversing the symptoms of PD and the symptoms
continued to worsen. Why do I hold out hope for any of it in helping me
now? I don’t know. I have a feeling I guess, that there is something to it all, reinforced lately with the new sensations in my body. It may be a process of growth in me that tells me that now I might be ready to
change on a very fundamental level. It’s a very slow process for me, but yes, I still have hope. I believe that healing is possible for PD, but it is up to me to change something inside in order to heal myself.
*Online site that helps
people communicate and share treatments with others
who have the same health
issue and their caregivers.
**A simplified form of Tai
Chi created by Justin Stone consisting of 19 movements and one pose.
