Saturday, March 26, 2011
Cuts for Cancer and my trip to the Traditional Chinese Medicine Doctor
Hi Friends,
Thanks to Meg Walker for her donation to Cuts for Cancer. I think the new haircut looks great!
I'm plugging along, now 5 days out radiation. I tire like a puppy, but in a few days this will start to turn around. This week, at Julie Salverson's suggestion, I made my first trip to a Traditional Chinese Medicine doctor in Toronto named Xioalan Zhao. She works with a lot of cancer patients and survivors and I was excited to see her and plan out how I will rebuild my immune. It was quite the experience: she began by taking my pulse on both hands and then telling me a bit about my body. She was right on all counts. The question that got me was "Who in your family had cancer?" Now, a lot of people have someone in their family who has had cancer, but she was interested in my father's case and possible connections. Then she told me to strip, get on the treatment table, and cover in a towel (she's a woman of few words). She left and came back with warm tea and pills in a bowl that looked like M & Ms. She put the pills in my mouth (I have no idea what they were) and I swallowed them with tea. Give myself over, I thought. Then I laid back and she started to massage my neck with oils. It felt great. Then whammo! she put a dropper of oil in each of my nostrils. It was a real shock. Then my head filled with eucalyptus and I relaxed more. More things in the nose (you can stop that anytime, I thought), then more neck work. After that she tucked me in (lovely) and the next thing I knew she had acupuncture needles in my left arm. Ah...what's happening here? Because of my compromised lymph on the left side I'm never allowed to get an i.v. there or a blood pressure cuff, but I thought just relax and give over. She knows my situation (no repercussions from the needles as yet, so I'm fine). And I just learned from Judy Davidson via Catherine that acupuncture is good for the lymphatic system. She put needles in both arms and then in my legs and continued working. Then she took them out, turned me over and put them on either side of my spine all the way down. Then she left. Um, Dr. Zhao? (Did anyone else see that Sex and the City episode with Charlotte York in the clinic? That was me.) Then someone came back in and I assumed it was her. Nope. A young man here to finish her work. Okidokey. When he was finished he told me to go to the front desk where I paid and got some herbs that I can't read. Dr. Zhao came to me and gave me a big hug, smiled and said "Next week, we go downstairs - for detoxification!!" She sounded excited. I'm scared.
This is a big lesson in giving over. It feels great to be back on the mend, rebuilding my body.
I will increase my meditation so that I can be fully present in my new protocol.
Love,
Kip
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Oh, it takes a lot for a Virgo to "give over"!!! Not what we do best, huh? Still, there's a measure of comfort in realising that we're not responsible for every little thing! Brava to you! See you soon!
ReplyDeleteLove, CLR