zeptember

Before bed, prepare Liver tea, which consists of:
6 parts Comfrey root
6 parts Tanner’s oak bark
3 parts Gravel root (Queen of the meadow)
3 parts Mullein
3 parts Marshmallow root
3 parts Walnut bark
2 parts Milk Thistle herb
2 parts Licorice root
2 parts Wild Yam root
1 part Lobelia plant
1 part Skullcap flower
as prepared bulk by my Qigong practitioner. Use the entire package provided in 2 quarts cold water, placed in a glass or ceramic pot. Bring to the boiling point and then simmer for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and leave the mixture overnight.

Before bed, prepare Kidney tea, which consists of:
1 part Hydrangea roots
1 part Gravel roots (Queen of the meadow)
1 part Marshmallow roots
as prepared bulk by my Qigong practitioner. Use only 1 tbsp of this mixture in a cup of cold water, placed in a glass or ceramic pot. Bring to the boiling point and then simmer for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and leave the mixture overnight.

BEFORE BREAKFAST: (or really any time during the day), heat, do not boil, 2 cups of the Liver Tea and 1 cup of the Kidney Tea and drink each (I find that during initial heating, 1/2 cup water is evaporated, so I just add back a 1/2 cup water at time of straining and reheating).

DURING BREAKFAST: take 1 Ginger capsule and 1 Uva Ursi capsule.

DURING LUNCH: take 1 Ginger capsule

BEFORE DINNER: drink 1 cup of parsley tea, which consists of:
1 cup water with enough fresh parsley to saturate water (about 1/4 bunch). The water should just cover the parsley. Bring just to boiling point, then simmer covered for 3 minutes. Strain the water and discard the parsley. Drink the tea.

DURING DINNER: take 1 Ginger capsule and 2 Uva Ursi capsules.

One day per week — Parasite Maintenance Program:
3 Clove capsules before 1 meal
7 Wormwood capsules before dinner
3 tsp. Black Walnut tincture in 1 cup of water before bed.

So this is what I’ll do from November 17 - December 6.

I lost 2lbs (about 1kg) this week and actually felt the loss, so that made me happy.

I’m getting used to the taste of the Black Walnut tincture, but I can’t stand the parsely tea. I should have done the 7 vegetable soup, instead. Probably this week if I remember…

I’ve become more regular on the detox program (I’m usually quite constipated because I don’t eat enough fruits and greens, and I’m always on painkillers).

By the end of the week, I’d adjusted to having to take 12 capsules of herbal supplements at dinnertime (doesn’t leave much room for actual food, hence the weight loss I’m sure).

I did miss a couple of doses throughout the week, but for the most part stuck to it pretty well. My practitioner told me not to fret over missing doses because everyone does it.

I only did Chi Nei Tsang on myself twice this week. I’m supposed to do it twice per day. But I’m just busy or too full or in pain, or I outright forget. Must do better this week.

Yesterday I went to see my Qigong practitioner, who is also a certified Chi Nei Tsang practitioner. I met her last year through local Business of Metaphysics classes I was attending each month when I was trying to get my astrology business going.

Since I am long fed up with the medical establishment pushing hormonal and opioid drugs on me to treat the Endometriosis, I listened intently to what this woman had to say when she introduced herself to the class, and afterwards, I sought her out and exchanged contact info.

Over the past year, I’ve attended a few public Qigong sessions, and a couple private Chi Nei Tsang treatments with this practitioner. I feel comfortable around her.

I will also be checking out homeopathy for the first time this week - my GYN gave me the number of her homeopathy person on Friday. My Qigong practitioner is excited for me that I’m pursuing this in addition to her work.

And in addition to that, I continue to listen to the paradoxical relaxation tapes my friend loaned me. Even though it’s geared towards men with Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome, I find that the tapes have helped me a lot.

And in addition to that, I continue to read and re-read and study the techniques in the Tibetan Relaxation book I bought earlier this year. You probably didn’t know this about me but since about 1994 or 1995, I’ve taken quite a liking to Tibetan Buddhism. During college, I was studying world religions with the willful desire to replace the fundamentalist Christian teachings I was raised with, and I became enamoured with Tibetan Buddhism (as well as Wicca, but that interest only lasted for four years).

SO.

THE DETOX.

Getting to the point sometimes takes me awhile.

Starting today and lasting for one week, I have the following routine:

Before bed, prepare Kidney tea, which consists of:
1 part Hydrangea roots
1 part Gravel roots (Queen of the meadow)
1 part Marshmallow roots
as prepared bulk by my Qigong practitioner. Use only 1 tbsp of this mixture in a cup of cold water, placed in a glass or ceramic pot. Bring to the boiling point and then simmer for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and leave the mixture overnight.

Upon waking (or really any time during the day), heat, do not boil, 1 cup of the Kidney Tea and drink it (I find that during initial heating, 1/2 cup water is evaporated, so I just add back a 1/2 cup water at time of straining and reheating).

BEFORE BREAKFAST: take 2 Clove supplement capsules
DURING BREAKFAST: take 1 Ginger capsule and 1 Uva Ursi capsule.

BEFORE LUNCH: take 2 Clove capsules
DURING LUNCH: take 1 Ginger capsule

BEFORE DINNER: take 2 Clove capsules and 7 wormwood capsules, and drink 1 cup of parsley tea, which consists of:
1 cup water with enough fresh parsley to saturate water (about 1/4 bunch). The water should just cover the parsley. Bring just to boiling point, then simmer covered for 3 minutes. Strain the water and discard the parsley. Drink the tea.
DURING DINNER: take 1 Ginger capsule and 2 Uva Ursi capsules.

BEFORE BED: take 3 tsp Black Walnut tincture in 1 cup of water.

After this week, I have a new routine to follow in the cleanse. I’ll post about that when the time comes. The cleanse lasts for four weeks, culminating in a traditional gall stone cleanse during the first weekend of December. Back in 1993, I was in the hospital for four days with pancreatitis. During that time, I also passed a gallstone. I had another gallstone flareup again in September, 2007 and did an emergency flush and was able to stave off a full blown attack. So since that time, I’ve been searching for a regular maintenance program and alternative health practitioners, and voila, here’s where we’re at today.

Some history for you on seeking practitioners - this Qigong practitioner is not the first one I saw and latched onto. There was another woman before this one whom I sought out, who was a Qigong practitioner that I met in these classes, but she was openly hostile towards anything I told her about the illness that I have. She kept correcting me whenever I said ‘my illness’, for example. She dismissed me right away and told me she could not help me because I refused to see that I had manifested the idea that I am sick, when in reality I am not sick at all. I proceded to start calling this woman but she never called me back. I became really angry at this person and at any person who would tell me that even before I was born, when the genes were being passed to me via my mother, that I was somehow responsible for the Endometriosis that would rear its ugly head once I began to menstruate at the age of 14.
But I continued reading up on Qigong and really liked what it was about, so I became determined to find another practitioner, telling myself that the first woman I met was flawed. I’m glad I kept searching. I’m happy with the practitioner I see now.

I’ve gone to my first Qigong session today - it’s free and open to the public every week, by a woman I met in the business of metaphysics class I attend each month. This is the second Qigong practitioner I’ve met - the first one never called me back.
This woman also does the Chi Nei Tsang - she’s the person I saw last Thursday.

Qigong is hard work!

I had lots of trouble with my lower back (it’s gone into protective mode because George is due this Saturday), my knees (they’re congenitally misaligned so they hurt when I bend the knees for too long during exercise, shoulda wore my braces today), and my shoulders and neck during today’s session. I’ve learned that I have VERY WEAK upper body/arm/shoulder strength - I cannot even hold my own arms out at shoulder height for longer than 30 seconds because it hurts my shoulders and neck too much.

I need to work on that.

My practitioner gave me a sheet of exercise poses to get comfy with. I can’t wait to try it out! But today, I’ve exerted my body enough. I don’t want to overdo it.

Tomorrow morning I go back to the gym routine with my friend, and tomorrow evening, I’ll do the Qigong.

TMI WARNING!

Last night, I practiced what I could remember from the Chi Nei Tsang appointment, and today it paid off - I had to ‘go’ first thing in the morning, and my stool was loosey goosey just like when my practitioner did the Chi Nei Tsang on me. Yay! I moved stuff!

I’ve also been listening to Progressive Relaxation tapes that my friend gave me. The person on the tapes is David Wise, Ph.D., author of “Progressive Relaxation: The Practice of Conscious Effortlessness”. The tapes have been very helpful for me. I find that I’m feeling more relaxed and remembering to breathe, and my neck and shoulders aren’t in as much pain as they usually are at night or in the morning upon waking.

I’m really hoping all this pays off even a little bit in time for george’s arrival this weekend. And I really hope that over the short term, say over the next six months, I really start to feel relief from the pain.

My new GYN called yesterday to see if I’d called my insurance company about getting authorisation for the Tens Unit she wants to prescribe me for the pain, because I have had such bad luck with non-Tylenol-based opiates to manage the pain.

I told her that unfortunately, she would need to prove that Tens Units can be an effective way to treat the pain of Endometriosis. She said, “Oh, a study…” and told me that likely such a study does not exist, but that she’d search it out on my behalf.

Last Thursday, I met a Qigong practitioner at the business class I try to attend each month. We exchanged info, and I went to her as a patient yesterday afternoon. She did some energy work on me and mooshed my stomach around quite a lot. She told me that I have intestinal blockages, and that breathing with her as she slowly manipulated my stomach and abdomen would free the blockages. She told me I’d become quite regular afterwards, and that with the freeing up of the toxins, I may have an emotional reaction, or even become angry in the next couple of days. She told me this is normal, because the blockages are being freed up. She marvelled at how in tune with my body I am, and at one point when I felt pain, she told me to breathe into it and find out where the connective tissue (fascia) led with regards to my pain. I thought and breathed and felt inward, and then told her that the connective tissue near my belly button on the right side had a direct line down to the current pain in my uterus/bladder/rectum. She paused and looked at me and smiled, and told me I’d just advanced light years, and that many of her clients never get this far, and here I am blowing it away on the first meeting!

I wasn’t all that surprised, but it still felt good to be recognised.
I’ve had to be in tune with my body out of necessity, because the doctors have been so consistent in their failure to help me over the years.

I had to end the session a bit early cuz I had to pee so bad. When I got home, I had to pee badly again, and … other stuff.

TMI ALERT:

I swear, I shit five times yesterday. Loose every time. Normally, I shit once every 1-2 days, and I’m always, always constipated.
So she wasn’t kiddin about freeing stuff up! Lordy!!!

END TMI

This morning, the emotional blah began. I was on my way to pick up my friend for the gym, and I heard news stories about the life and death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
I got all teary-eyed, and remembered when, as a young teen, I used to listen to his wife Coretta Scott King on the radio. I swear, I wanted to just bawl my eyes out that he’s gone, and that the race riots had to happen, and that race is still a huge issue today.

After I got home from the gym, the labor board called, and as a result of that, I did cry. And then after that, I went to calm down by reading my friends’ diaries on LiveJournal, and was shocked to find that two of my friends were robbed at gunpoint last night. Cue up tears again. UGH.

*big sigh*

I’m going to lay down and try to breathe until my friend calls. We have to go to Berkeley today so I can distribute business cards.