It's taken me about a week to recover from the trip to meet the Guo Lin Qigong master and learn the practice. It was a rather intense trip.
There is so much to discuss here - this post will briefly cover a little about the people who we met and some of the general principals and ideas of the practice. I got to do some interviews and am working to have those up at some point.
What is Qigong?
A many thousand year old Chinese practice that involves coordinated and relaxed breath and movements. Qigong is about building Qi - or life force - or prana - or vital energy.
Guo Lin Qigong is the only form of Qigong that involves a walking exercise... in fact, a large part of the practice is walking.
Guo Lin Qigong (and I would imagine other forms as well) are about gathering and building energy, as opposed to exercise which expels and uses energy. I feel more energized after practice, not in the same way as the initial buzz after regular exercise, it's more gentle and long lasting.
Guo Lin Qigong is a specific practice that was created by Master Guo Lin to cure herself of terminal cancer. The inheritress of Taoist texts and lineage, she practiced Qigong but did not find that it helped her as her cancer progressed. However, she was convinced that there were Qigong exercises that would, and so she went back to ancient texts and created what is known as Guo Lin Qigong. Master Guo Lin went on to live another 30 plus years, ultimately dying of a stroke. She worked up to the end.
Cut to our Master Sun. Master Sun too was diagnosed with breast cancer in her mid-forties. She had her breasts removed and did chemo and radiation. I am not sure how much later, but the cancer returned and had metastisized into her lungs. The surgeons opened her up and then immediately closed her, telling her there was nothing they could do. She was given a death sentence and sent home. She and her husband found Guo Lin Qigong through an article they read. And immediately Master Sun began to practice. I am not sure what herbs or diets she also took on, but I do know that Master Sun frowns upon sugar and too many carbs or meats.
From there Master Sun joined a group and began to practice, I believe 3 hours a day. Six or so years later, she sought out Master Guo Lin to learn directly from her. Master Sun continues to this day, 30 plus years later to practice at least an hour a day and is, and has been for more than 2 decades, cancer free.
To be able to personally be taught by someone of Master Sun's history and lineage was an honor.
I met several other members of Master Sun's group. Some starting out on their journey like a stage 4 kidney cancer patient who experienced a 40% reduction in the size of his tumor after practicing for about a couple months (but also he is taking a drug designed to halt the growth of the tumor - I say that because although the drug was not known to shrink tumors I just feel it's fair to share this info), a young esophageal cancer patient (he did surgery, chemo and radiation and was about four months into his journey), a man who had cancer of the tracea about 10 years prior (he did chemo and surgery as well, but said his practice helped him speed recover and gather more energy) .... other members I did not meet - like a woman who had sixteen years prior been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer who was beyond the bounds of medicine and so did not do chemo, radiation, or surgery (it took her nearly 8 years, as the tumors shrunk and then calcified, to be completely cancer free).
Master Sun taught us the level one exercises for the health issues I mention in a previous post.
Guo Lin Qigong Lesson.
Our practice schedules are intensive - and it is recommended that we practice an hour a day outdoors in fresh air under the sun. This so far, has not been possible. However, I do know that when I practiced with Master Sun, I felt better. So now my mission is to integrate that into our daily lives - a challenge that I will patiently and persistently work on.
Friday, November 30, 2012
Beyond Food Allergies, Allergies, and Asthma - or Why I can't stop thinking about giving my son worms
Anyone who lives with food allergies and/or asthma knows - it can really make life, regular life, school life, travel life, social life... challenging. Depending on the severity and the number of food allergies, for example, it can make eating out frightening, if not impossible. Doing things spontaneously, or longer than planned, can be problematic if you have to get home to prepare food that is safe. You just can stay later and then catch a bite on the way home. Distances traveled, and the amount of time you can be somewhere, are dictated by the proximity and access to safe foods and emergency medical care if needed.
This has been our life for the past 7 years. My son has yet to eat the food in a restaurant (not that most food is something so palatable that I bemoan it's absence, but...). I've flown with him once, when he was about 5 months old and "food allergies" wasn't yet part of our vocabulary. We've missed parties, playdates, events, trips.... all because of food. Well, food, fear of food, and then my own fatigue at somehow coordinating these things safely and prepping something that he'd actually eat - which sometimes just becomes too much for me - so I cheap out and we avoid. I'm not proud of this - but I am doing the best that I can.
Enter: an article of interest
There is a health group that I belong to from whom I get frequent emails. Always interesting, sometimes impressively informative, and just persistently present. One day I got an email "Article of Interest." These are the emails I wait for. They are usually relevant publications with scientific backing that add to my arsenal of information.
And so I opened it, and clicked Men's Health: The New, Ancient Cure for Immune Disorders.
The article is a tear jerking (for me and others living with food allergy) and fantasy provoking story about two separate individuals, who for health reasons (one life threatening food allergies and asphyxiating asthma, the other for debilitating Crohns), allow themselves to be infected with helminths... worms... parasites.
"Yuk," my mother gagged as I read this to her in between my son's music classes. "Why would anyone want to do that?"
Good question. So I thought about it. Why would anyone want to do that? Why would we maybe want to do that?
Let's go back to the article for a moment. In it, a man, Bear C he is called, the one with the food allergies and asthma, the one who previously would be thrust into anaphylaxis if he ate a peanut... that one - mistakenly eats half a bag of potato chips fried in peanut oil. Upon realizing this - what do you think he does - of course, I must reveal at this point that he is hosting a tapeworm - does he panic and call 911? Inject himself? Die?
None of the above. He finishes said bag.
That's where I wanted to cry. Not that I'd necessarily feel comfortable enough, even if my son was hosting a tapeworm, to give him peanut products - but the fact that he lived. That his immune system was quiet while he enjoyed, and after he enjoyed, these chips.... that's where the joy is.
Why would anyone want to host worms? Why would we want to host worms?
I can imagine eating out. I can imagine traveling. Not even traveling, I can imagine going to a party with my son, and not having to huddle and hide from the food table... not have to ask everyone before we shake their hand, they touch him... What did you eat? Can you go wash your hands? Take flack from disgruntled parents who just don't get why they can't send their kid on the field trip with a peanut butter sandwich. Worry about spilled milk. Buy bread baked at a bakery without worrying about sesames or eggs. Eat grapes and melon in the spring without itchy lips and mouth. Work more since I could send my son to school with a safe lunch that he would actually eat. Be a part of more things. Travel and stay in hotels and areas without worrying about an asthma attack, or where the ER is, or why he just coughed.
I know that we are currently committed to our protocol - but I can't get those worms out of my mind. It's like being in a serious relationship and just wanting the guy in the next cube so badly, you can't even focus on your work. Well - a bit like that.
It's actually better. Freeing my son of food allergies and asthma, would be the best thing I could even imagine. Nay, it will be amazing and I can't wait.
This has been our life for the past 7 years. My son has yet to eat the food in a restaurant (not that most food is something so palatable that I bemoan it's absence, but...). I've flown with him once, when he was about 5 months old and "food allergies" wasn't yet part of our vocabulary. We've missed parties, playdates, events, trips.... all because of food. Well, food, fear of food, and then my own fatigue at somehow coordinating these things safely and prepping something that he'd actually eat - which sometimes just becomes too much for me - so I cheap out and we avoid. I'm not proud of this - but I am doing the best that I can.
Enter: an article of interest
There is a health group that I belong to from whom I get frequent emails. Always interesting, sometimes impressively informative, and just persistently present. One day I got an email "Article of Interest." These are the emails I wait for. They are usually relevant publications with scientific backing that add to my arsenal of information.
And so I opened it, and clicked Men's Health: The New, Ancient Cure for Immune Disorders.
The article is a tear jerking (for me and others living with food allergy) and fantasy provoking story about two separate individuals, who for health reasons (one life threatening food allergies and asphyxiating asthma, the other for debilitating Crohns), allow themselves to be infected with helminths... worms... parasites.
"Yuk," my mother gagged as I read this to her in between my son's music classes. "Why would anyone want to do that?"
Good question. So I thought about it. Why would anyone want to do that? Why would we maybe want to do that?
Let's go back to the article for a moment. In it, a man, Bear C he is called, the one with the food allergies and asthma, the one who previously would be thrust into anaphylaxis if he ate a peanut... that one - mistakenly eats half a bag of potato chips fried in peanut oil. Upon realizing this - what do you think he does - of course, I must reveal at this point that he is hosting a tapeworm - does he panic and call 911? Inject himself? Die?
None of the above. He finishes said bag.
That's where I wanted to cry. Not that I'd necessarily feel comfortable enough, even if my son was hosting a tapeworm, to give him peanut products - but the fact that he lived. That his immune system was quiet while he enjoyed, and after he enjoyed, these chips.... that's where the joy is.
Why would anyone want to host worms? Why would we want to host worms?
I can imagine eating out. I can imagine traveling. Not even traveling, I can imagine going to a party with my son, and not having to huddle and hide from the food table... not have to ask everyone before we shake their hand, they touch him... What did you eat? Can you go wash your hands? Take flack from disgruntled parents who just don't get why they can't send their kid on the field trip with a peanut butter sandwich. Worry about spilled milk. Buy bread baked at a bakery without worrying about sesames or eggs. Eat grapes and melon in the spring without itchy lips and mouth. Work more since I could send my son to school with a safe lunch that he would actually eat. Be a part of more things. Travel and stay in hotels and areas without worrying about an asthma attack, or where the ER is, or why he just coughed.
I know that we are currently committed to our protocol - but I can't get those worms out of my mind. It's like being in a serious relationship and just wanting the guy in the next cube so badly, you can't even focus on your work. Well - a bit like that.
It's actually better. Freeing my son of food allergies and asthma, would be the best thing I could even imagine. Nay, it will be amazing and I can't wait.
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Guo Lin QiGong Lessons and Traveling with Food Allergies and Asthma
So we are preparing to travel to see the Master and learn the Guo Lin QiGong. While the fundamentals of each of our exercises will be the same (myself, my son, and my mother), the Master has prescribed some different exercises for each of our ailments.
Our goals for learning are:
My Mother
Normalize her high blood pressure
Get rid of chronic cough that plagues her
Stop and possibly reverse the progression of rheumatoid arthritis
Address her hypothyroidism
Mine
prevent cancer
heal the painful ovarian cysts that I have been having in the last several months
improve my digestion and reflux
gain more energy
and also - I'd like to strengthen my kidneys
My Son's
Heal the food allergies and asthma
Address the issue that makes him sweat most nights (it is not uncommon for me to change his shirt in the middle of the night because he's wet with sweat - not soaking, but wet). His father had a sweat during sleep issue, but according to Chinese Medicine, this causes him to lose much energy - so we will be addressing.
Heal the food allergies and asthma
Of course in total pre-trip chaos, my son woke, after nighttime coughing, this morning with a red pussy eye, cough, and now he's got a little fever. Lovely. Trying to break through this before we set out on our journey. Giving 3-4 grams vit C every 24 hours, along with quercenase (quercetin and bromelain), an additional supp with zinc, magnesium, cod liver oil - sheesh.
Another issue - or stress rather - is food. Of course, we are driving about 12 hours - so I will be feeding my son on the road because we cannot eat any of the food on route. But then we will need to either consume or dump and fruits and vegetables before we hit the border, since they will not be allowed to cross with us. So our target, before even the hotel, will be the nearest organic stocked market so that we can stock up on what we could not bring. We will, as I've been instructed by Canadian Border Department, be able to cross with our dried packaged goods, possibly some of our meat, and hopefully some bottled things like tomato sauce... little things that I am not sure I'd be able to get at another store.
We have a suite with kitchen - thankfully - this trip will not entail cooking on my electric double burner. I sprang for the extra money because I felt like there's already so much to deal with - having to worry about getting kicked out of the hotel because of our vagabond cooking - would put me over the edge. Especially since I'll be baking bread in the slow cooker (which I'm bringing).
One of our trips to New York city was somewhat awful because we got trapped in a fancy hotel in Manhattan, that basically said I could not cook in the room because they not only had smoke detectors but heat sensors directly wired to the fire department. So we were stuck with only a microwave - needless to say my son lived practically on our only safe bagels for about 24 hours - until we could high tail it out of town.
Here is our usual food allergy travel set-up - usually the less expensive motels are best for this set-up - but those hotels can also suck for asthma issues. So now we're kind of middle-brow - hoping that the room is not too dustmite infested. At any rate, some images from one of our trips - our cooking for food allergy set up.
Our goals for learning are:
My Mother
Normalize her high blood pressure
Get rid of chronic cough that plagues her
Stop and possibly reverse the progression of rheumatoid arthritis
Address her hypothyroidism
Mine
prevent cancer
heal the painful ovarian cysts that I have been having in the last several months
improve my digestion and reflux
gain more energy
and also - I'd like to strengthen my kidneys
My Son's
Heal the food allergies and asthma
Address the issue that makes him sweat most nights (it is not uncommon for me to change his shirt in the middle of the night because he's wet with sweat - not soaking, but wet). His father had a sweat during sleep issue, but according to Chinese Medicine, this causes him to lose much energy - so we will be addressing.
Heal the food allergies and asthma
Of course in total pre-trip chaos, my son woke, after nighttime coughing, this morning with a red pussy eye, cough, and now he's got a little fever. Lovely. Trying to break through this before we set out on our journey. Giving 3-4 grams vit C every 24 hours, along with quercenase (quercetin and bromelain), an additional supp with zinc, magnesium, cod liver oil - sheesh.
Another issue - or stress rather - is food. Of course, we are driving about 12 hours - so I will be feeding my son on the road because we cannot eat any of the food on route. But then we will need to either consume or dump and fruits and vegetables before we hit the border, since they will not be allowed to cross with us. So our target, before even the hotel, will be the nearest organic stocked market so that we can stock up on what we could not bring. We will, as I've been instructed by Canadian Border Department, be able to cross with our dried packaged goods, possibly some of our meat, and hopefully some bottled things like tomato sauce... little things that I am not sure I'd be able to get at another store.
We have a suite with kitchen - thankfully - this trip will not entail cooking on my electric double burner. I sprang for the extra money because I felt like there's already so much to deal with - having to worry about getting kicked out of the hotel because of our vagabond cooking - would put me over the edge. Especially since I'll be baking bread in the slow cooker (which I'm bringing).
One of our trips to New York city was somewhat awful because we got trapped in a fancy hotel in Manhattan, that basically said I could not cook in the room because they not only had smoke detectors but heat sensors directly wired to the fire department. So we were stuck with only a microwave - needless to say my son lived practically on our only safe bagels for about 24 hours - until we could high tail it out of town.
Here is our usual food allergy travel set-up - usually the less expensive motels are best for this set-up - but those hotels can also suck for asthma issues. So now we're kind of middle-brow - hoping that the room is not too dustmite infested. At any rate, some images from one of our trips - our cooking for food allergy set up.
 |
| Traveling with Food Allergy pots, pans, dishes |
 |
| Traveling with Food Allergy - cooking on the double electric burners. |
 |
| Traveling with Food Allergy - nothing worse than washing your veggies in tiny motel sink. |
 |
| Traveling with Food Allergy - open the windows so we don't set off alarm |
 |
| Traveling with Food Allergy - cramming tiny fridge with food. |
 | |
| Traveling with Food Allergy - I once roasted a lamb shank in a motel bathroom just like this. |
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Ginger and my Ovaries
The pain started back in January of 2012. And honestly at first I thought it was a gas issue. Nothing pretty to discuss there - but it was what I thought. At the time also I was beginning Bu Zhong Yi Qi Tang - which according to my herbalist can cause some intestinal distress. So I shrugged it off.
Well months moved forward until the pain was totally taking me over. I could not sleep on my right side because the weight of my own body on that side hurt. It was a constant pain that woke me from sleep and followed me everywhere. There were many instances where I would white knuckle it through until it subsided. I didn't have insurance. But in desperation, I went to the doctor, a primary care physician, who took my money and then sent me home telling me to avoid dairy (which I told her I did). Needless to say, I ended up in the ER in August.
An ultra sound reported an enlarged follicle and ovary on my right side. Crap that hurts.
I have drank apple cider vinegar, been taking Chinese herbs on and off, taking magnesium... The pain has gone down significantly, but not all the way. After my period ends the pain starts again. Less, but still there. Of course the obsessive worrier and researcher that I am, I found some interesting research with iodine and ginger.
Currently, I take (about 3 days a week) 5 drops of lugols and I've been blending about an inch of ginger root with some apple/carrot juice. This is an intense combo. I did that 3 times this week and it brought the pain down further. I took 3 days off, and I'll start again tomorrow. The pain is still there, but greatly diminished - plus I'm just so damn sensitive to that area now - it makes me aware of every little ache.
I'll see how this week goes. Ginger is a powerful herb and not something that I will take daily - there are many studies that show it has anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, anti-bacterial, anti-viral properties - but side effects can also be things like it thins the blood, has in mouse studies been linked to bone loss and reduced testicle size (not that I am concerned about that)... But I am taking a log. Bottom line it has helped change something inside my body to quell the ovarian pain. I guess I'll see what that means when I return for an ultrasound at the end of this month. Until then I plan on doing the intense ginger and iodine regime 2-3 days a week until all the pain is gone.
Well months moved forward until the pain was totally taking me over. I could not sleep on my right side because the weight of my own body on that side hurt. It was a constant pain that woke me from sleep and followed me everywhere. There were many instances where I would white knuckle it through until it subsided. I didn't have insurance. But in desperation, I went to the doctor, a primary care physician, who took my money and then sent me home telling me to avoid dairy (which I told her I did). Needless to say, I ended up in the ER in August.
An ultra sound reported an enlarged follicle and ovary on my right side. Crap that hurts.
I have drank apple cider vinegar, been taking Chinese herbs on and off, taking magnesium... The pain has gone down significantly, but not all the way. After my period ends the pain starts again. Less, but still there. Of course the obsessive worrier and researcher that I am, I found some interesting research with iodine and ginger.
Currently, I take (about 3 days a week) 5 drops of lugols and I've been blending about an inch of ginger root with some apple/carrot juice. This is an intense combo. I did that 3 times this week and it brought the pain down further. I took 3 days off, and I'll start again tomorrow. The pain is still there, but greatly diminished - plus I'm just so damn sensitive to that area now - it makes me aware of every little ache.
I'll see how this week goes. Ginger is a powerful herb and not something that I will take daily - there are many studies that show it has anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, anti-bacterial, anti-viral properties - but side effects can also be things like it thins the blood, has in mouse studies been linked to bone loss and reduced testicle size (not that I am concerned about that)... But I am taking a log. Bottom line it has helped change something inside my body to quell the ovarian pain. I guess I'll see what that means when I return for an ultrasound at the end of this month. Until then I plan on doing the intense ginger and iodine regime 2-3 days a week until all the pain is gone.
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