The Reiki Cafe 

Hi to all,

I have just committed to doing Reiki on someone who has MS. She was diagnosed in 1982, is 53.

Has anyone worked with MS before?

Here's what is going on right now. She has had for 13 years pain running down her left leg from the hip. For a while it was really hurting in the thigh area, but now the pain has concentrated in her left foot, specifically in the ball/toe area. It is unbearable, and the pain killers don't make a dent in the pain. She also is getting dizziness and headaches.

She had a recent operation in her lower abdomen for removal of a benign cyst on her right ovary, and while in there they found a growth on her left tube. Now she has had the equivalent of a hysterectomy. No tubes, ovaries, womb, cervix. It has caused her to go into menopause, and her emotions are running amuck. She is crying hysterically and is totally beside herself.

She doesn't respond to mental therapy, as she claims they just sit there, and she doesn't know what to say. She says she's not good at that, and it doesn't work.

The neurologist she is seeing,who specializes in MS tells her her pain is not MS related.

The orthopedists tell her it is not orthopedic related. She's had 15 MRIs to date.

When I do Reiki on her it seems to increase the headache, although at the end of one session she said the headache left. One session had her lower abdomen noticeably grumbling nonstop, which I assume is related to the operation healing.

I'm on an incredible journey with this, and I need all the input I can get about MS and any other modalities which may be used in conjunction with Reiki. She occassionally has massages. She's done accupuncture in the past, but I'm unsure if she's approached these correctly. She's apt to try it for a month and discard it because it didn't help.

She is now complaining of being cold all the time.

Anything you can tell me will be greatly appreciated. This girl is single with both parents dead, and she doesn't communicate with her sister, who lives in the same town. She is virtually all alone and is scared out of her mind.
Her mother died of emphysema basically alone even though the 2 girls lived within an hour away, and I think this girl is patterning herself the same way. She isolates herself with this illness.

Thanks for your help,
Namaste,
starlight

starlight,

/*\ Namaste :-}}

- I would say, at the outset, that both she and you need to take to heart that MS in its various forms is progressive (sometimes more rapidly than at other times)

- and, that at present there is no known 'cure' for MS

- can Reiki positively affect exacerbations and remissions?? Yes, sometimes. Remember, MS is in the class of auto-immune disorders which are rather tricky - even where Reiki is concerned

- it also sounds to me, based on your description, that she shops around for quick fixes - this is a difficult pattern to alter

- be careful not to get sucked in to this with the Reiki

- perhaps you can make some sort of contract to work with her a set number of times per week for a set number of months - I would ask of six months as a start, at least once per week

- hope this helps

Reiki All Around,

All Blessings,

Firekeeper

Otoharo!

My only experience with MS was with a client many years ago. My reiki friend continued reiki with her after she stopped seeing me. The MS did heal. However, she almost immediately got cancer. she died from the cancer. She has communicated form "the other side" and is glad that she is not now physical. she could not hack her ego.

So remember, her soul has the biggest part in this woman's condition.

finaltiy

hi,
I can see how & whats going on here, as I also have an auto-immune disease, very, very sim: to MS, (still could turn that way!)..
firstly, I had reiki done on me many many times, it did make me feel worse..(strangley enough it was through my disease that reiki found me,) & I went through to become a practitioner to help others....
you say this woman has just been through a big operation!
#1 she is grieving the loss of her womanhood..(natural)
#2. 'shock' brings on symptoms 'worse', which is known as being in a 'flare'..
#3. is she on hormone therapy, she should be!
these 'flares' can last for weeks, unless she gets a lot of rest, & has NO STRESS, stress is another thing that brings on more 'flares'...sometimes she may go into 're-mission' for long periods of time, but only if she accepts her limits, & lowers her stress levels....

so as you can see a very hard case to deal with...when in a 'flare' ALL YOUR SYMPTOMS go haywire, & ALL, your pain gets SO MUCH WORSE, & you are an EMOTIONAL MESS !!
the very best thing you can do (if possible) is to go to her home & just 'be' with her, (if she is not to fatigued),
really when like this bed rest or resting is better & constant reasurement that this will pass, (how she feels right now!,) any offer of help in other ways would be good also, (that's if you are friends & want to get involved)...may I suggest you look up the symptoms of MS on a medical board, (such as the mayo clinic).. to find out 'just' what this woman has to face & deal with on a daily basis,( MAINLY FEAR)... that may let you into knowing her better,
when you are 'SICK WITH NO CURE', one does isolate themselves, this is also quite natural, (a pack animal instinct if you like to look at it that way,) as YOU KNOW you are different from others, usually you seek out people who are also ill in some way, as this makes you feel more 'normal'.....
when you are in a 'flare' you do get 'very' cold, (I bet her hands go white if she bends her knuckles).. then at night you SWEAT ...
as I say education is the 'KEY' here, then you will know HOW to help her & when.....head aches, dizziness, pain, legs buckle under her at times, loss of balance, numbness here & there, etc, etc...
please try the 'mayo clinic on line (free) to find out all about this disease....
hope I have helped in some way..the best thing you could do, if she is willing, is to send 'distance reiki' to 'balance the hemisphere's of her
mind' using a surrogate such as a teddy bear or doll...
love to you, Wendy xxx

Having just gone thru a hysterectomy myself I agree with Wendy that the flare ups of the hormones is treated well with rest. I found that my panic attacks, still on going after 2 weeks, subside to nothing with meditation. I still have my ovaries though so the PA's will subside as well as the night sweats.

When my Mother in-law had cancer she was careful to remember and remind others that she HAD cancer, that she did not become cancer. Perhaps this woman needs to be reminded that MS is something she has not something she IS.
She probably also has major "mother" missues to contend with relating to her own Mom and her in-ability to become a mom naturally. Root and base chakra work needed for these issues. You can see this in the fact that she had these female medical problems to begin with.

With your work with her, have you sealed up any holes left over from surgery? Filling the hole within her with light and also checking her energy fields for holes as well?

As for the MS I do not have experience working with this disorder but it sounds like she has much more going on other than the MS. Perhaps working at the smaller stuff would bring her better relief at the start.

Keep us posted on this as it would be benefical to leran about MS. It is a growing disease that we will handle sooner or later with our clients.

Love and light,
Tracey

I want to thank you all for your wisdom. I've learned a lot from dealing with this situation. This past Saturday I went to her home, and she told me that the doctor was going to admit her on an emergency basis into the hospital this past Monday. He wanted to have her checked out to see if she had a herniated disk. She was so distraught at the meeting that when he suggested she see specialists, she told him she couldn't wait for 3 weeks for an appointment. He gave her some Percoset, which has been the only thing she's had that was able to dull the pain.

Regarding the Reiki, she told me she didn't feel it was doing anything, and then admitted she felt that if anything she was feeling worse (the headache). I explained the process to her in every conceivable way I could to help her understand what the realm of possibilities were. She is really just in a very bad place in her head. Despite the fact that I have offered to treat her at no charge, she declined the offer, claiming that nothing can help her.

When I worked on her throat and heart I tried to engage her in conversation about the relationship she had with her parents and sister. I'm not a therapist, but I felt guided to do this. I did realize that the most important thing that was severly ill was her emotional and mental state, which in a way I felt far outweighed the MS. Of course it is all so intertangled because intense pain will cause emotional and psychological problems. I admit to feeling utterly overwhelmed, not as a practitioner, but perhaps in empathy for her. I could see that she felt trapped and couldn't find a way out.

I think the suggestion to do distance healing offers the best course of action, both for me and for her. She'll have benefit of the healing without having to deal with the angst of will it or won't it work, and I will not be in a position to get sucked into her despair.

I'll let you know if there is more to this story in the future. I haven't given up, just took a step back.

Blessings,
Starlight

Dear Starlight,

I am available to help you in her distance healing. let me know, if so decided.

love anand

Dealing with anyone who has chronic illnesses can be difficult, because the way they feel and react to their symptom changes from day to day. I have two chronic illnesses -- one "functional" (meaning, the nerve impulses to the muscles gets screwed up) and the other is inflammatory/possibly auto-immune in nature. I have experienced significant improvement in the inflammatory condition via medication and other self-care remedies, to where I was able to wean myself off the meds and still feel good most of the time. The functional condition is a lot harder. There's no rhyme or reason to some of the reason why my symptoms will act up and medications and other remedies have little or no immediate or lasting effect. However, I do believe strongly in the body's ability to care for and heal itself, so I have been greatly benefitted by Reiki, pranic healing work, chiropractic, massage, yoga and meditation.

People who are in pain or discomfort from chronic illnesses are often desperate for relief from their symptoms. It's so hard to be patient and wait for things to help -- I know, because I have been through all of it, through meds that either didn't help or helped by have lousy side effects(and in once case I had an interaction between two that nearly poisoned me.) I encountered energy medicine at a time when my symptoms from the inflammatory condition had stabilized and improved, so the benefit I received gave me the boost I needed to wean myself off the meds and treat myself more holistically. I don't know how my body would have reacted 4-5 years ago when things were more acute. I might have just gotten frustrated then that the energy work wasn't "doing enough." It's hard for people with chronic illnesses to really get that this is a process of wellness, not a cure. It took me a while to understand it, but once I did, I had a major shift in approach and attitude. (Although with the functional problem, there are days that I do get frustrated!)

I think doing Distance Reiki on your client will be beneficial in this case. I'll be interested to know how she is doing.

On a related note, the mother of one of my childhood friends has had MS as long as I've known her (more than 20 years.) The doctors told her when she was first diagnosed that she would end up in a wheelchair. She was bound and determined not to be permanently disabled, and to this day she gets around on her own amazingly well. Stress and heat tends to cause her flares to act up, and she knows what to do in order to keep herself reasonably healthy. But it's her mind that I believe has kept her from progressing too far. She just decided a long time ago that she wasn't going to lose functional control of her body and she has done an amazing job of living up to that decision. The last time I saw her, she looked absolutely beautiful and radiant. Your client strikes me as someone who still feels victimized by her condition, rather than empowered to live as best as she can in the body she has.

Namaste!