Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

a long road to healing

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • a long road to healing

    Greetings and salutations all.

    I have a long story that needs to be told, but I'll try to keep it on the smaller side.

    About 13 years ago I suffered a concussion at my job. A 60 lbs box was accidentally dropped from 12 feet up during a rush to get product off of the floor. I got a glancing block on it, which really saved me from a worse injury in the eyes of the witnesses. From then I suffered and still do occasionally some memory problems. Which in turn affected my training in Hung Gar by Sifu Carter. I'd forget a key piece that would transition me from one move to the next. This was and is most apparent in Gung Gee Fook Fu Kuen. But this injury set me up for further problems down the road.

    A year and a half later I had another injury that was way worse than I felt and what the doctor perceived. What was thought to and treated as sciatic pain for six months turned out to be a ruptured disc. A 3cm piece of my disc had become lodged into my spinal cord and thusly, it calcified up. The nerve was being choked off to my leg, the pain was getting worse and troubles urinating were becoming apparent, my training almost completely ceased. I had tried epidural injections, therapy etc, but surgery was needed.

    With a spinal doc chosen ( few regrets, but I wish I had gone to LA for the surgery.. travel was excruciating) and my doctor calling me his fish story. I went under for surgery, my spinal cord was scraped off and I was walking the next day even though I had lost feeling from the knee down in my left leg. I learned to drive stick shift from feeling the pressure in my knee. I adapted the best I could.. but training was so far out of the picture. More injections and nerve conduction studies followed. My Spinal doc then wanted to do more surgery claiming my back was very weak ( a completely differing story from before the surgery where my training, distance biking and swimming had "kept me strong"). I refused and set upon a different course.

    Pain meds, nerve meds, sleep meds, stomach meds etc. TWENTY TWO pills a day. I took the minimum for we had a one year old at the time of my surgery.. life doesn't stop, I fought the good fight. I bounced from one pain specialist to another and even a neurostimulator being implated in my back. Thanks to the ever changing world of HMOs. I found a doc that recommended acupuncture.. something I had completely forgotten about. You see, my world had become very narrowed in the fight to just keep things together and to keep a strained marriage because of the injury. I sought out Dr. Lu, an acupuncturist here in Bakersfield.

    Dr Lu's treatments over 6 months restored about 60% of my feeling in my leg, but with that.. added pain from nerves becoming hyper sensitive. A great point is that with his help, I went from 22 pills a day down to 5. Western doctors claimed I would never or at best, only get a portion of my feeling back maybe in my 80's. I have been seeing Dr Lu for about 3 years now and healing is at a stand still point. He told me this is probably as good as I am going to get, but to keep working on regaining strength. At the same time I had started to join some martial arts groups on facebook. Just trying to gather some inspiration.

    Sifu Macek was called to me and he has me doing small stance work in my walks around the house. This was about a year ago (I think.. my memory on time can be off). Slowly I have regained some strength and added nerve pain from the nerves learning to work properly again. I haven't had a pain free day in 10 years now.. but back to my story.

    From there, on a throwback Thursday, I posted a picture of me, in a bow stance doing Tiger, on a Hung Gar thread and I typed in that I am slowly working on getting back to my passion of 12 years. Sifu Eddie Lane started conversing with me and had me working on Chi Kung. Again my strength slowly started to rise a little. Think of each success as a slowly rising plain of inches after a mile. .But a success never less. A few other people from around the world, each with background in Hung Gar or Tai Chi came into my life, each recommending additions to my limited training. I can now actually balance on my left leg for 2-5 seconds. But the pain persists. I met David Langford on FB and we had a rapport, he's a great guy and we discussed Chi Kung healing. He recommended coming here (this was a few months ago and I did, but with life, home schooling and keeping my focus on the family, I tend to forget things unless I make notes.. which I restumbled upon and I am here, better late than never. As my Sifu always told me, when it's your time, it's your time. I gotta take that time now while I can and my back is good enough to sit here and type).

    David and I discussed the pros and cons to Chi healing myself. Dr Lu isn't proficient in Chi healing and both David and he suggested finding someone to assist in some way. I was led to this book Chi Kung for Health and Vitality: A Practical Approach to the Art of Energy I have the new book pre-ordered. So basically I am looking for any sort of help to get me to the next level.

    I can sit and homeschool for about 30-40 minutes at a time with an extended rest in a reclined position to recharge me to carry on. Simple tasks like washing dishes or laundry can be done lightly at times, others it is near impossible. The biggest issue is that unlike a pulled muscle where you know that "yup, I cannot take another reap or stretch any further" I have no warning signs that I have reached that threshold. Pain can creep up gradually like it has for the last 10 minutes, or it can be sudden and I have to stop as my leg pains flare up. My leg pains vary from pins and needles to spikes in the toes. A warm ache in my foot, to a sandwich press with the bottom of my foot's skin feeling peeled off and I am walking across burning sandpaper. At most I "train" 2-10 times a day doing the light stance work and a few minuted of internal with some tai chi basic exercises.

    Family calls ( I have an 18 month old girl now along with my 10 and a half year old son).

    Any and all help and or advice would be greatly appreciated and thank you for enduring this long read.

    Sincerely, David Murphy

  • #2
    Dear David,

    Thank you for sharing your story. I'm impressed by your good attitude.

    There are a number of excellent healers in the USA, you can find them here:


    At the top of the list is Anthony Spinicchia, he is very close to where you live.

    I hope this helps,

    Sham.

    Comment


    • #3
      Dear David,

      Sham has given you great advice.

      While your problems are severe, more serious conditions have been overcome through Shaolin Wahnam Chi Kung. Our Chi flow is the ideal method to get to the root of the blockages you have been experiencing.

      As well as the Healers and Instructors in your country, you may also consider learning from Sifu directly, either in Malaysia or when he visits the U.S.

      Congratulations on your fortitude and successes so far -- and wishing you even greater success in future!
      Sifu Andy Cusick

      Shaolin Wahnam Thailand
      Shaolin Qigong

      sigpic

      Connect:
      Twitter Facebook LinkedIn

      "a trained mind brings health and happiness"
      - ancient wisdom

      Comment


      • #4
        Thank you for the advice. Today has been a long day, but I will look into it for sure.

        Travel is quite difficult so it will have to be stateside for sure. As for cost, well, it'll have to be something that we save for and make some serious cut-backs to work out. One income and disability payments is livable and do-able though... I have come this far and my journey, I feel, is starting over.

        Sincerely
        David Murphy

        Comment

        Working...
        X