Hi, everyone. I really appreciated finding my name on the healing list for last Saturday (posted by Anita). I thought I would explain the procedure I went through and how Qigong has helped me.
I was diagnosed in 1999 with mitral valve prolapse with moderate to severe regurgitation of blood back into the chamber. I was put on an ACE inhibitor that almost did me in. Luckily, I found a cardiologist who prescribed something more benign that I was able to tolerate. I found out from one of the doctors before my procedure that I was probably born with this condition. In 2000, I received the literature for Spring Forest Qigong from Learning Strategies, and thanks to the generous offer of payment plans, I was able to buy it for myself. I was not one of those people that had instant results. In fact, I was very impatient with learning the exercises. I have stuck with it on and off since then, mostly on since I attended the conference in 2003. When I came home from that conference, my doctor wanted me to have surgery, but I put it off, and when it seems as if in spite of Qigong that I would really have to have open heart surgery, I transferred to one of the top hospitals in the country that had done a lot of pioneering work in valve surgery. The new cardiologist confirmed my need for surgery, although she said that for some reason, I was in a unique class of people doing surprisingly well for the condition I was in and in pretty decent shape from runnning and exercise tapes I do which combine aerobics, weight training, pilates and yoga. I started researching the valve surgery looking for places that had good statistics for replacement as opposed to repair, and I found out about evalve, which is the procedure I had. I was in discussions with a doctor at Columbia Presbyterian who said I sounded like a good candidate, but my husband suggested that I call Evalve and ask if they had sold any devices to Brigham and Women's here in Boston. I e-mailed Evalve and asked when Brigham and Women's would be participating in this study, and they said they already were and gave me the contact information. I contacted the two coordinators in March, and last Wednesday, instead of having open heart surgery, they snaked a catheter up through the groin area and placed a clamp on my valve. I had a couple of setbacks as far as my heart rhythm goes, but they said that was to be expected because my heart had gotten pretty irritated while they were poking around. I can only imagine what my heart must look like by looking at the bruises on my arms from IVs and on my abdominal and groin area from the catheter. I am taking blood thinners and beta blockers (temporarily) to overcome any of the problems caused by the irritation. That in itself shows how wonderful Spring Forest Qigong has been for me. Normally, I would not have been able to tolerate such medication, but here I am getting ready to start work in a few minutes. I feel honored that I am the first person in New England to have this procedure done as part of the study, which is supposed to change the way valve issues are treated in the future. Eventually, they plan to do it just using a local anesthesia as they do for other catheterization procedures.
While I was in the hospital (in the cardiac ICU the whole time), I was unable to use my Qigong sitting meditation tapes, but I was able to chant under my breath at various times. And, while they were inserting some painful IVs and later when they were removing the catheters, I called upon Master Lin for help as my Master, and I seemed to hear him say, just let the Qi flow through you, and I was able to stay calm and focused, although usually I have a very low pain threshold.
I'm sorry this is so long, and I'm sorry for any misspelling due to not having my spell checker work on this site, but I just wanted people to know what happened and to know that although I ended up having a procedure (as opposed to being completely healed without it), I am doing so much better than I would have if I did not practice Spring Forest Qigong, and I now think that maybe a purpose was served in having to go through this because now more people are going to be able to avoid open heart surgery to repair heart valves.
