Fighting Parkinson’s, and where it all began, part 25

Seven years ago, I began doing the Parkinson’s Recipe for Recovery®. Of course, back then it did not have a name…it was just what I was doing. At the same time, I began keeping a hand-written Parkinson’s Daily Journal. It is time to share my journal with all of you. Here is my October 22, 2009 journal entry, seven years ago today.

“10/22/09. OMG. Tuesday evening, 10/20, I had a gallstone attack! Cannot describe the pain, chills, sweats, I do not know how Sally could stand to take care of me through this ordeal. The pain began at 6:00pm.

At 12:45am on 10/21, the stone finished passing through the duct and the pain went down in half…fell asleep. Woke up at 2:00am, made my way downstairs and had a glass of water, 8oz.

Within seconds, I broke out in a sweat and got chills, so went up to bedroom…headed straight for the bathroom and threw up. Fortunately, all I had for dinner was broth with noodles. Five minutes later, threw up again.

Sally said this was good because the articles she had read about passing a gallstone said that after the gallstone successfully passed, I should throw up – I’ve always been an over-achiever – threw up again in the morning, 10/21, after a glass of water and a cup of peppermint tea. Sally told me that I was in so much agony during the ordeal, that she had spared me the news that I would be “throwing up” after I successfully passed the stone.

Sally got me propped up on the bed and gave me a small glass of Gatorade…it stayed down. I had slept 1.25 hours in the previous 28 hours and fell asleep sitting up. Sally came home from work at lunchtime and woke me, gave me another glass of Gatorade, and I went back to sleep.

I woke up a little after 4pm, had a little more Gatorade, took a shower (which wore me out), and went back to bed. Woke up at 7:45, stayed up until 10:30, and went back to bed.

On 10/22/09, up at 4 and VERY, VERY slow. Got to the kitchen at 4:12, my new world record of slowness. At 9:30, I started an email response that took me 30 minutes to write. It exhausted me and I went back to bed form 10:05 until 11:50am.

I read an article about post-gallstone-passing care, and it mentioned about staying on clear liquids for a couple of days – I will do whatever they say not to have that happen again.

I spent some time reviewing the Large Intestine channel and acupressure points because, even though I was having a gallstone attack and ultimately threw up, periodically during the ordeal, I headed to the bathroom for bowel movements…7 times, and I passed probably 10 feet or more of stools. That is a lot to just be hanging out in my large intestine.

I learned something important for me. A major point on the Large Intestine channel, LI 12, is the exact spot where I have had terrible pain with rigidity. Maybe the rigidity is squeezing the life out of a section of the Large Intestine channel and maybe that is why constipation is a common symptom of Parkinson’s.

I did acupressure in the LI channel and it was interesting – every single point on the LI channel ached, my internal tremors went crazy, and I could barely move my fingers (I could not make a fist) for about 20 minutes.”

I remember this situation well. I lost 8 pounds in one day. I was in so much pain, I thought I was going to die. I remember thinking, here I am and I will be remembered as a guy with Parkinson’s who died sitting on the toilet in the middle of a gallstone attack…the mind is interesting in how quickly it can paint the worst possible picture of what is occurring in your life. These days, I use my mind as little as possible. However, there are some adventures that make a strong mark in one’s life and this was one of them.

Ultimately, I came to the conclusion that my gallbladder had been in such bad shape that after three weeks of Medical Qigong for the Liver, I had a breakthrough — so much bile released into my terribly weakened and dry gallbladder that it lifted the stones to the top and one of them went into a very dry common bile duct. Over 6.5 hours later, it made it’s way to the other side and passed. Fortunately, over the last seven years, nobody has reported to me a similar experience…good for all of you.

In the category of “everything happens for a reason,” you can see from my journal that this ordeal, as I called it, brought to my attention issues with the Large Intestine channel (meridian), and I was able to make a little more sense of my Parkinson’s. What I mean by this is that I got a real awareness…our bodies are remarkable. When our bodies are giving us experiences we do not like, we want to squash the experiences.

However, I learned a completely different lesson — our bodies are so remarkable that many times the “unpleasant thing” going on actually is a solution to an unknown problem, or it is pointing out an unknown problem that needs to be solved. I had no idea that my body was holding so much “matter” in my intestines. Clearly, this was a major problem and was making me more ill with my Parkinson’s. So, as unpleasant as the situation was, it opened my eyes to what it meant instead of closing my eyes in misery.

It helped me fully embrace and explore all that was going on with my Parkinson’s, which ultimately assisted me in solving the disease.

That was part of the journey…each day making a little more sense out of my Parkinson’s….each day making a little more sense out of my life.

You are worth it!!!

All my best,

Howard

Please note: I will be posting one post per day through the middle of November. If you subscribe to receive email notifications when I post new blog posts and you would prefer to not receive those daily email notifications, simply send me an email at howard@fightingparkinsonsdrugfree.com, and let me know that you do not wish to receive a daily email with a link to each post. I will remove you from the list through the middle of November and add you back on the list after the middle of November. However, I still would recommend you checking the blog on a regular basis as it will contain very useful information for understanding my journey and helping with your journey.