Pancreatic Cancer, My Mother, and Reiki

When I started this little blog, I never imagined for a minute that I would be putting anything in it but Reiki Master student stories. I had stopped writing for a while because I was trying to finish up a doctoral degree. I'm still doing that, but my mother, for whom I am the caregiver, got very sick this winter with a blockage in her stomach, After surgery to connect another part of her intestine to her stomach so it could empty, the surgeons determined the blockage was caused by an inoperable tumor wrapped around a blood vessel - coming out of her pancreas. So, now our family joins 30,000 others in facing this disease, which does not have a good cure rate.

Cancer. Shit.

My mother's sister, who I mentioned in the previous post, died just days before my mom got out of the hospital. That was another tragedy.

My mom nearly didn't make it out of her surgery alive either - she spent over a week in ICU. I probably would have had a nervous breakdown if she hadn't survived. Not only do I take care of her (before now it was minimal, just making sure she could stay in her house), but she's really my best friend.

What I did do for hours on end while she was in the hospital was give her Reiki. One day, I did it for 3 hours straight. I found that it doesn't come out as strongly for the entire 3 hours as it does for an hour session.

I also had Pauline, my Reiki Master, come in and do vortex healing on her at one point, when she was still extremely weak after ICU. That's going to be the next class I take after this one.

My mother has now been home from the hospital for 3 weeks. She's getting much stronger and able to be in the house by herself for a few hours at a time, even though sometimes she's really tired as well.

At the same time, I've been researching treatment options (the doctors and social workers at the hospital were so depressing about the whole thing, so I decided to check out things myself - you have to be your own advocate in the health system). I found a new radiation technique called the cyberknife, which is based on missile technology and delivers radiation with such pinpoint accuracy that it doesn't really damage the surrounding tissues. My best friend from high school coincidentally had it done a few months ago and had no side effects at all. We're having that procedure done at Winthrop Hospital the second week in May. Three shots and you're done.

I've also been researching complimentary and nutritional approaches, including the Budwig protocol (based on flaxseed oil and cottage cheese), resveratrol, tumeric, Maitake mushroom D fraction, quercetin, etc. All of those can be used together with the radiation. Some, like tumeric, have been shown to make the chemo she may try, gemcitabine, work better.

I advocate using both. Chemo hasn't been so successful with this cancer, but this isn't a very strong agent, so we'll give it a try.

Cancer patients also have emotional issues that have suppressed their immune systems, so we're working on that too.

The big problem so far is her appetite. She went from sick but eating to feeling better and refusing to eat. Even though many pancreatic cancer patients lose their appetites, I am convinced that the surgery did nerve damage to the stomach - it's one thing to not be hungry, but it's another to feel super full after 3 bites. I'm going to get her to an acupuncturist to work on that as well as the cancer issue.

I also have been doing relaxation with her, and nightly Reiki sessions. Those sessions have been interesting on a number of levels, from the nature of our interactions, which often are very loving, to the sensations and intuitions I get while giving the treatments. I try to do an hour a night, but lately I've become a little rundown, so sometimes we only do a half an hour. But in any case, I'm religious about not missing a night. I did miss one the other day, and she woke up with symptoms of diverticulitis that she hasn't had since February. So, I have my proof of how important daily sessions are.

In the case of cancer, there are so many levels to address that I'm not sure what is being healed. I haven't seen a miracle yet, but that doesn't mean I won't. I do know that on the nights when she's got a little pain in her side the Reiki helps the oxycodone work better. She hasn't had any pain at all for the last 5 days, which I attribute to the vortex healing sessions.

So, this journal is going to be my account of nightly Reiki sessions and other aspects of my journey with my mother through her pancreatic cancer. It will literally be a journal of this Reiki experience.

I am both sad that my mom will be leaving me sooner than we both had anticipated, (but how much sooner I don't know - people have already told me about friends and relatives with the disease who are unexpectedly still here 3 or 4 years later), but I'm honored to be able to help her on her healing journey.

Tomorrow night I'll begin the reports on the sessions.