Boy you can tell my semester is over, now I have time to post!
I have another one to throw out there:
Has anyone tried Bowen therapy for their pain relief?
I did it for a while and while it didn’t “cure” my pancreatitis, I did experience some relief. I felt physically and emotionally more stable after doing bowen. You know how you can get so emotionally strung out from the meds, the constant pain, the difficulty eating, etc. ? It somehow smoothed it out and made me more able to cope. It’s like it quieted everything that was in an uproar.
It is a recognized alternative therapy. You can search it on the net.
It is not anything you ingest, so it won’t interact with meds. The only restriction is you can’t have accupuncture, massage therapy, or chiropractic while having the sessions.
The background is that chronic pain makes a pathway in your body of stimulus-response-stimulus-response. It is the same as when you practice a reflex to get quicker at that reflex. After a while the response is going off out of sync with the stimulus. It interrupts that pathway and prompts the body to make a new one that works better.
Having it done is so peaceful. He would lie me on a table (clothing on, shoes off), dim the lights, play soft music and cover me with a light blanket. He would make a couple of gently movements on my skin in a specific spot (like a pinch/roll feeling). Then he would leave me for like 5-10 min. Then a couple more moves, and more rest. I know it sound like load of malarky, but it worked for me. Plus, when you are suffering and western med is not doing much, what do you have to lose?