Magic? I don’t think so…

I looked at the orthopedic surgeon with my jaw in my lap. Sadly, X-rays don’t lie, and there it was in all it’s glory; my hip -- ten years away from a hip replacement. But it didn’t stop there. The ultimate culprit to my agony is bursitis. WTF? Isn’t bursitis for old people? I’m only fifty-freaking-one, for crying out loud, so how is this possible? I admit to lousy genetics in the hip department, but impending infirmity is quite unexpected. I’ve been living in near-constant pain for three years, so I’m hardly innocent in all this. I should have sought out medical care sooner.

So as I sit staring at the X-ray, the surgeon is writing out a three week physical therapy stint to work on increasing my range of movement, which has been reduced to a fraction of my formerly long and fast stride. He tells me I’ll have to live with the bursitis for the rest of my life. Oh, I so don’t think so. I didn’t check this body out from The Big Guy only to live it in pain.

I went home and researched. The Celebrex samples he gave me were like a gift from God. I could move pain free. Until I suffered from dizziness and other unpleasant side effects. So long Celebrex. It’s okay, really, since I hate taking drugs anyway. But, oh, the pain..

PT is agonizing. It takes my breath away, and all I can do is laugh through the incredible pain as the therapist stretches, massages, pulls, and bends my leg into positions I haven’t been able to reach in some time. It feels like all 150 bursae within my body are on fire, mocking me as they inflame with impunity. I can’t remember the last time I slept without waking from the pain as I accidentally roll over on my bad side. Sometimes it doesn’t even matter how I sleep – it hurts all the time.

Until last night. I can’t imagine why I didn’t think of it sooner, but last night, for some reason, I rested my palm on my hip and let the Reiki rip through. I immediately felt the pain dissipate. I slept like that for the rest of the night, frying my hip. This morning, I’m completely pain free. My range of motion is better than it’s been in ages. I can skip down the stairs and pop up the stairs. So my new morning routine will be to do my stretching exercises and a hit of Reiki.

Now, it’s times like this when I become impatient with docs who tell me that Reiki is nothing more than magical thinking. Magic is sleight of hand stuff that gives the illusion of reality. I challenge any doc who tries to insist that no correlation exists between my late night Reiki treatment and the fact that I suddenly can move better without pain and have better range of motion than I’ve had in years.

I’ve said it for years, and I’ll say it again; Reiki can facilitate in the delivery of conventional health care. It’s easy to take, and there are no side effects. I fail to see why docs call this woo.