When the e-mail came from Jeanne that she was having a Reiki group at Martha's I thought I'd go, since I knew nothing about Reiki and had heard and read the word many times. When I remembered I had another engagement with Barbara, I sent Jeanne a note telling her I wouldn't be able to make it. As time drew closer for the meeting I felt more and more drawn to go and emailed Barbara that I wouldn't be at her session because I wanted to learn about Reiki.
The day for Reiki I began to get pains in my stomach that told me the intestines were blocking again. Surgeries had left scar tissue and although I've had surgery to remove the scar tissue, the surgery only made more. For the past two years, every few months I've spent five or six days in the hospital with a stomach pump. The pains had slowed a little by the time to leave.
As I was walking out the door, the repair man came to fix the leak in the new skylights, so I was late getting started. Jeanne said Sapp Road was just a short distance off Branchview, and since it was dark and I couldn't read those little street signs while driving, I turned each road and drove until I found it was the wrong one.
Already late, and I'm not usually late, I became more and more frustrated, and finally told myself that if the next road were not Sapp Road, I was going home. It was. However, the printed directions were for coming in another direction, so I stopped a few times to read them, got close and drove by a few times before I found I was in the right place.
Jeanne hadn't started yet, as if they were waiting for me, even though I was quite late. She'd opened the booklet and was on the second page, I believe, just a few minutes into the presentation, when a pain hit hard. "I've gotta get to the bathroom. Don't say anything important until I get back."
I was sitting on the toilet when I felt the vomiting start. Thankfully, Martha had a clean plastic bag in a waste basket nearby. Vomiting had become the signal that meant get to the hospital fast. I returned to the group and said, "I've got to leave. Looks like I'll be in the hospital instead of at the beach retreat." Martha was going to the beach retreat also, and all day I'd been telling myself that I was going to the beach and not the hospital.
To the best of my memory, Jeanne said something like, "You can go the hospital if you want, or we can take care of it here."
I really didn't believe her. "You mean Reiki can unblock a blockage? I'm ready."
There was some kind of a mat on a high, long table and I got on it, hoping it would work, but with serious doubts, thinking I'd probably suffer more severe pains for waiting so long before getting to the hospital.
My memory is vague about what happened on that table, with Jeanne's hands at my head and the others around the rest of me. There was not one pain while I lay there. Everyone was relaxed and talked to each other.
After a few minutes, Jeanne told me that she was getting a picture of me as head of a regiment of soldiers in the Civil War. Somehow I saw to it that not one soldier was killed, and now they have come back as the children I taught in the Chicago ghettos, and the book I'm writing about them is their gift to me for what I did for them. I do remember asking if I were a Yankee or a Rebel and she said I was Confederate, and we all laughed.
As I was getting ready to leave, I had to rush to get to the bathroom. Diarrhea and vomiting. Martha put a plastic bag inside a brown paper bag for me to take with me. I used it only once in the twenty minutes or so it took to get home.
My sister called and I told her about the session and I'd know soon whether it worked or whether I'd be in the hospital by morning. She doesn't believe in such things as hands on healing, and said to call if I needed someone to drive me to the hospital.
By midnight, with lots of diarrhea and vomiting, Jeanne called this my "detox", the blockage was cleared and I had a good night's sleep. I still don't understand it, but Reiki saved me a disagreeable hospital stay, $395.00 due the hospital after insurance coverage, and I had a wonderful beach trip.
Thanks, Jeanne, and Reiki.
A NOTE: Dee is a Concord native who returned to Concord after many years of teaching in the Chicago school system. She is now retired and is a vibrant, intelligent woman who is over 70 years old.
As of May 2003, Dee has not returned to the hospital for any further surgeries or blockages. Her book has been published and she has enjoyed many trips to the beach.
Links
Jeanne Porter Ashley Home Page
Silver Bridges Applications Home Page
Angelfire
