September 2001: The Snowball Begins Here?

Research says that what kicks off the kind of tailspin I've been in for the past six months can be due to a sudden event such as accident, assault, or loss but more commonly happens when gradual build up of illness or other stresses on the physical systems break down the body's ability to adapt and cope.

Charles A. Moss MD writes

"The imbalance can occur in patients regress or decompensate. . . .(this) can occur in any patient and is not dependent on certain diagnoses or complaints, although it is more likely  in seriously ill patients. . .  often when there is a rapid deterioration in the condition of the patient.

But every life involves stress

On September 11, 2001 in a home about a quarter mile from the Potomac River in Arlington Virginia, I sat down on the end of my bed to put on my earrings and shoes before I left the house for Pentagon City where I planned to work on a contract.

I looked up and saw a plane fly into a building. I barely moved for the rest of the day.

My husband called to ask if we were safe. Co-workers had witnessed a plane thundering by their tall glass walled office building window south of the Pentagon. Soon acrid smoke was in the air outside the house, five minutes north.

My son called from his air base letting know that they were locking down and that he loved me.

A daughter phoned from an office near the CIA. Should someone pick up her two year old at daycare?

I woke up my youngest daughter. There was something she needed to know about.

It was her sixteenth birthday and smoke swirled around Manhattan on the TV screen. It was hard to make sense of it.

And in Washington that day was followed by months

Humvees with guns mounted on the roofs stood in parking lots, at intersections, along our tree-lined streets. People hugged service members they saw on the street.

Then more months went by as old Arlington door mail-slots were taped over and letter carriers wearing latex gloves dropped mail in baskets that were set out on front porches.

I lasted six months before leaving for a thirteen month sabbatical in Colorado. I painted. I wrote. I built a website, I learned to write HTML. I learned about blogging. I didn't see a humvee.

The world I knew had changed forever. And changed on a dime

The return to Virginia was a mixed bag involving a new home in a suburban location, one daughter starting college, another daughter and granddaughter moving back home.

Doctor Moss writing in the Medical Acupuncture Online Journal, discusses a physical situation very close to mine. He reports seeing in a variety of circumstances but all having one consistent theme: a high stress level

Who does that sound like

I come into the picture challenged with Fibromyalgia, a heart condition and an old injury that increases it's grip with the years. Living in a bedroom subdivision separated by highways from even the suburban town nearby I'm an hour away from husband's work and any real activities I'd be interested in. But that was nothing.

Then comes 2008. A client doesn't pay me for Social Media work done in July and August. He later dissolves the company and begins another. A stroke comes in September. Invasive Cancer diagnosis in December. Swift surgery that's supposedly ridding me of cancer with, the surgeon claims, only a 7% risk of recurrence.

Less than 24 hours later I'm out of the hospital, but totally unprepared to be. It's four days before Christmas.

Maybe it's all been a shock to my system

Two months later I get the word from the oncologist that based on my medical file and current statistics hard core Chemotherapy is out of the question in my physical condition and the level 2 chemo I'd be a candidate for would only decrease the chance of recurrence by about 3.5%

Worse news: I've got a 19% chance of being dead in 10 years from something other than cancer and if I'm alive I've got about a 50/50 chance of having a recurrence.   

Meanwhile, Doctor Moss writes

"...In a person with energetic resilience, the imbalance can frequently self-correct with any well-designed acupuncture treatment that effectively brings balance to the energetic system. However, when the depth of the imbalance prevents a response, the (more intensive) treatment is required.

So far we've tried the initial acupuncture treatment twice, once with more dramatic success than the second but both surprisingly positive. In between the two I've had a follow up procedure with rotten results - which is why my clinician decided to go back to step one and do the H/W treatment step one from the start.

Maybe the treatment is simpler. Maybe I need to be taken on a cruise to Alaska, sent off to a spa, left in a cabin in Colorado, cuddled, swaddled, rocked, or sedated just to keep from adding to the overload.

 

Somehow - I don't think insurance pays for that either.

 

Charles A. Moss MD is in private practice in La Jolla, California, specializing in Medical Acupuncture, Integrative Medicine, and Family Practice.  A frequent lecturer in Five Element Acupuncture for Physicians,  he is a founding member of the AAMA.                

Charles A. Moss, MD  La Jolla, CA 92037  619-457-1314

Comments

[GeekMommy]

The mind/body connection is huge.
We all know it - even if most Western medicine chooses to stay mum about it.

I think you've found your triggers - now you need to find the switches to reset the system.
Glad the accupuncture is working to a point. I think perhaps you are on the right trail when it comes to finding a better center.

Much love to you... and all good thoughts your direction. May 2008 be the year many of our find our center again, and put back in balance what has been out for so very long! :)

((((((((((((((hug)))))))))))))))))

[Trisha]

Thank you for linking this in Twitter. I don't usually get to see things unless they are right in front of my face...

9/11 was my sign - I was married and pregnant at the time, and on the way to the bus depot when the planes hit - to go back to my then husband whom I'd left 3 months prior. By the time I got to the bus depot, they were no longer sending buses up north.

I should've stayed in North Carolina and given our daughter to adoptive parents then, but instead my trademark perseverance kept me standing by him for another 2 years. He still causes me grief to this day - using our daughter as a weapon.

It was my hardest but most vital lesson - the only person you -can- change is you, the only things that -will- change are those directed by your own hand.

-You- make your life. It's cheaper to live freely and (bad) stress-free than you think. If you haven't checked out Tim Ferriss's Four Hour Work Week - you should.

My problem is a little different though. Every "simple" means to my ends are not panning out. This means I have to spend more time than I would like (and originally planned) to make things work to my benefit.

I feel stuck because now I'm looking at 6 BIG projects instead of 6 simple tasks - and I'm not sure which would be more profitable. Although I -know- that 2 of them have much less risk, they will require constant attention - and "constant attention" is the exact kind of task I want to get away from.

Everything that holds risk will build passive income, but now that they've become big projects instead of simple tasks, they too are competing with my risk-free income options for precious time.

I have to figure out how to integrate the two so I can eventually phase out the time-sucks - especially since my simple solution (getting a credit card so I could throw money at it) has now fallen through the floor...