How I’m using qigong & Traditional Chinese Medicine to forgo total knee replacement
If you attended any of our classes since November (it’s currently March 2024), you may have found me less than fully balanced. I even had to sit through several entire classes as I guided the lesson. “Modify as needed” is something I say in class and also adhere to myself. I’ve now reached the end of and gone beyond my 40 day, self-given qigong prescription for healing my knee and I’ve fully regained my balance and stability without Western medicine’s intervention. Here’s the short version of how you, my chi family, inspired me to take control of my own health care and forget about the knife.
At about 12 years old, an unetheical and unskilled surgeon removed most of the cartilage from my left knee, leaving me much worse off then when my parents helped me walk/limp into his office after I fell in a hole while running. He was later barred from practicing medicine and his license revoked due to numerous medical malpractice incidents but not before he injured me and many others. Since then, my left knee has seen other surgeons’ knives and scopes, each one leaving me worse off than when I started.
So when my knee dislocated for the first time ever back in November (it’s not coincidence that I had just returned from burying my father—I had lost my lifelong ‘support’) and healing didn’t go as well as in the past, I got discouraged thinking I might one day have to have the total knee replacement I was told over 10 years ago I needed right then and there in order to walk and stand. It’s been daily tai chi and qigong that have kept me mobile for many years now. About a month and a half ago, through the course of a typical work day leading various group and private sessions helping people improve their balance, I got the clear message “physician heal thyself” from what some of you said that day.
I set about giving myself a qigong prescription for healing. Doing a bare minimum of about 15 minutes of online research I discovered that joint and knee issues in Traditional Chinese Medicine (which qigong is part of) are related to grief (!!!) and weak kidney chi. I knew I had to shift my pretty good diet to strengthen my kidneys. Then I thought about what qigong sets would best help my particular issue — The DaoMo 18 Muscle-Tendon Changing Classic, also called Yi Gin Ching. Then, with the authority and knowledge of ShiFu (expert) of Qigong and being a Medical Qigong Practitioner, I gave myself a 40 day qigong prescription for healing to see if my knee improved before I explored other, more invasive options.
Here’s my prescription to myself: 40 days of Matcha, Miso and DaoMo 3x/day while continuing to refrain from all “offending” activities.
The first of my matcha conversion at Tea & Chi in Vero Beach.
I immediately replaced all kidney-depleting coffee with high quality, kidney tonifying matcha tea. I began having miso soup every day to build bones. Instead of practicing my usual 1 time / day of the DaoMo 18 qigong set in my morning practice, I began the medical prescription (set down in the 6th century by DaoMo himself) of doing it 3x/day in the recommended way. (I teach this set in the Tue/Thur Traditional Temple Training classes if you want to learn it. DaMo/Bodhidarma’s most famous image below.) Also, I stopped doing all things and eating all foods that might hamper my body’s healing ability. NO SUGAR, no inflammatory foods, no alcohol, no bike rides, no walking very far, no beach, no activities that could even possibility re-injure my knee because I want to go FORWARD in healing, not backwards.
It took about 5-7 days of following this prescription for me to start really noticing a change. At about day 30 I felt like I would follow this prescription the rest of my life because it was working so well. Now at day 41 as I write this, I believe if I stick with it that within another month, my knee will be stable enough to purposely strain it and it will be able to take the small load. . . . I think I’ll be able to surf and paddle board again!!! With no surgery, no pills, no medical bills.
Think about this personal story I’m telling you the very short version of. I was injured by a physician working for an insurance company who got paid a lot of money to leave me injured for life. Other physicians also extremely well-paid by insurance companies, left me less functional than before I saw them. Without paying anyone, by simply knowing what to do and actually doing it, I have been able to avoid the “required” total knee replacement and establish full functionality using qigong, 2 diet modifications and limiting my input/and activities. THIS IS ACTUAL HEALTH CARE!!! And actually caring for my health cost me nothing! Affordable health care is a reality when we choose it for ourselves instead of letting an insurance company decide how and what a doctor can do for us and limiting us to just those options.
Don’t get me wrong: Western medicine is why I have a right leg to stand on, literally. If not for an extremely skilled surgeon putting my badly broken bones back together again after a skydiving fall, I would no longer have my real leg to stand on. Western Medicine has made huge advancements in trauma care. But when it comes to mental health, multi-system diseases and actually caring for health before it declines as “health care” instead of “disease treatment,” Western Medicine has a long way to go and is best integrated with more traditional and less invasive forms of human health care.
DaoMo aka DaMo aka Bodhidharma
What are you working for? Are you working yourself into crisis at a job you don’t like so you can afford to pay for over-priced Western Insurance/“medicine” that could leave you worse off than before? (That‘s so well known and common that you must sign a waiver not to sue your doctor if his treatment kills you!) Money cannot buy health. But when we actually take care of ourselves appropriately and patiently, our mindbodies heal themselves. We are designed to do that. We are the smartest and most efficient technology on this planet, we wear it every day in our self-healing bodies. All of us who are dealing with mental or physical recovery would be better off working instead of for the money, working to heal ourselves by how we eat, what we’re doing with our bodies, eliminating relationships and jobs and stuff in our houses and lives that drain our energy instead of building it up. If I can do it, so can you ;)
To help you even more, I’m also sharing why I often succeed where other’s fail in self-healing and getting the most out of the healing chi arts. Through the past 20 years of working in the health and wellness field I’ve seen that I often succeed where others may not heal as well for 2 very specific reasons: Consistency and Doing Less.
Consistency: Just like taking a life-saving pill, I NEVER miss my now 3x/daily practice sessions because my ability to walk is more important to me than any other errand or meeting. I once went through physical therapy side by side with someone who had nearly my same injury to recover from as mine. We had the same therapist, the same treatments and I consistently got better and better while Cindy did not. I heard her answer the PT that she was not doing the exercises at home as regularly as required. This hinders a lot of people’s healing: not doing the things that need to be done as regularly as required. Not sticking to the program, the food healing, the exercise regimen, whatever it is that this particular situation calls for to initiate full healing. Staying consistent to the treatment plan means getting the desired results.
2. Doing Less: In medical terms, “refraining from offending activities” means staying away from anything (especially activities) that make it harder for the mindbody to heal. Most people do not stop doing the things that cause strain and stress even when they are attempting to heal. Unless utterly impossible due to total system failures, people will continue to maintain aspects of their hectic schedule even if they can’t work, they’ll do/eat/drink things they love “just a little won’t hurt me” even when the mindbody is struggling to right itself. Few are patient enough to go the entire 6 weeks recommended by doctors, physical therapists and many others to allow the body full healing. Instead, people start to feel better at 4 weeks then often go back to their sport or group and frequently re-injure themselves. “Offending activities” can be what we do, eat, drink, see, hear and take part in.
Consider these ways of “refraining from offending activities”: I live two blocks from the ocean not because I’m rich but because I’m a surfer and have an intense relationship not only with water but with the ocean specifically. Since November I have only set foot on the beach twice because I know walking on unstable beach sand compromises my knee’s stability and therefore compromises its ability to heal. . . . . I wanted sooooo badly to go to a friend’s disco birthday party (I secretly love the BeeGees) but because my knee was not happy, I chose to stay home instead of being tempted to dance and strain my knee. . . . . I didn’t accept a dinner invite from a friend I enjoy because sometimes she’s a drama queen and that drains my precious energy I’m using to heal myself right now.. . . When I notice myself sitting with legs or ankles crossed, I immediately put both feet flat on the ground so the bones of my knees are in excellent alignment. . . . For several months I’ve stayed away from outside events, crowds and gatherings because too much stimulation from outside of myself distracts my inner resources from the healing work inside. . . . This is what it means to refrain from offending activities and be our own inner healer. To do less so we can heal more fully. It’s not easy to do this simple but hard work. But soon I’ll be surfing and hiking mountains again, no surgery, no pills, no bills. If I can do it, so can you.
We must exercise patience to heal and learn a different way of being than always doing/eating what harms/stresses us. Feeling better while we gently foster good health makes a lot more sense than having to wage war on dis-ease because we feel terrible.
If you have a medical issue that your Shifu might be able to help you with, consider a private consult. Perhaps you could avoid the knife and pharmaceuticals if you have the will power to push past the two areas where many others fail. There’s more to qigong than moving exercises. Meditations, food healing, relationship healing, home energy flow, massage — lifestyle can help us or hurt us. Everything is connected and if you’re ready, I’d love to help you make the changes you desire in your life to find full balance and health. Email: Info@BeachsideQigong.com to connect.
In good health,
ShiFu Lea
PS: if you’re reading this before April 5, there’s still time to register for our 1-time only Matcha Meetup Special Event. Details/registration here.
Hope to see you in the water soon!