The second treatment, and March second

Lots of people have been asking me for details about Dr. Frischman, the Chinese & Jewish medicine practitioner I have been seeing for a few weeks. I can link to his blog, and to a general website he put together, which can be found HERE, or HERE. If you would like phone numbers, you'll have to write me a private email, I'll be happy if I can hep.

This week's treatment went way deeper than the first one. Wow, it honestly hurt so much, I was crying and yelling out. That doesn't mean it was bad in some way, just harder for me. It was two hours. And at the end we changed my medicines to another set... one of them is for pain. I wasn't magically out of pain afterward... contrary, actually, I hurt a lot on my drive home from Jerusalem. The days that followed were definitely higher pain levels than the previous week, but less than what we started out with. I have been sleeping with a heating pad at night, on my belly, and sides, where he is breaking up the adhesions manually. This is not sissy work... not on his part and not on my part. He works very strong and hard to get into the middle of the problems in my belly, and break up adhesions, and melt that ball/cyst that is there. Not just my belly, ribcage as well, and back- lungs. My entire abdomen is stuck with adhesions, and causing me horrific pain. None of this is easy. But, he fully believes that once we do it, break up all the adhesions, they will not come back. As opposed to surgically separating organs for where they are adhesed to, the adhesions will return shortly thereafter, because that is the nature of surgery.

I received in the mail finally the surgery report from my mesh surgery. I have been curious to see which mesh was used... there are many litigations going on about surgical meshes. People are aways sending me things about them, so I wanted to see which type was used in my abdomen. Turns out that the one which was used is a very high quality mesh with no litigations, thank G-d. But, there are many, many reports on the internet about the tremendously high rate of surgical adhesions with this mesh. And the one I have is HUGE, covering part of the pelvic floor and my stomach wall. No wonder I'm riddled with adhesions.

But adhesions can exist for many years without ever bothering the person. But one day comes, as the many reports on the internet attest to, that pain starts to take over. And it is very debilitating pain. It can be triggered by an infection, which in my case, I believe that is what triggered it. That infection I had on my skin graft last spring/summer which was an open wound which was constantly weeping wound fluid, it lasted four months, defied all antibiotics. It was swabbed as a Staph infection, but antibiotic resistant. In the end I was able to get it to close up by putting Manuka Honey on it. It was *amazing*. Two weeks of twice daily application and bandaging it up, and it closed up. But shortly thereafter, like a week later, this belly pain started. It was triggered by the Staph infection, and seems as though there is still some infection inside, "protected" by a cyst, in my gut. Dr. F can feel that cyst. He said this week it felt a bit smaller to him. To me it feels like a wall- a blockade of sorts- not letting good blood flow happen.

In fact, this cyst is probably very similar, if not the same thing, as was the lipoma which was extracted from my left thigh during my initial small hernia repair, the days before NF. The surgeon himself at the time told me it was "lymph nodes with old infection, surrounded by fatty tissue, enclosing them off from the body". But the surgeon took it out, in pieces, not knowing exactly what he was dealing with, and may have inadvertently released that infection into my blood stream to land me with Necrotizing Fasciitis. In the surgeon's own hand writing, as I saw on the initial surgery report, he wrote about the lipoma "Nemic?" (necrotic?), with that question mark. Yet, he sent me home a few hours later with no antibiotics as protection, and no instructions as to what to do or not to do. He said "if it hurts, don't do it".

So this cyst-like thing in my belly right now may in fact be the same sort of thing. But we are not going to do surgery on it and break it, releasing the toxins (infection) it is trying to protect me from. The idea is that it will melt away with these hand manipulations, and just be excreted like waste product. Same with the scar tissue which formed adhesions... it should melt away. I hope and pray we are on the right path here.

I am still worried. I still have that niggling thing in my soul thinking there may be some malignant process going on that is not being treated. I am still worried that the pain I have is something else entirely. It's going to take me a few more treatments to hopefully be able to put those worries to rest. Dr. F is so completely committed to helping me, I am entirely humbled. I trust him completely. I pray that with more treatments I will slowly be returning to myself.
We still have my knee to work on (swollen, hot, and hurts constantly -has a disease called cohndromalacia), and my migraines to heal. Everything in it's own time.

Yesterday was Purim, and it was a great, and very busy day. I think I overdid it, I wound up with a SCREAMING migraine at night. I don't yet have my renewed Cannabis licence (although it's in the works), and that is the only thing that can help take the migraine away. So, I made some key phone calls to people I thought might have some, and found a dear person who shared hers with me. I sent Robert over to her at 10PM, and I was all better by 11:15. Thank G-d. Today I have slight remnants from the migraine, and am laying low.

It's a work in progress.
At some point I have to get to the emotional place so I can perhaps cancel my Mayo clinic date (April 9th). I haven't done that yet, because I'm just not there yet. I don't have complete 100% faith that what we are doing, Dr. Frischman & I, is actually the answer and I will be out of pain. I've been working hard on making important dietary changes as well. I'm taking vitamin supplements, Chinese medicines, and fiber drink to even out things in my digestive tract. My homeopaths decided to take out the Homeopathy for this treatment with Dr. F, they want to "clear the field" for these other things to work.

I think I'll get there- I mean get to the place of knowing that I don't need the Mayo clinic to diagnose me, that these treatments with Dr. F will be exactly what I need. I know G-d brings us to the right people at the right times. I just need a little more time to believe it in my deepest innermost soul.

It's almost Shabbat on this very auspicious day of March 2nd... not only my handsome nephew Adam's 22nd birthday, but also it would have been my parent's 60th wedding anniversary. They got married March 2nd, 1958. I hope they are celebrating together up there around the atmosphere somewhere.... enjoying looking upon their beautiful progeny; the fruits of that marriage. I miss you mom & dad.

Happy anniversary, you two.

And to all, a Shabbat Shalom from the Holy land.