The Place of Beginnings

"Faith is an island in the setting sun.  

But, proof, 

proof is the bottom line 

for everyone".

Paul Simon

I am an energy aficionado and I have a question.  Why have we given over our faith energy to the pharmaceutical industry whose ads confound us with their endless side effects and not Spirit and its endless and infinite possibilities?  I have never heard feathered into any one of these mainstream media medical ads at the beginning, the middle or the end, that this that or the other drug will actually cure us.  On the contrary, taking drugs approved by the FDA in this country comes with a plethora of possible side effects that will only lead us to additional drugs with an even longer laundry list of side effects.  If proof is the bottom line for every one the jury is in, the decision is final, just say no to drugs.  Perhaps there is another agenda?  Well, of course there is, I'm being silly.  You know it.  I know it.  The entire world knows it.  So, how can we get around it?  Are there any real healing and wellness alternatives out there for our maladies or are we doomed to pharmaceuticals for all eternity? How did we actually arrive at this state of being?  Are we all really this ill that we need all of these toxins?  Penicillin is less than one hundred years old and just look at how many drugs are on the market today with their corresponding illnesses that probably didn't even exist back then.  

Okay that was way too many questions and that all just lends itself to my passion and how taking back our health is of optimum importance.  I don't want you to just feel a little better, I want you to feel amazingly better.  My goal is to teach as many people as possible that they are making themselves sick in a lot of cases with the substances they consume and absorb, the thoughts they think and project and ultimately the energy that either sustains or depletes them,   I work with energy but what does this mean?  This means that the subtle energies that exist around us and are emitted from us are scientifically and humanly detectable and if you work towards that ability you not only can detect these energies in yourselves, but you can transmute the negative ones and help to heal them where necessary, through the grace of God, of course.  You can do this just as easily as I can and it starts with intention, prayer and meditation and once you begin your practice there is no limit to what you will learn and experience about energy and how much of it you actually are so changing it becomes easy and effortless especially as it pertains to personal wellness and healing.

By now, most of us know that everything in existence is made up of pretty much the same star dust energy as everything else.  At the center of even the most dense matter, when you get down to the atomic level nothing is static or stagnant.  When you get down to the sub atomic level even those atoms are moving with a pulsating life force energy that is changed only by your observation.

Imagine.  You become aware of your thoughts and your frequency, the vibration you are putting out into the universe and you decide to change it and it changes.  The potential for world peace lies therein I would think.

That's a rabbit hole of a different depth and I digress, but not really.  Getting back to everything and everyone is emitting a frequency that is scientifically detectable.  Plants, animals, people, sound, light, scent, inanimate objects all emit a frequency and these frequencies vibrate at different levels.  The best way for me to describe the difference and how you may have already been able to feel these frequencies, when you walk into a room that’s open and inviting and filled with flowers or plants and children and loved ones you may notice the energy is very loving and inviting, comfortable and healing.  On the other hand, if you walk into an environment where an argument has just taken place or is taking place and you see and hear the argument escalating, you may notice that your heart rate increases along with your blood pressure and you may think this is a natural response for most of us and you’d be right.   A person just walking into either of those environments can blindly absorb all the energy around them and carry it around for days.  A high vibration can linger just as long as a lower vibration only the lower vibration has an uncanny ability to destroy and cause disease while the higher vibration has an uncanny ability to calm and cause healing.  What energy workers try to teach is that firstly there is a detectable vibration and that we are either raising it or lowering it depending on our state of awareness.  The second is that you are emitting a vibration and you are responsible for where you point that thing!  Don’t be pointing your vibration in my direction unless you know what you’re emitting.  We are always emitting and absorbing but the goal and ultimate objective is to become so aware that we emit only unconditional love, one of the highest possible compassionately healing vibrations.  We then detect and shield ourselves from the lowest ones transmuting them into the positive and to take this notion to its highest possible fruition, to heal the human body and then for that healed human to heal other humans.  J 

Proof?  Yes, yes.  There is proof in Spirituality but how do you package an experience?  In our Western capitalist culture we are manufacturers of product so where is the Spiritual product that proves that Spirit exists and healing exists?  I personally use incense and healing crystals and anointed essential oils and all of them become useless without my intention.  However, with my intention and the grace of God all things are possible and I've EXPERIENCED phenomena that Science would argue is not provable but what does Science have to do with God?  Well, it has everything to do with God but people tend to get in the way.  God reveals Him/Herself to each open heart as the open heart seeks, shows up, listens, taps into, reaches up, prays and meditates.  You have to be in attendance and Spirit will touch you and provide you with all the proof you need.  It becomes irrefutable.  This proof is the kind of energy Healers, Yogi's, Priests, Monks, Sisters and devoted followers have been speaking about for eons.

Everyone emits their own personal frequency.  Some people just make you feel better and some just don't.  I leave it up to you to decide but try not to judge just try to become more aware.  Personally speaking I’ve had my own experiences with energy, which have lead me here today and my purpose is not to convince you but you to teach you that energy is detectable, we all emit frequencies and some of us work really hard to tap into higher levels of consciousness so as to be able to detect and transmute the lower energies.  Imagine a room full of negative ions and a very high vibrating positive ion enters into the equation, well that positive ion especially if it has the grace of God and intention to do so, has the potential to transmute all of those negative ions into positive ones.  In translation, energy workers have the potential to turn negative energy into positive energy through teaching, anointing, laying on of hands, through prayer, primarily though the driving force in all of it; God, intention and the desire and love to help people heal themselves from stress, heartache, suffering and ultimately illness.  There are many like me who walk about spreading the great news that there is real healing in the world.  There is also a tremendous need for more healers.  Perhaps you're being called to take yourself to the next level in your own spiritual development.  I say 'perhaps' but I know you are being called to the next level, we all are.  The question becomes will you answer?

Meditation is one way to answer the call.  It is a very powerful way to connect to source.  Prayer and meditation go hand in hand like inhaling and exhaling.  They work in tandem to bring life force energy into the breather.  Meditation is a spiritual relaxation technique that helps you to hear closely what the body needs, what the spirit needs, and what the soul needs because it settles you into the core of your true being, your true nature, your true essence.  You think you’re just human and let’s be clear, just human is a brilliant, amazing, incredible mind blowing trip.  But what’s going on inside of this human and how it connects to everything else that’s alive and everything else that exists is mind blowing on a level that you can only reach through meditation and that is anything but 'just' spiritual. 

The sublime ultimate is pure spirituality existing in the consciousness and intention filled, light saturated human being.  The human that yields its outward fading shine and inward miraculous mechanics to an infinite and omniscient spark presence is surely a being that time would surely charm, per Axel Rose in November Rain “If you could heal a broken heart, wouldn't time be out to charm you”?

Meditation takes you into the quiet, peaceful, tranquil, vast space of your heart center.  It is the place where silence and stillness exists in the midst of your never still body.  Your body is in constant motion, even when you’re sleeping.  You are a ‘life force being’ who radiates energy vibrations, just like electricity.  Some of us operate at full capacity easily and effortlessly.  Some of us are barely operating.  Some of us are somewhere in between.  Some of us are sick and some of us on this planet are so out of touch.  So how can we get to the place of beginnings?

Meditation is a vacation within that teaches us over time where our center is, what balance feels like and where our jumping off and landing back point is, our place of beginnings.

 

What do I mean by that?

 

Life has a way of pushing us around, literally and figuratively.  Sometimes we overextend ourselves, we stop taking care of ourselves and allow ourselves to get away from optimum health, we over eat, or over drink or over work too much, we lose sleep, we get into arguments, we get disappointed, we get stressed out, frustrated, we act out and we can eventually get sick from all of this pushing. 

Unfortunately, the humans I've experienced around the Northern New Jersey area in particular are quite interested in pushing.  They push on the highway, in the hallway, in the grocery store, at the mall.  You do not want a confrontation but if the majority of the people are walking around with dense energies, you are susceptible to that energy.  You can absorb that density and take on its traits and become short tempered, get really stressed out and start to push back.  We’re watching all over the world people being pushed by low vibrating humans and then other low vibrating humans are pushing back, harder and more often.

Meditation is the opposite of pushing.  Meditation is the acceptance, release, detachment and freedom from every day stresses that once you begin to practice, seem to, over time, have less meaning.  Your frequency gets higher.  The denser energies of sadness, disappointment, anger, and stress, etc. resonate less.  When we operate from a low capacity these denser energies resonate strongly since we are closer to that vibration but optimally our goal is to raise our vibration, increase our capacity to accept and release thereby creating freedom which I can associate with the feeling of a really amazing vacation where you breathe deeply without a care in the world.  The secret is that the ‘vacation’ lies within perception.

Sounds easy right?  Well it is.  Meditation is the easiest thing in the world to do.  You do not need any equipment (although Young Living Essential Oils definitely help), you do not need any special clothing.  All you need is the desire to reach a state of being that is peaceful, joyful, expansive, healing, Holy, and delightful.

Eat, drink, use the restroom, shut off all electronic equipment and be prepared to sit comfortably, uninterrupted for at least 5 minutes the first time.  Notice I did not say there should be silence in the world.  There is no such thing.  As I am typing I can hear the orchestra of crickets outside my window.  There will ALWAYS be distractions.  These will be effortlessly and easily overcome with practice.  Do not concern yourself with noise.  Just go within.

 

Sit or lie down or hang from a tree if that makes you comfortable, the key is to come to meditation with no physical desires EXCEPT stillness, peacefulness and grounding.  I use Highest Potential or Peace and Calming Essential Oil and inhale it deeply to further prepare myself for this quiet time.

After you've read all the way through, begin by closing your eyes.  Take a few deep breaths, inhaling deeply and holding it in at the top of the breath for a moment or two, and then releasing slowly and fully.  Repeat this two, or three times to bring your focus to your breath and away from the many thoughts of the mind. 

At this point the mind may resist and ask you to do a million things, and it may even chastise you for not ‘doing’ something, but trust your highest self.

“You are a human being not a human doing”.

as Deepak Chopra said, and meditation is indeed ‘something’.

 

Relax into your breathing, and begin to WATCH as your many endless, contrary, opinionated, passion filled thoughts come to your mind to distract you, to tell you of their urgency.  Relax and just let them float by, returning to your deep inhale, holding it at the top for a moment or two, and then releasing slowly.

Every time you find yourself ‘thinking’, bring your focus back to your breath and away from the mind.  The goal is to create space in between your thoughts.  The goal is to quiet the mind and connect you to your warm and loving heart center so that you can connect with your highest self, your life force energy, your Chi, Ki or Qi.  With practice, you can learn to connect, tap into, turn onto, lean into, and radiate from your heart center all the peace necessary to navigate this world which is by far the most powerful way to go.

There is more positive energy emanating from a meditative heart than anger from a bitter one.  Bliss, joy, love and peace are derived, cultivated, shared, taught and learned from this energy center.  They are the highest vibrating emotions and intentions one can have.  Meditation helps us to release anything that holds us back from these and unconditionally loving ourselves first and then one another.

Now, with a deep inhalation bring your attention from the breath in your chest to your heart center where all the love in the world is stored.  Place your hand on your heart with the intention to love, honor, embrace and comfort yourself for all that you do, have done or will do as a spirit being having a human experience.  If you know you've done the best you can do, love yourself.  If you know you can do better, love yourself.  If you know you've not done enough, love yourself.  Try and create a deep love for yourself and if possible, love deeper. Connect your deep breathing with the slow, steady, rhythmic beat of your heart.  This is the source and pulse of energy and frequency that you are emitting.  Others coming into your presence can feel this emission before they speak with you.  Emit the highest possible frequency and just like sound waves bounce and return, the highest possible frequency will emit back.

Inhale deeply.  Think calm.  Hold for a moment or two, exhale deeply and smile. Congratulations.  You have just taken your first meditation trip to the place of beginnings.  This place is your source of all calm, peace, bliss and joy, even in the midst of hardships and trials.  This center place is the place you want to become intimately familiar with.  The more you visit the calmer and more peaceful your state of being will become and the more your ability to cope with adversity increases.  Naturally this will spill over into every cell in your body making them calmer and more peaceful and that increases health and wellness.  Meditation is the first step to become aware of and taking control of your state of being and making sure you are on the right track.  You can visit this place as often as you like, you just need to close your eyes, take a deep breath and begin your journey within.

Namaste,

Maria

Still Riding the Energy Wave

(Thank you Bergen Community College)

Today was a day. Well, they're all days - but today...one of my favorites.

I got to spend time with some young, beautiful, vibrant, glowing students at Bergen Community College. Professor Lisa Sargese invited me to give a talk on Reiki and I humbly accepted the invitation. The time seemed to fly. The energy in the room was exceptional. I prayed for these students long before I met them. I sent Reiki energy to each and every one of them. Honestly, I'm sitting here typing at 9:25 full of energy, still riding the wave.

I just realized that I had only eaten a small yogurt and a blueberry multi-grain bar today...and tons of water. I do fast from time to time - deliberately - but today I wasn't planning on it. I've barely eaten. I also realized that I'm getting much better at fasting. It seems that every since I've been attuned to Reiki energy, fasting is as easy as pie...no pun intended.

I am not hungry. I do not have a headache. I have a lot of energy. Do I feel like folding the laundry? No. But I could do it easily and mop the floors if I wanted to. I love that.

I love and am grateful for the opportunity to share. You know it really does come back to you tenfold. I never look for the yang of it...but when yin is in motion, yang is sure to follow. Call it karma, call it a boomerang...call it a chipmunk for all I care...it doesn't matter what label you put on energy. What flows from you, will return to you.

(Special thanks to LM)

What's in your energy?

Sleep Like A Baby

My back has been acting very cranky lately. It could be because I've been doing too much Spring cleaning but it's definitely not because I've been working out too much.

I went to the chiropractor for several adjustments only to be told to 'stop working out for now' and 'if it doesn't improve, we'll send you for x-rays'.

Well, that got my attention.

So after a couple of weeks of being in agony and trying the chiropractic way, I pushed myself into real action.

I've taken several hot Reiki baths with salt. I've changed my pillow. I meditated stretched, did yoga and some weight training.

And you know what?

BIG improvement.

I realized I was solidifying the Dr.'s report and undermining my own recovery. I could feel a nerve pinching in my arm - well over the shoulder and down my arm. It was making me very upper-body weak mentally and physically. His report only made it worse.

The first push up I tried to do was excruciating...but after a few minor adjustments (no chiropractic pun intended) I can now do 3 sets of 10 without wincing.

Yoga, meditation and Reiki today were amazing. I could feel energy blockages releasing. I could hear vertebrae taking their rightful positions. In my minds eye I could see health and my body started to respond.

The more I did, the better I felt.

I REFUSE to go for an x-ray for my spine. It's just not necessary.

What is necessary is a change in attitude.

Every night I'm doing self Reiki. Every day I'm working out. Every day I'm expecting positive results.

So far, so good.

No x-ray for me today. Nope.

Just yoga, Reiki and positive expectations.

I will not go quietly into the night. But I will sleep like a baby.

Soothe Your Soul

This is the day. This is the day that the Lord has made.

I will rejoice. I will rejoice and be glad in it.

There is so much turmoil all around us from the failing economy. Corporate America's karma has caught up with her. We are all stewards of this earth and everything in it. Corporate America is no different. They are stubborn and greedy and now the whole system is in jeopardy of collapsing.

My concern is that our Spiritual health is also failing. We've taken Almighty God out of our daily lives, our daily conversations, heck, we can't even put Christlike images in places like City Hall anymore. Are we any better for it? Or has our spiritual karma caught up with us?

Where do you go when the cards come tumbling down?

Do you go to the bank?

Do you go to the mall?

Do you go to your psychiatrist?

All these places are good, but not for spiritual health, healing, wellness or insight.

I'm afraid the avenue to true spirituality has been detoured, blocked up, damned up and we're reaping now what we've sown.

It's time to get back to basics.

Go to church. Go to the synagogue. Go to the temple. Go to the mosque.

Meditate. Read the Word.

Help your neighbor.

In Reiki, we place our hands above the body in an effort to exchange energy. When was the last time you placed your hands on someone with the intention of exchanging energy?

Are your intentions "me" based or do you think of and help others?

One telltale sign that your universe is in jeopardy of collapsing is the "me" factor. If your life is in turmoil. Go help someone.

If you need anything, go and meet the needs of someone else.

Like attracts like. Love attracts love. Selflessness attracts selflessness.

The equation is and has always been "do unto others as you would have done unto you".

If you are lost and confused and you need to find your way, look to the Heavens. Look to your divine nature.

Your mind and your body and your Spirit are tools. Use them. Try them. See what works for you. Be active in participating in this life. Do not sit back and wait for things to happen. See what soothes your soul.

True manifestation works this way...think it...believe it....DO IT!

If you are ill, think about wellness, believe in wellness and be active in getting well. Seek other ways of wellness - ones you've not searched out before. Take your meds - but believe that perhaps one day, you'll not need them.

Change your diet.

Change your focus.

Change your mind.

God is, and has always been ready, willing and able to help us in our journey. We tend to forget or heaven forbid, deny His existence and even our own at times.

This is a recipe for disaster in the form of depression, sickness, dysfunction, dis-ease in general.

Jesus said "I have come so that they may have life, and have it more abundantly". What are you choosing today?

He also said "Choose life". That's a commandment.

What are you seeking?

Might I suggest..."Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you."

Help Is Within Reach

I'm realizing more and more that the path that I am on is the right one. I've been on the wrong one in the past more often than not - so the clarity that I have now cannot be denied.

Illness manifesting in our bodies due to past trauma is something that I'm coming to terms with in a big way in my life. It seems that as soon as I accepted this reality, opportunity began to present itself to me.

"So, you want to help people huh"? says my mind.

"Yes, I really do". says my heart and spirit.

Well, be careful what you ask for.

There are so many people in pain all around us if we would only take the time to speak with them. You need only to look into the eyes of a person to see it.

I met someone over the weekend that fits that description to a T. His name is Joe and he is in some serious pain. We went to his restaurant in Elizabeth and while we were sharing a meal with some friends he came out from the back where the food is prepared. He had a beautiful smile - but the smile didn't come very easily. He was cordial and pleasant - but just don't scratch the surface.

Now, keep in mind, I've never met this man in my life.

Underneath his forced smile is a man in a tremendous amount of pain. My heart instantly went into an empathic overdrive mode as I could see it - no, I could feel it.

He came over to our table and made some small talk. He said something about his mind always racing. He said something about crying. My husband agreed with him and said "yeah, I cry too - but not in front of my wife". We laughed because I knew what my husband was talking about but not what Joe was talking about. I knew there was something so much deeper going on. I reached into my spiritual bag of medicine and I asked him if he ever meditated and he said no. How about prayer? Meh, not so much. We made some more small talk and he left the table to go tend to his restaurant.

After some time, I went over to where Joe was standing and starting to speak with him some more. Now, this is where it gets personal - but how can we help each other unless we are willing to go out on a limb? I said before I could feel his pain. I mean, I wanted to cry to release some of the pressure but that would only help me - not him. I was praying in my spirit the whole time I was speaking with him asking God to show me...

I asked Joe plainly....."are you suicidal"?

I asked him this because I know what that looks like and feels like. I've been there. I knew he was - but I didn't know if he was willing to release any of the pressure that was building up inside of him.

Well, he just about jumped out of his skin. He looked at me in amazement. He grabbed his head with both hands "How do you know that"? he asked me.

I just know Joe. I've been there. Thank God I'm no longer there - but that neighborhood looks awfully familiar and scary.

He went on to say that he purchased a hand gun three months ago and that he was planning on killing himself.

He said it wouldn't be long now.

I pleaded with him and offered him my friendship and prayers. I gave him my telephone number and told him to call me anytime. I told him he didn't have to do that and that maybe, just maybe, things could get better.

I began to tell him a little bit more about myself and about how I used to feel the way he feels. I told him it can get better.

I'm not sure if he believed me.

It was time to leave the restaurant so, I took his number and we left. I spoke to my husband about what I had just learned. He said he could also see that Joe was in pain.

It was so obvious to us.

Suffice to say, I've already prayed for and sent Reiki to Joe. I've called him this morning and thank God he answered the phone. I have to call him back in a short while. I'm going to try and reach him on a more spiritual level but until he deals with whatever is bothering him - healthwise, he's in critical condition.

He is just one of many of us right now that are trying to cope with the reality that is our lives. We sometimes have to look at the unpleasant in order to find peace.

That's the way it's worked for me anyway - or should I say - is still working for me. I've been down that road and lived on that street in that neighborhood for a long time. It wasn't until I opened my mouth and spoke some really hard truths that the moving van showed up and took me to a much better place.

So, you want to help people huh?

Yes, yes, I really do.

DEBORAH KING, J.D., author of Truth Heals: What You Hide Can Hurt You (Hay House 2009), is a health & wellness expert, attorney, national keynote speaker, frequent TV and radio commentator, a regular blogger for The Huffington Post and Psychology Today, and a “healer to the stars.” She also hosts her own radio show, "Truth Heals with Deborah King." As a young attorney and hotel developer, Deborah suffered from a host of emotional and medical problems, culminating with cancer in her twenties. Her amazing recovery led her to leave the corporate arena for the alternative medical field, where she mastered ancient and modern healing systems and ultimately developed a powerful energy healing technique of her own. She is trained to address both the mind and the body’s health and disease processes. Deborah makes frequent appearances on national news and entertainment programs, and is known for her insightful and entertaining commentary on the news of the day.

Deborah says, "I learned about the mind body connection when I was working on healing the cancer that woke me up in my twenties. It was only when I faced the truth of the childhood sexual abuse that I experienced that I understood why the emotional pain we’ve buried in our bodies must be released."

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"I can do all things through Christ... "

Joan & Frank

a.k.a. Mom & Dad

"...who strengthens me." Philippians 4:13

I feel very weak. Must be a virus or something. Interesting how it came about shortly after I found out my Mom has to have angioplasty this Friday. Mom described her symptoms as weakness, overall malaise, no pep, short of breath, pain in upper left side of chest. She'd been diagnosed through a stress test and the results are leading to this procedure wherein a stent may be introduced to her clogged artery. Heart failure is a possibility without the procedure and since Mom has diagnosed symptoms, the time is right for her to get some relief.

Dad had been diagnosed the same way - through a stress test. They called the blockage in his heart a 'widow's peak' saying without the surgery, he would have a massive coronary. So, Dad did the only thing he could do. He walked into the operating room at Columbia Presbyterian in New York and allowed leading cardiologist Dr. Mehmet Oz (who is regularly seen on Oprah and is a Dr. god in my opinion) to perform a successful quadruple bypass surgery on him. This was seven years ago. Since then, Dad's been very healthy and living a good, clean life - Thank You God.

I remember being very strong when Dad was going through all of this. My sister Debbie almost passed out at the hospital, but I wasn't shaken. I just knew he was going to be alright and being strong in front of my father was always very important. Only the strong survive kind of mentality, so whilst on the front line - you 'keep a stiff upper lip' as my grandmother Violet used to say.

But with Mom it's different. Immediately, the sympathy pains and symptoms arrived after she told me. I could feel the blood pound into my ears hard, b-bam, b-bam, b-bam, what? Not again. Not Mommy. She's selflessly worked her whole life providing for her children and then for her elderly Mother, why should she have to go through any of this? I guess because we're only human after all. But, I want to be superhuman and take it all away from her. Go through it for her. Spare her the anxiety of getting up at 5am on one of the coldest days of the year and voluntarily going to St. Michael's in Newark to undergo a procedure that involves her heart.

Any procedure that has to do with the heart, the brain, the lungs...c'mon, it's heavy.

I want to protect her the way she protected me my whole life. I got sick a lot when I was a child. I was born breech and had one leg shorter than the other. Mom had to exercise my little legs daily to help them grow. In appreciation at the time, I basically kicked and screamed my bloody head off. Then, I had my tonsils removed, and ear tubes put in. I had asthma. But Mom...she was always at my bedside with a cold compress and vicks vapor rub in the humidifier, chicken soup and a few coloring books and before you knew it, I was nursed back to health.

Even last year when I had my surgery she was at my bedside wishing, loving and praying me back to health. Thank you Mommy. I love you and I hope you know I will always be here for you. It's the least I can do. Afterall, you've done so much for me, not to mention giving me life. That's what I'd like to do for my mother. Give her chicken soup, a cold compress, a snoot full of vicks vapor rub and a smooch on the head. No more, no less. She is so precious to me.

Today, according to the American Heart Association heart disease is still the leading killer of humans. And while angioplasty and bypass surgeries are very common and safe procedures to the administrators, to us it's frightening.

And in times likes these, and when my joys are too many to count, I lean on my God in prayer. I lift up my Mother and ask God to give her peace, health and a good report. I ask God to give the doctor's energy, finesse and life in their nimble hands. I ask God to remind them that each life is precious, each procedure is a life - mother, father, sister, brother. I ask God to make Mom's path straight and restore her to good health so as to live a life long, prosperous and most comfortable. I ask these things through Christ who strengthens me. Amen.

The Fast Track Back to Health

Today's blog is dedicated to my husband Jimmy. I wanted to post this experience because it changed both of our lives. Read on...

Began Writing March 2007 after Jim's surgery...edited after mine in June 2007--->

What I really want to be doing right now instead of sitting at my computer is deep stretching on the floor like my cat Mohito does every time she gets up from a resting position. I’ve not deeply stretched or exercised for the past five weeks while I recover from emergency partial hysterectomy surgery. The past five weeks have been rough but let’s go back a few months.

2007 started out with my husband Jim needing hip replacement surgery. Jim is a very strong, active, sports minded 44 year old man in no way ready to slow down, even though the previously diagnosed osteoarthritis in his right hip was worsening. We know he got this joint disease due to his participation in heavy contact sports all of his life along with a predisposition to weak joints from the family gene pool. This ‘wear-and-tear’ degenerative type of arthritis causes the cartilage to wear away over time so the bone ends rub together. Jim did not need a Dr. to tell him he had serious hip problems. Every day his hip increased in pain and weakness.

Jim began his sports career as a young man competing on the wrestling mat, the football field, the ice rink and even the race track. He was captain of the Cedar Grove High School football team and brought his team to multiple victories simultaneously coaching while competing. After he graduated high school, Jim settled in coaching football. His ice hockey days were reduced to once a week, sometimes only twice a month depending on the intensity of pain and level of weakness in his hip.

That went on gratis for the past twenty seven years, just for love of sports and teaching. Sports are at the center of Jim’s life so when his hip started to act up, his instincts were to push through, push hard, don‘t complain, don’t give in to the pain. By the time the third Dr.’s opinion confirmed what we already knew, Jim was ready for a complete right hip replacement and he was only 44 years old which is considered to be pretty young for this type of surgery. Most hip replacement candidates are in the 70‘s or older and their recovery expectations are definitely not what Jim‘s were. He had a pretty bad limp by then and the weakness in his leg was obvious to everyone around him. He was losing the ability to do normal day-to-day things like getting in and out of his truck. Walk. Run. This was devastating to this sports minded athlete, Teacher, Coach. He wanted his life back.

The surgery was performed on March 5, 2007 by Dr. Mark Hartzband of the Hartzband Joint Replacement Institute, a Dr. god that leads his industry using various types of implants made of metal and plastics. Dr.‘s choice for Jim was an intimidating titanium steel on titanium steel prosthesis implanted through a four inch incision on the back of Jim‘s right hip. The procedure took a mere forty five minutes at Hackensack University Hospital in Hackensack, NJ. Note to reader, Jim was awake during the entire operation. Did you know that an epidural and a percocet are all one needs to endure such a procedure? Jim could actually hear the metal on metal pounding that was happening behind the strategically placed sheet in front of his eyes.
Thankfully, he could not see or feel anything. Yet.

My mother-in-law Carmella and I were anxiously waiting for the Dr.’s report and as promised forty five minutes after taking him into the operating room, Dr. Hartzband with perspiration still on his lip from manipulating my husband, gave his account: “He’s fine. He’s in recovery. You’ll be able to see him shortly.” A smile and a wink and off he whisked to perform another miracle. Then we were brought into recovery and we got our first glimpse of Jim. He was lying flat on the gurney with several feeds to and from his body. Two to drain fluid away and two to put fluid in. He was a little swollen, wrapped up in swaddling blankets with a damp towel on his head. His color was the perfect shade of pink. Pink lips, as usual, thank God.. Two nurses were monitoring him and tending to his every need. He was coherent and smiled when he saw us. I asked him if he was alright? He said, “Yeah, you“? “I’m fine” I said with tears in my eyes as I kissed his cheek. I was a nervous wreck. I remember thinking, what would I ever do without this man? This man who has been my best friend for the past twelve years, my husband for the last five, my everything. Thankfully, today I didn’t have to worry about that.

We were not fully prepared for the recovery process after the surgery though, and when you are thrust into a new situation you basically learn on the fly or else. This was my husbands life on the line here and if he needed my help, he was going to get it. Immediately after the surgery, Jim was questioning his sanity. His epidural hadn’t quite worn off yet so he wasn’t completely regretful, but when it had worn off, it was a different story. It was overwhelming. He had a liquid drain or puncture wound directly above his incision which now had 15 staples holding it tightly closed. The wounds needed their dressings changed daily, his blood needed lovamox injections to keep it thin and from clotting, compression stockings needed to be taken off in the evening and put on every morning to assist in the prevention of blood clots. There was a lot of discussion about 45 degree angles and how not to displace the hip…what? Displace the hip? That was possible? Yes. We had to learn what not to do and I had to learn how to administer injections, clean wounds, find strength from beyond to put on and off those stockings. They’re not your mama’s pantyhose by the way, they are industrial strength ‘compression’ stockings that are almost impossible to put on.

Of course we didn’t know any of that. I did know that he was going to be fine and I could and would convince him, and myself, that we had made the right choice. We. We were going to get through this together. Realizing the magnitude of what total hip replacement surgery looks like post-op, we took a deep breath, held onto each other and the newly introduced walker and cane, pulled on the hand assists and compression stockings and forged ahead because for now, they wanted him to get up and he needed to get up. For his sanity. To know that he was not bedridden and that this was not the biggest mistake of his life. Within only a few hours after surgery two rehabilitators showed up bedside and asked “Are you ready to get up”? I looked at my mother-in-law and gasped “What”? What did they say? Get up? So soon? How can he? But sure enough, they along with Jim’s brute strength and will got him to stand up and with a walker, walk across the room.

I stood in the doorway as a clapping, grinning strip of finish line tape and encouraged him to walk to me - like he was taking his first steps ever. And he was. The first steps ever, with his new hip. And walk he did, first to me and then back to bed to rest for one night and then I took him home.

Once home, the visiting nurse service came to our home several times to check his stats and to begin physical therapy. Exercises daily to increase his strength, mobility and flexibility. Eventually, he would go to a physical therapist but for now, they’re coming to him. He’s more than ready and willing. Jim’s competitive nature is inspiring at times and to see him like that was admirable. He wanted to get up and walk before they asked him to, before he should have, before he could have. He was quite impatient. Competitive, if only with himself and his new hip. Champion in nature, like a thoroughbred born to run but locked in the stable. How can you hold someone like that down? You can’t. Like most truly strong men faced with physical confinement he reacted with brute force willing himself, pulling, kicking and moving around to find his limitations. Once he realized his limitations he pursued his capabilities. He was religious about his rehab pushing himself daily and exercising constantly. He barely rested in between as he gauged the regaining of his strength, mobility and flexibility. He could see the light at the end of the tunnel and he was pursuing it with everything he had. I’m so proud of him and his accomplishments. He, in the true essence of who he is, is once again a champion. Whole. Able to compete. Strong. Unbeatable. An over comer.

Dr. Hartzband promised Jim that he’d be driving in 10 days and while driving any long period of time was out of the question, Jim did drive around the block 10 days after his surgery, in defiance and in liberation. He’s yet to play ice hockey or even put on his skates, but his determination will see him through. Besides, Dr. Hartzband promised that he’d be able to skate after about a year and I’d dare anyone to try and stop my husband Jim from believing that. Since the surgery he’s gone back to work full time. He’s had extensive physical therapy to regain his range of motion and strength. He’s able to do strength training, bike riding, and we’ve yet to see what else he can do. It has only been four months since the surgery.

That was then. This is now. Check him out.

Jim's First Skate