simontzu

Update

So I am not better yet but I am feeling positive.  There is still a lot of pain into my right foot and heel from the damage to the sciatic nerve in my right leg.  Otherwise the wounds have healed and the leg is more or less whole. 

I have been told that the nerve damage may take up to 6 months to get better as nerve tissue recovers very slowly. The other theory is taht the pain may not be from the knife damaging the nerve but from internal scar tissue.  Here is what I am doing to get better,  been on this routine for about three weeks...

ACTIVE

- Yoga and pranayama twice per day.  When I wake up and before I go to bed. I do a set of asanas then 12 ujay breaths, 6 rounds of kaplabhati, 6 rounds alternate nostril breathing and 6 rounds sitali. Finish in yoga nidra and then recite the healing mantra.

- Chi Kung once per day.  I do gathering and arousing chi exercises and stand in Wu Chi.

- Physiotherapy once per day.  To strengthen the leg I have a series of lifts to do front and back.  The physio says that strengthening the entire body will help so I am doing upper body exercise also.  Sit-ups, push-ups and pull-ups.

- Other things I do ocasionally but not every day.  Toning, Singing bowl, holding crystals over the wound, alternate cold and hot water, heat on the leg from a ehater or hot water bottle.

MEDICINE

- Am taking herbs for nerve strenthening.  St John's Wort and Ginko Biloba with Lobelia which potentiates them.

- Am taking Spirulina, Ginseng and Lecithin for general aminos and strength.

- Homeopathic remedies I use are Hypericum Perforatum 30c, Ledum 30c (now discontinued) and Calc Phos tissue salts (General tonic for  Capricorn)

- Was taking Tramadol for pain but have run out.  Currently not doing any pain killers as I don't like the opiates, thay make me fuzzy. 

- Am taking 400mg ibruprofen with every meal to help with the swelling in my calf and right foot (the nerve damage makes the foot and leg respond by swelling, its an automatic response and we have not figured out an alternative yet)

- Ocasionally when the pain in the foot gets too tirining I put on a capsicum patch.  The path seems to create a pain very similar to the neural firing and when I take the patch off there is a few hours relief.  This seems to be a homeopathic type effect. like cures like.

MIND

- There is an Osho BodyMind CD which is excellent.  You externalise your illness as a guardian which has created a symptom as a means to communicate with you and protect you from something else.  You then thank your body for being a servant and ask what it needs from you.  Then you and the guardian try and come up with another mechanism for giving you this protection or information and letting the body heal.

- I also use a couple of hypnosis CDs for pain control.  The relief is onlt temporary but they work well at night to help me sleep.  The hemi-sync pain control & Constant Comfort by Richard Bandler.  I prefer the Bandler CD.

THERAPY

- Am painting almost daily and find it soothing.

- Have started smoking 2-3 roll-ups per day.  There is a lot of evidence that nicotine is good for nerves and the tobacco certainly has a soothign effect (it has lithium in it).  I have smoked small amounts on and off ofr years so am not worried about becoming addicited.

- I dance pretty much every day.  Music has been mainly chill-out, soul and trance with some pop thrown in.  Favourite song: Christina Aguilera - Fighter.  "After all you put me through you'd think I'd depise you but in the end I want to thank you, cos you made me that much stonger...thanks for making me a fighter."

- Have started a gratitude journal. Listing the things one is grateful for at least once per week really helps keep one's spirits up - research has show that this is a powerful way to increase one's level of happiness.

- Screaming sessions.  Every now and then the rage and frustration get pretty strong and so I go outside and screm long and loud.  The neighbours must love me...

TREATMENTS

- I consult with my GP quite often on the phone,  just to check what might be happening and what may work.  We are going to try a course of voltaren injections when I get back to Cape Town to see if we can soften the scar tissue in the wound site.

- When I can I get acupunture and dry needling for the pain.  Have had 2 sessions so far and they give me about 3 hours pain free and drop the pain from about a 6 to a 4 for a day.

- Cranio Sacral Therapy ocassionally.  I love this modality is goes really deep and I feel a big release every time I have it (have only gone twice so far). It also lasts the longest giving me relaxation and relief for up to 4 hours after the session with slighter effects up to the next day.  I wish I could afford to go more often.

HUGE thanks to all my healers who havd been helping me so far -  David, Daryl, Dean, Grant, Robyne, Rasada, Subodhi.  As you can see I am not shy about trying everything possible all at once.

Special thanks to my girlfriend and my Mom.  Crystal has been amazing, words cannot do justice to the amount of support,  strength and love she has given over this time.  My mom  has been so generous helping out with time, money and concern.

Send Love!!

So perhaps you hav been wondering why I've been AWOL...

A month ago I was stabbed twice while walking in Cape Town. I had just run my first ever workshop ("The Art of Attraction") and was due to meet the participants at a party and help them with their flirtations.  The workshop went great. 

My lift didn't arrive and I don't have a car so decided to walk in to the center of town.   En route I met some kids being pushed in a makeshift go-kart, down the main road at 9pm!  This amused me and we talked and connected as I pushed them a little bit.  The older kid at the back pointed around a corner into a side street.  As I pushed them into the side street I did not like the vibe and so returned to the main road quite quickly.  The older boy ran off - possibly to call others.  About 30 seconds after getting back on the main road 4 youths in their late teens appeared on the street behind me - I noticed knives glinting in the streetlights.  My mind thought was to stop and just hand over my wallet and phone, my feet did not think they simply ran - fast.  I was in tai chi slippers so kicked them off and ran in my socks.

The guys chased me  and  we all ran down the center of the main road.    If you know Cape Town this happened in Sir Lowry main road Woodstock about 1km before The Castle...I was running into an even more deserted area.  Then a car coming the other way slowed down to see what was going on and I ran for the car.   Over here there is a blank spot, am missing about 30 seconds of memory. The next think I knew I was on the front bonnet of the car (over the passenger side window) hanging on to the roof rack banging on the roof for them to drive.  I knew I had been stabbed in the leg (I only later discovered I had also been satbbed in the shoulder).  He proceeded to accellerate really fast, it was quite exhilarating to be hanging onto the front of a fast moving car..

The driver of the car stopped outside Woodstock police station got out and snarled
"Get the fuck off my car"
"I've been stabbed can you take me to the hospital?"
"What the fuck were you doing? Buying drugs?"
"No I was walking to town. Can you take me to the hospital?"
"No - go to the police station."
"I can't walk can you help me?"
"No."

The crawl to te police station was about 30 meters, I slid in leaving a thick trail of blood behind me like some huge red slug. At this stage my jeans were soaked from top to bottom, the wound was still pumping, I was trying to hold it closed but could feel warmth on my hand as I continued to leak.   The Police simply ignored me, I could feel their eyes slide off me.
"Please help"
"We've called an ambulance."

I desperately wanted someone to sit with me band maybe put a hand on me but they did not.  HIV infection is really common here and South Africans are terrified of it - so someone covered in blood was obviously pretty scary. At this stage I remember thinking "Oh Fuck.  I could be in real trouble".  I had lost a lot of blood and ambulances in South Africa are notoriously scarce and slow.

Then the guy who's car I grabbed onto came into the police station and asked me if I wanted to phone someone. Oh yes! Of course I had my phone.  I called my flatmate Mark who was just around the corner. Then a senior policeman arrived and decided having someone die on the floor of the police station might not look great and perhaps they could take me to the hospital.

I was loaded into the back of the police van and driven at high speed to Groote Schuur a local public hospital. Thing is they neglected to close the door.   So there I was curled up on the metal floor holding desperately onto a bench so I didn't slide out of the van.  The door was banging crazily and I briefly held it closed but then decided that putting pressure on the wound was actually much more important. Arriving at the hospital I was met by my friend, housemate and landlord Mark. An ally at last!  It was good to see a friendly face.  Mark could not stay with me long though as we had to fill in admittance forms and give them medical insurance details before treatment.  Treatment...well my blood pressure wqas dangerously low so they hooked me up to a plasma drip but then I was not seen for ages. This being a public hospital and a Saturday night in South Africa I was waay down the triage list.
"Is a doctor coming soon?"
"No - they are dealing with 2 recusictations and a gunshot victim."

Anyway I have medical insurance (thanks mom!) and so Mark wisely decided to call an ambulance and get me the fuck out of there and into a private hospital.  This took a couple of hours. Once at the hospital a face pulled a tongue at me through the ambulance window and I burst out lauging in relief.   Arriving at City Park was the first time I really felt safe.   The face was Robyne's - my friends Robyne and Adam who I was supposed to meet that night had come to meet me at the hospital.  Robyne is a also my yoga teacher and head of Brave a foundation helping people recover using yoga. Convienent huh?

The wounds have mostly healed but there is some nerve damage in the leg (which causes me constant pain) and I cannot walk properly yet.  There are also many emotional issues which have come up.  One of the realisations has been how insistent I have been on doing things alone and not asking for support.  Ridiculous!  I have so many wonderful friends.

So  friends please think of me, send some healing energy or say a little prayer - a note about where you are at would be wonderful.

Much love to you wherever you find yourself,
Simon

Yep,  thats all blood on those jeans...