Vida Armónica

All this week I was feeling rather off... I had nausea, no appetite, abdominal pain, plus dizziness & lightheadedness, plus a tightness in my chest and occasional chest pains. Finally I decided to go to a doctor today, and I ended up going to a naturopath/alternative medicine healer that my boss Jorge had recommended. I talked through my past illnesses & medical history, and then we went into an observation room, where I had the most interesting and surprising experience since coming to this small, poor city in Colombia's interior.

Firstly, he did the normal exam, looking in my eyes, my nostrils, my eyes, in my mouth. He took my blood pressure, and took my pulse. He agreed that my pulse was very low indeed (I had mentioned the experience from last school year, when I had been told that I needed a pacemaker - on my 23rd birthday...), and that was probably to blame for the dizziness & lightheadedness of late. He did an abdominal exam - tell me where it hurts when I apply pressure, etc. Based on this he recommended some abdominal massages and some all natural digestive tract remedies.

And so, he decided to do some 'energy work' to my activator energy meridian points on my feet. He had some some of energy current tool that he applied to a point on my foot, while touching a corresponding part of my side, in my rib-cage area. He shot the current off and I literally FELT it fun through the meridian to the point where his finger was waiting for it. Very crazy. He spent some time looking at my appendectomy scar, and pronounced that it was an energy loss, and to prove it to me, he had me hold my thumb and pointer of my left hand together while he tried to pull them apart. He couldn't. Then, he had me put my right hand on the appendectomy scar while doing the same, and the fingers flew apart almost instantaneously. Then he did it again without me touching the scar, again, he couldn't pull them apart. I laughed out loud. What a strange exercise, but I was honestly holding the fingers together with the same effort, and he was clearly trying to pull with the same effort. How very strange! So he did some energetic massage using the current-harnessing tool on the appendectomy scar, and after the massage, the fingers stuck together until the very last second when he tried to pull them apart. CRAZY!

He was most concerned by my over-tense neck and shoulder muscles, which he quickly decided was due to my extreme scoliosis. This prompted a number of other exercises, including measuring my legs from hip bone to ankle. Indeed, my Left leg is almost a full inch longer than my right, according to his tape measure. This, he said, was the cause of my scoliosis, and probably everything else wrong with my body. And so, he did a session of chiropractic therapy on my spine & hips. And honestly, I feel rather good! Better than I have this week!

The marvels of non-Western medicine! Or perhaps the placebo effect. Or perhaps BOTH!