Jul 23 2008
Cancer of the Lymph System
Caroline (around 65 years old)
Bethesda, MD, Dahn Yoga Center
Cancer Diagnosis
It is now 2008 and I am reflecting on how it all started. I was staffing Brain Education Leadership (BEL) training in Ellenville, NY at BEST 5 Resort. I arrived on February 21 and that evening my left arm started swelling at the top. As the days progressed the swelling went all the way into my fingers. I had no idea what was happening. I had been treating a cluster of lumps in my left arm pit with moxibustion but I was sure that was not causing the swelling. The instructor Nora told me to breathe deep from the Dahn Jon (abdomen). (I found out recently that the deep breathing from the lower abdomen stimulates the dump area of the lymph system.)
The next day, February 22, I discovered I could not do one regular pushup, I had been doing up to 40. The BEL ended February 28 and my completion of BE training was March 1-3. When I got home I made an appointment with my regular doctor. He saw me March 6 and sent me directly to a surgeon who took a biopsy of the area. Neither doctor was happy about the moxibustion. (I feel that is what confined the cancer to one area and prevented it from spreading.)
I went back to BEST 5 Resort the following weekend for Tao Leadership training. March 13 I received the call from the surgeon, it was cancer, further it was breast cancer cells in the left armpit and the lumps were lymph glands. So I had a digital mammogram, PET CT scan, and MRI mammogram. Each of the procedures showed no cancer in the breast itself. There was a bright spot on the PET CT scan located on the left clavicle; not a place doctors can access.
Then I saw the oncologist. She was newly graduated and she paid attention to the muscle problem and confirmed I would possibly have lymphadema for the rest of my life. In my mind I decided not so. She did a retest on the original blood test and found muscle cell loss. A normal person ranges between 21 and 100, but my count was 935. The prognosis was dermatomyocytis, an auto immune muscle disease. She put me on 60 mg of prednisone (I started March 29 and did a 90-minute presentation at the Montgomery County Women’s Fair on March 31) and sent me to a rheumatologist, who confirmed and looked me straight in the eye and told me it was very deadly.
By this time I was having a lot of trouble swallowing. Everything I ate had to be chewed to liquid (is this not how we are supposed to eat?) and chased with liquid. It took an hour to eat a 15-minute meal. My voice was in the upper part of my throat and weird sounding and when I talked, my eye muscles moved. I was miserable, in pain, unable to move my arms and my legs ached, I had raw rash on my upper thighs, all my knuckles on both hands and the cuticles of every finger were yellow and extremely sensitive. I felt I was falling apart, but I never doubted I would get over this and get well again, I just misjudged the time by about four months.
The doctors were meeting weekly and discussing my case (very rare on all fronts). I am impressed that the doctors work as a team and not individually. Each doctor expressed how healthy I was otherwise and how puzzling this all was. The oncologist decided that I would start aggressive chemo on April 17 and would do 8 sessions; four of a double chemo and four of taxol. The chemo would knock out the muscle disease. They all expressed sympathy for the lymphedema, which is generally for the rest of ones life, except I decided not. I had detox pads from PowerBody+ and the Friday before Easter I started using them. Direction are to use one pad on a foot at night, remove in the morning, getting at least 8 hours wear; and alternate feet each night.
In four days, the lymph edema was gone and has not returned. I could feel with that first pad an energy movement through my body. During this time I was doing deep Chun Myung breathing and trying to keep up with my DahnMuDo healing martial arts and Tai Chi exercises.
I will always remember the second chemo, as the liquid went in it felt like an explosion inside and energy shot in every direction. I really had to use my Power Brain training to gather myself together again. The chemo also affected my eyesight and I used the BRQ device to help relax and focus, plus doing the energy rub exercises for the eyes. I have heard many people say they were unable to read during chemo. My eyes would stop focusing when I got really tired. (I can still tell when I am very tired by how my eyes focus).
My last chemo was July 31 and in August my husband and I attended the International BE Festival and attended all the brain seminars. He came away with a completely different idea of what I had been doing for four years. He still practices the knee exercises and assumes the Longevity Walking stance when he walks. He has lost 30 lbs. according to his doctor who told him to keep doing whatever it was he was doing; it was good for him.
The month of August I used the detox pads to clear out my system from the chemo treatments. On September 12th I had out-patient surgery to remove the area of cancer in the arm pit. The surgeon said he had never had such a difficult surgery and it looked like a bomb had exploded in the armpit leaving a matted mess. They were unable to count the amount of lymph nodes removed during this surgery. My lymphadema did NOT return. The doctors still do not understand that part.
Then I saw the radiologist. She would not do the radiation until the DCIS had been removed. That surgery was October 15, in-out and simple. I was at work the next day and the Dahn Yoga Center manager and I did a presentation at a subsidiary of CIGNA in Rockville, MD. I talked, and Ms. Brianna taught. I went in for a simulation to set the radiation machine and really had to pull the power of my brain to get through it. Pain is just energy and one should be able to just accept and let it go or flow with it. Well, this pain took over the entire body system. I made it through but hope to never have that test again.
The radiation started November 12 and ended December 28, it consisted of 20 minutes every weekday with my arm propped up and back to expose the armpit (I had to use every bit of my brain to get through these too). It is done every day but weekends and some days when films were done it took up to 40 minutes. Everything went fine until December 21st and my skin suddenly went bright red and started peeling. I now know how the turkey skin is after being in an oven for hours. I was given December 24th off as my underarm was raw and oozing. Again reaching deep into training and getting through it. It also was helpful to accept this was temporary and would soon be over.
I was in the hospital for 3.5 days in June for very high fevers and needed to have the port removed. Since I had eaten lunch, they took it out with just locals, I imagined sitting half lotus in front of the waterfall at Ellenville. Very peaceful. When I got home I knew I was really dark energy so I got out the CD’s of Ilchi Lee’s lectures, and laughed and brightened and felt much better. From the start I would wake up and laugh out loud or if not alone, silently. There were days when I was not laughing, but I never gave up hope. I also used the BRQ recordings once in the early part of treatment, and when the program ended I saw the flattest black I have every experienced. I think that time I saw what the end is. I still have some issues with blank spots in the thinking process, but each day it gets better. When I saw all my fellow BEL graduates in August, it took me 18 hours to remember some of their names, I am told this all will clear as time passes.
My doctors have been amazed through this entire process. The oncologist tested my balance because of the muscle issue. I took my one leg stance with the DahnMuDo posture and held it. She said she could not do that. I also shared toe tapping with her for a good nights’ sleep. My surgeon is still amazed that I do not have lymphadema considering the three hits the lymph system has taken: chemo, surgery and radiation.
The radiologist sent me to therapy at the hospital and the Therapy unit at Sibley Hospital now has Dahn Yoga brochures and are very interested in this “energy Yoga”. I shared with them the toe tapping exercise for deep sleep. I have connected with The Wellness Community Center close to where I live and I plan on offering my services for Longevity Walking and proper breathing to assist the lymph system. This Center offers all programs at no cost to all cancer patients.
I am convinced that without the previous four years of training this fifth year would not have turned out as well as it has. An aside, I still provide my chiropractor with our Center brochures. He took an x-ray of my spine a year ago and said he had never seen such a beautiful natural curve in a spine. When I went to him before I started Dahn Yoga, the spine curved the wrong direction because of arthritis, damage, and pain. Through the training, releasing many preconceptions, understanding anger and universal rules, I was able to relax, release muscle tensions and recover my natural body. I am unable to explain how I got cancer, but it has been a journey of learning and if it is true that pain strengthens the brain, my brain is now extremely strong. I have never lost my vision of being able to share this Dahn energy Yoga with people who do not know. We have no other choice but to change our world as it is, to one that can be. For that, I need to regain my strength and become active again.
I have also discovered that I can push energy when I run my hand up my left arm from the back of the hand to the shoulder and over to middle of chest and release, that is the pathway of the lymph system in the arm; it then dumps into an area in the lower abdomen and exits the body. I do it when I am doing Capsule Course energy exercise. I plan on sharing this with the therapists, as they are really excited about the Dahn Yoga and always looking for help with lymphadema patients.