I was in OR 6. My friend, the Physician Assistant Heather, had some news to share!
Last we had talked, she had concern about her autoimmune disease. She had terrible pre-eclampsia and had to be delivered emergently at thirty weeks' gestation. He little one is now eight months old, but developmentally six months old. She was concerned about her ability to conceive and carry a child to term for the next one. We spoke candidly. I shared how I have an antiphospholipid antibody, anticardiolipin antibody, and how reproduction was a serious health concern for me too. We talked about GMO's, high fructose corn syrup, and other ways to modify the diet to increase health. I shared about Reiki, and she was open and excited to learn more. Well, she got rid of dairy in her diet, and suddenly felt much better! It turns out she conceived too! She is now eight weeks along!
As we spoke, the surgeon, Dr. Ray, overheard the conversation. He shared that he had a son die twenty-four hours after birth. This was back in 'the old country' and the boy died of 'hyaline membrane disease'. There was no treatment for it. 'They didn't have anything'. (here, back then, the child would have been given surfactant to help the lungs mature, and the boy would have lived.)
Dr. Ray left his homeland, came here, and trained to be a doctor all over again. Just so he and his wife would never go through that again. He is one of the hardest workers I know. I've known him since 1996. He amputated my grandmother's leg before I ever met him--that was in 1995. So there is this closeness. Not only had I never known about his loss, his sharing helped me understand why he is so overwhelmingly HAPPY over his new granddaughter. He got one 'back' through his five other kids that made it.
There is also something amazing about him, too. His native language is Aramaic. So all these years I have worked with a surgeon who has the accent Mary, Jesus, and Joseph would have had if they learned English! He says 'Mary' in Aramaic is 'Abe Miriam', and Joseph is 'Joseb'. Water is 'Mee-yaa'. That was so cool to me, because all of my life I wondered what they would have sounded like if I had spoken with them back then and there.
The scrub tech next shared that he had lost a daughter at fourteen months. There had been multiple pneumonias, and there was only so much they could do at the Children's Hospital. Her care had been excellent.
I stared at him, looking him in the eye, in complete shock. This is the one who never seemed happy, who is smart as a surgeon but didn't like books and joined the navy and found his way into the O.R. career that way. I've known him for five years, and although I had intuition about the heartache, I never had known the cause!
That night, I worked late, and got a small 'ditch-the-lettuce' salad from the cafeteria. Try it! You take everything you enjoy--in my case beets, cucumber, and garbanzo beans--add a little dressing and enjoy. The cashier is the one who had just been on postpartum when I first started working there as an OB anesthesiologist. She had some difficulty in the labor, but everything seemed okay. Not more than three weeks later, her child died of sudden infant death syndrome. I've always admired her for coming to work, and having a smile for everyone after a painful loss like that.
She's not the only one in food service with heartache from loss of a child. The chef has a son who is of age, and for reasons that are not clear to the family, the son has left the home and cut off almost all contact with the family. There are mental health and possible drug use factors in the situation. But his family is struggling with being in a constant state of 'hoping for the best but preparing for the worst'. His son left the house with a backpack of books so he won't be bored. And about six weeks ago, he called and asked the father to 'get his things'. He was living under a bridge. There were the books, quinoa, organic foods, green tea, and vitamin supplements...even a folding chair. His father was surprised to see that his son was clearly able to cook and take care of himself...and thanked God that his boy was not hungry on the streets.
With the O.R., and also after the cafeteria, I was deeply touched. Compassion filled my heart for these people who go to work and help others every single day, and bear the burden of their own loss, keeping it hidden from even their long-time colleagues.
What better way to help others than to have faced loss and struggle in their personal life?
So I gave Reiki. I gave Reiki to their Guardian Angels for the Highest Good. For a safe pregnancy and healthy child. For healing from loss and a joyful reunion in Heaven with the infants lost. For the angelic watch and protection over the prodigal son.
I worked nineteen hours yesterday in service to others with my anesthesia skills. It was an unusual day.
I worked on people from their thirties to their nineties. I worked on people who had insurance, and ones that could not pay (didn't even have Obamacare). Three had life-saving surgery. One had traumatically amputated something in a work accident. One more was seeking relief from a lifetime of pain that was only going to get worse with time.
They are my ohana.
I worked with our teams--two of them switched out--having worked twelve hour shifts.
One patient could have died on the table. They were of very high risk.
Another had an unexpected EKG finding that was also ominous, but due to the nature of the condition, had to go to surgery to save their life.
Everyone did well.
I slept on a gurney in the recovery room.
It was uncomfortable, but what else could I do? I could have been called back in if another emergency arrived to the hospital and needed an operation.
See that picture at the top?
That was my dream. And that dream is shared by just about everyone that works in a hospital. The education requirements, and licensing examinations, and competition to even get in to the training are challenges we gladly undertake. We are lucky to be able to live our dream with our work, every day.
Health care is rapidly changing. There are politics, big business, and public concerns in the media every day. All of these news articles have a common element of distrust, fear, and the energy of separation. It puts doctors and nurses and other workers into a 'them' category, while the 'us'--the readers, subject them to scrutiny and make light of any 'defense' from those being 'discussed'. Money is a polarizing issue--the public things because of the expense of insurance and health care, the hospitals and workers are being made rich in the system. That is how it looks from the outside, looking in. From the inside, looking out, there is a different picture, of increasing costs of doing business, and rapidly shrinking compensation from third-party payors. The expense for installment and updates to an electronic charting system in a doctors office, and the risk of even MORE expensive HIPAA violation fines, is daunting. The patients are getting more risky to take care of, as well. There are epidemics in just about everything--from 'super bugs' to obesity--with sometimes the health-care worker being put at risk. I saw one needle stick injury and one scalpel injury to surgeons in two days. I hardly ever see needle stick injuries, but they happen, and there is risk to the healer of catching a blood-borne infection in this way. (I have had three, personally, two were in my training years.) One of the injuries I witnessed was the newly-discovered and much welcomed pregnancy woman I mentioned in the first paragraph. Those anti-viral medications to take 'just in case' to decrease risk might affect the developing baby...
So this article, is on the 'essence' of the healer in today's health care system, and the focus is on the healer's heart.
You should know about this.
That's why I am writing 'from the inside' so you can have balanced information to make your own judgement about 'what is right' and 'what is wrong' with health care today.
Until Reiki and other modes of energy healing become more widespread within the system, I will continue teaching and healing, one patient at a time, on colleague at a time, and one blog post at a time, to make things better for all of us, together, as one, here on earth. We have more in common that might be thought.
Love Is The Solution For Everything...
Aloha and Mahalos,
Namaste,
Reiki Doc
P.S. This is in rebuttal to this article: http://www.shiftfrequency.com/cameron-salisbury-dirty-hospitals-deadly-consequences/
Can you find the Goddess Energy in it? Look for the nurturing, warmth, love and compassion. When you see the energy of nurturing, warmth, love and compassion in anything you read or hear, you will know it is from Source. Further, it will resonate with your heart center as Truth. Anything else? Well, that's up to you to interpret. Make sure it passes the 'heart-focused energy' discernment test before you accept it as truth. There are many 'partial truths' out there. Be smart about what you read before you accept it.