Beautiful catch up email from my buddy Des.
18 September 2019
Words from Des
Been chugging along here, Chris has built and installed a wee wendy house, looking garden shed for a friend today and is gearing up to design and build a kitchen in Otaki. So all local work which is good. Miss has a couple of games left of the netball season and is looking forward to reclaiming her Saturday's again, although next month junior surf starts on a Sunday, so there goes that "weekend free" theory. She loves it none the less!
Have continued on with my 3 weekly Avastin and oral chemo tablets regime. My markers have been sitting quite high until recently.......when, I hear you say??? So I took myself off to a Zhineng Qigong four-day workshop with Master Xi in Welly. My osteo recommended the course as the type of Qigong (there's 3,000 different types of qigong!) -its similar to tai chi and uses meditation and slow movements which open up blocked energy and works on different parts of the body, its proven to assist people with different types of illnesses at all levels ie. chronic-terminal conditions. The creator of the modality Dr Ming Pang, was also involved in building the first medicine less hospital (near Beijing), where people practice the same method to rid their ailment.
So I take myself off to day 1, not really knowing what to expect and was appalled at amount of sweat that was pouring off me while doing (very) slow, flowing movements. I couldn't really meditate either as my brain kept flicking about. The short sleep after lunch (to aid digestion) was more manageable. The following days were a lot better as my body didn't scream at me whenever I did the bending down stretches, I'm sure if I'd done yoga my body would be more open to some of the exercises. Cut a long story short I've never felt as invigorated as I have done after that workshop. I'm standing a lot straighter, I've less brain fog and I'm getting about a lot easier. And Chris says (bless), I'm a lot easier to be around. Not sure what he means......
So I've been practicing the exercises since the workshop and there's a lady in Otaki that's moved up recently, whose keen to keep the practice up. And because I'm not really doing things by halves these days and I'm fuelled on by the fact that my tumour markers have dropped from 1400 to 700 (I had my bloods done 3 days after the workshop, pre Avastin shot), I am a Qigong convert.
Let's catch up on 17 Sept, my next appointment.
Pic is Dessy helping our Buddy Lesley clean up her yard after she finalised the sale of her house.