My Leg

[Vali]

Hi Lyn, the pain i have had recently is supposedly (according to my surgeon) because i aggravated my Si joints. I had pain on walking immediately after surgery. The more i walked, the worse it got. I think on day 2 post-op, Dr H ordered some Endep for me, i took one dose am/pm, then am again and the pain was gone, however, the med made my legs feel like jelly! In case you are wondering. Endep is an antidepressant. It is used in large doses to treat depression but in small doses such as 5mg, it is used in the Orthopaedic and Neuro areas for the treatment of nerve pain. Hope your Doc is able to help you soon. Best wishes.

[Back-out]

Lynette,

It is FANTASTIC that the hypnosis worked to lessen your pain!!!!

I'm very happy for you, and also excited about the potential for everyone. This gives me hope and others too, I'm sure. All or most of are in pain a good deal of the time. That's probably THE primary problem and motivator for surgery and treatments. Even a way to reduce narcotics dependence would be a giant step forward.

If you can find time to tell us more about your hypnotherapy it would be a great service to the forum.

FWIW I favor a separate section of references written on specific topics where people with either special training/experience (eg., your experience with hypnotherapy and hopefully others to follow) could write essays about their topics. I participated for a long time on a forum specializing on psychotropic meds, and I wrote such an essay about available sleeping meds and treatments.

I'll try to think of a place on the forum to post this suggestion more generally.

Meanwhile, I'm sure we'd all love to know more about your experience. Not asking for anything complicated - too daunting. But for starters, how many sessions did you have? (seems like it was just one day). Had you been hypnotized before? Do you think your friendship with the hypnotist had an effect? Does the effect seem to be lasting? Last (to be kind of tiresomely mundane), how would you have rated your leg pain before and after the session(s)?

I sure hope this keeps working for you and that others will have success later on, too (maybe inspired by your example). I'm certainly going to look into it, even though I think I'd be a poor subject. Come to think of it, I know a young man looking to start a business as a hypnotist - he started because of his own chronic pain, after a surgical error. Maybe...?

I know you're swamped, so anything majorly time-consuming is for the backburner, if at all. I'm really excited about the possibilities. None of us reading your post surgical threads can forget how MUCH pain you were in.

Good for you! And - whew! WHAT a relief.

Amanda

[foofer]

Lynette,

Great to hear about the hypnosis and leg improvement. You've been on my mind quite a bit with the various issues- meant to chime in several days ago and then it seems that time just flies away with itself.

I agree with Jess about the hormonal advice, even if you just put the info on the top shelf of your mind and dust it off later. I used bioidentical hormones for about 5 years and they helped enormously with an era that seemed to find me circling the drain emotionally more often than not. My forties were just a gnarly decade. My fifties however, rock. I seem to be pretty upbeat again most of the time. Hang in there!

Jess,

I'm glad you brought up the hormone issue- I do think they have such a big effect on most of our lives. Good advice. I also wanted to bring up the Lyme disease issue- I think that most people are under the impression that it's a relatively fleeting illness that one gets over. The other day there was a segment on TV about someone struggling with undetected, undiagnosed Lyme d. - wow, I had no idea. You've been through a lot. I hope your surgery decisions reveal themselves to you soon. It is a tough decision, isn't it? This being in Limboland is no picnic either...All good wishes to you.

Amanda,

Well, I am so glad that you felt energized by my post to you. I have a friend who reminds me how often we keep quiet with the positive comments. She lets them fly, and so often I will think something fine about someone and neglect to say so. It's just better to tell people, yeah?
And your life- well let's just hope that something's gotta give and who knows, maybe it will... Life can definitely NOT be a bowl of cherries. I'm very glad you joined the forum.

What a great bunch of people on this forum- everyone. I feel so lucky to have found this place.

Foofer

[LynetteG]

Amanda - I actually became a board certified hypnotherapist after I became a licensed massage therapist. However, I haven't had an opportunity to work on people yet as I did the home study course, so I'm lacking confidence at the moment. Debbie Lane is a famous hypnotherapist who happens to be in my area, and she became my Facebook friend. I called her up to help me with my scoliosis originally, and she is an amazing lady, has been very generous in helping me. After studying hypnotherapy, I saw how amazing and how powerful the mind is. Some people think that going into a hypnotic trance is being out of control, or being asleep etc. In actual fact, all it is - is a deeply relaxed state, you are aware of everything around you, however because your body is so relaxed, you can go into your subconscious mind very easily which is the place where everything can be fixed. It's hard for me to explain briefly here, however, it works and I know hundreds of people who have had so many issues improved or addictions taken away through hypnosis. If you go into a hypnosis session believing that it won't work, and you kind of want to prove to the hypnotherapist that it won't work - then guess what? It won't work. You have to want the thing you're going there to happen, and you have to believe it will work.

Hypnosis is actually really self-hypnosis, the hypnotherapist is just your guide.

My pain was a level 10 when I went to see Debbie, and I came out feeling a level 2 in my leg. I'm still walking better, so - hopefully it will continue to improve, especially since the neurologist's office never bothered to call me back.

Oftentimes, pain comes from other stresses such as people who are hurting us etc., and it turned out that a lot of my pain seems to be related to my former husband and his new wife, and what they are putting me through right now. In my session, (some people may think this sounds wacky) however, this really happened to me. Debbie brought healing angels into the room, and I could feel and hear the flapping of their wings all round me, and that day happened to be my father's birthday (who passed away several years ago), well, he was among the angels. He put his hand on my leg, and I felt a healing heat pass through it, and he told me that it will get better. I told him I missed him very much and was bawling while in my trance, and he told me not to miss him, because he is next to me every day.

It was an incredible session - very emotional, and with Debbie Lane, she actually feels herself go into trance when working with the individual, so she told me the energy in the room was amazing, she could feel the presence of the angels also. It was outstanding. Since my session, I also feel better about the whole former husband issue, so much stronger, and more confident in myself.

So do I recommend hypnosis? Wholeheartedly. It's the best.

[jrnyc]

hi Lynette
i am very happy that this session you had worked...and reduced your pain...

it doesnt sound like hypnosis to me, though...
but whatever works...as long as it helps you...

i doubt any research could duplicate it..it sounds like a personal emotional journey...

feel better...
jess

[mbeckoff]

how much does a session cost?

Melissa

[LynetteG]

Jess - this is hypnosis believe me. What may have been done with me might not be what's done with you. Every person experiences different kinds of hypnosis sessions depending on the client's ailment etc.

A session with Debbie is normally $150 I think - she was very generous with me however - so I was very blessed.

[Back-out]

Lyn - hynotherapy and her experience

Lyn,

Thanks so much for the fascinating run down on your special hypnosis session! Also I loved learning more about your training, your friendship, your life in general. It made me feel closer to you to hear more of your struggles and pain, in general and with X (I have gotten so snarky, I don't even want to spell mine "Ex" )

Pain is fascinating. It's amazing to discover how much more control we have over it than we realize. It can seem to be coming at us from outside, like having marionette strings tug on us (if not from outside our body at least, outside our conscious control - like when nerves are caught in between vise-like vertebrae).

Yet the more we learn, the more it seems pain is mediated by many inner forces including blocked forces. I remember from childbirth how much control and panic (having it or not) influenced my pain. It was kind of an either/or too - tolerable or intolerable, no "1- 10". It was feeling in control that made it tolerable. Also feeling it was "alright" - not malevolent.

Very interesting to hear your comments on hypnosis - that it's all self-hypnosis. I am just remembering how at age thirteen at a summer camp I got into a hypnosis kick - we all did, talking about it, but only I did it (with no training, except maybe for reading "Mandrake the Magician" comic strips! ). I hypnotized fellow campers, in public and private - with their permission. It scared me, that I could do it. Once they were hypnotized, the things they believed (and did, on the basis of those beliefs, including post hypontic suggestion) did NOT seeem to be within their control. They were often very embarrassed when it was called to their attention. I stopped and never did it again, until just once at college. I remembered it, speaking to a friend there. She asked me to hyponitize her, with the same results. Never since.

Actually, it creeps me out to do it, especially as I/ve had no instruction and have never even seen a hypnotist work live. Don't even remember seeing it on TV. I wish I COULD hypnotize myself as you suggest might be possible. I don't see how I could separate myself from my suggestions, though. I would have a long check list of things I'd like to get myself to do and feel, for sure! Certainly, as a (former) psycho-therapist, I have long believed in the power (and necessity) of visualization as a precursor to change. We can't move to change unless we can picture ourselves being different. Maybe arriving at that vivid image is like self-hypnosis, in your sense. That receptivity has to proceed either the hypnotic suggestion or change initiated in therapy.

Your moving description of your friend's invoking your healing power, including your father as an angel, was exciting and touching. I guess feeling your father's love (as you'd learned to trust in it from earliest childhood) , gave you a sense of protection. His love acted as a barrier between you and the malignant force of pain. You remembered him shielding you from pain, and knew he always wanted to shield you from pain. AND HE DID AGAIN! That memory of safety and love, loved you back into becoming safe, and pain-free.

It's living proof of the enduring power of love. "Once loved, forever lovable". And being lovable (to the all-powerful being your father was to you then), gave you the power to rebuff your present pain - and others. Love gives us a sense of entitlement, I think - in the best sense. You didn't deserve to feel that pain, and ONCE YOU KNEW IT AGAIN, you were protected from it by "angels' wings" - real and/or metaphoric. Same thing. I can't describe it very well but I think I can imagine it.

I am also reminded of a friend's description of Reiki massage, which can produce a sense of release, liberating us from physical and psychic pain.

Naturally, being a literalist, when I "came to" after sharing in the imagery you brought me, one of my first thoughts was - "Oh, crap. How can this work for a Jew?" I haven't come up with any adequately healing Jewish images, though I guess if I were a Kabbalist or Hassid, I'd have some frame of reference...Maybe I'll ask our Rabbi to repeat a healing service he gave once. For all I know, he has. How would i know, not having attended services for so long?

[LynetteG]

Amanda - I love reading your posts. You are an incredibly smart lady, and a fantastic writer. Have you ever thought of writing a book?

By the way, when you hypnotize someone, you never make them do something they don't want to do. When someone is in trance, if they hear the hypnotherapist make a suggestion that they don't like, they can get themselves out of trance immediately. One is constantly in control when in trance, unlike the myth that people believe after watching some of the TV movies depicting hypnosis completely in the wrong light.

When I go to see my hypnotherapist, I always put myself in trance for her now, and then she gives me the suggestions. She taught me how to get myself into trance within less than five minutes. It's incredible, and feels fantastic when you're in trance, so relaxing with no cares in the world, other than what you hear your hypnotherapist saying to you.