Pain, Breathing, Health care/patient resources

Pathways to Healing

STORY TITLE:

Breathe to Stay Alive

by Elaine Zablocki

Winifred Jolly, LCSW, was training in the California mountains at age 50, preparing for a trek in the Himalayas, when a 100-foot fall changed the course of her life. She fractured her skull and lay in a coma for six days. Her left leg was amputated below the knee. Within the next 18 months, she was also diagnosed with acute kidney disease and advanced endometrial cancer. “These health problems challenged my carefree lifestyle; but in the end, they greatly enhanced my life,” she reflects. “I learned how to cope with pain, with my own mind, and with our healthcare system. After 28 years, you might say that I have excellent training in how to be a professional patient.”

She has developed a proactive style of managing her own health care. For example, she keeps her own personal health records, listing each hospitalization and surgical procedure in chronological order. She comes to every healthcare appointment with a short, written list of questions. “When I am interviewed as a prospective candidate for surgery I request time, always granted, to ask questions. Then I take some time to talk with the doctor, to ask about their goals in life, and interests outside of medicine. I find that asking these questions changes the relationship, and the healing process proceeds with more confidence and calmness.”

Jolly often asks the surgeon or physician to draw a sketch of the damaged organ and planned procedures. “Though many doctors insist they cannot draw, I assure them that even the most elementary image is helpful to me in my recovery process. I visualize the cancer cells, or the damage from previous surgeries. Then I breath in a relaxed way, and invite healing energy into my body to heal what needs to be healed.”

A Resource for Other Patients

During her mid-30s, Jolly trained as a clinical social worker. After her amputation, people started to call her and ask for suggestions on coping with illness. Several therapists called and asked her to set up group discussions, since there was significant interest in various methods of mind-body healing. For about 20 years, she served in this way as an informal counselor. Nowadays she no longer leads group discussions, but she is available to answer questions via email.

Jolly shares a few key points with Townsend Letter readers:

• Feel free to ask for a second opinion if you experience any sense of distrust or lack of clarity after your first meeting with your physician or surgeon. This second interview can also serve as a form of comparison shopping.

• Take the time to find the best possible physician for your condition even if this means driving to a different neighborhood. During your first interview, observe the doctor’s method of listening and sharing information. Trust is hard to pin down; it is almost intangible, but it is essential in the healing relationship.

• Research pharmaceutical company information in order to learn more details about the expected uses and possible side effects of particular drugs.

• Ask to hold the hand of a nurse or other practitioner when you are undergoing deep injections or anesthesia.

• Be prepared to refuse surgery, to leave the hospital against medical advice, or to “fire” your physician if you have valid reasons to believe these actions are necessary to preserve your own health and functioning.

Jolly herself tells stories about times when she needed to make her own personal decisions about the best possible treatment plan. She recalls one doctor who wanted to do an additional bladder kidney/surgery to repair previous problems. Eventually Jolly got a second opinion, which confirmed her intuition that repeated surgery was not necessary. On another occasion, she was in the ER vomiting for several hours. The ER doctors wanted to give her morphine followed by surgery, but she refused. She knew her own condition, and that morphine with its accompanying constipation would increase stress on her damaged intestines. She chose to live with the temporary pain, do visualizations which eased the blocked intestines, and thus avoid surgery.

Vibrant Living in Challenging Circumstances

I met Winifred Jolly a few months ago because I visited relatives in Atlanta, where she lives. We all went for a walk together in the park. Jolly was a vibrant sparkling presence and, obviously, an enthusiastic hiker. I only gradually realized that she is an amputee. Later I asked her how she learned to manifest such enthusiasm for life while coping with exceptional challenges.

“I’m a very practical person, so I do better when I can roll up my sleeves and say I’ll do the best I can. I had to learn to walk on this one leg, so I did,” she says. “There are books written about the art of living and the art of dying, and it boils down to living every moment of the day, as it is. That’s it.”

Jolly relies on a method of breathing she learned from Andrew Weil. “He tells all his patients to do this exercise. You breathe in and expand your lungs, you hold the breath and then exhale slowly. He says people in our culture tend to exhale in a rush, and it’s very important to take a longer time exhaling than inhaling.”

Jolly learned Weil’s methods from his books and audio materials. (See Resources section for a link to detailed descriptions of the breathing exercise.)

At many moments, recurring throughout her life, Jolly finds herself coping with excruciating pain. She finds this focus on the breath helps her stand to one side and observe the pain, communicate with the pain. Slow breathing can be a gateway to other states of mind, almost a self-hypnotic state of mind.

“You develop an imagery or method of being intimate with the organ, the pain, the damage,” she says. “When it is bad, instead of screaming in pain I just lift it up and embrace the pain. You do the breathing, and you’re less aware of the physical environment around you. You’re relaxing every muscle, every organ, every cell of your body. You send positive images to the pain. For me, pain has served as a reminder to bring relaxed present attentiveness, moment by moment, to my life.”

Resources

Winifred Jolly via email: <winjol38@gmail.com>

Breathing: The Master Key to Self Healing by Andrew Weil M.D. (Audio CD)

Meditation for Optimum Health: How to Use Mindfulness and Breathing to Heal Your Body and Refresh Your Mind, by Andrew Weil M.D. (Audio CD)

Andrew Weil Breathing Exercises:

https://www.drweil.com/videos-features/videos/the-4-7-8-breath-health-benefits-demonstration/

https://www.drweil.com/health-wellness/body-mind-spirit/stress-anxiety/breathing-three-exercises/

Elaine Zablocki is the former editor of CHRF News Files.