Exotic Valentine Day

For Valentine Day I bought a Phalaenopsis for my wife. No, it's not a pet dinosaur it's an orchid. An ORCHID! You must be thinking I am nuts and saying, 'Valentines give beautiful roses to their lovers, not some prehistoric sounding orchid!' Now hold on it's no ordinary orchid in fact it's really exotic. The sales girl told me so. Ok ,she said it came from Holland. Now that is exotic, imagine orchids from the land of tulips what could be more exotic than that. I mean shouldn't orchids come from Malaysia or some exotic rainforest? Mind you it was not only the name and origin that was exotic it even looks exotic. It has this creamy white pastel flowers with tinges of scalet and large round petals. The sales girl say it looks like a 'moth'! I must diagree with her on this point. I think it more like pretty butterflies . Some salesgirl she turn out to be. Does she want to sell it or not? I mean it does come with an exotic price tag rm.108 that's USD 29.70. Then she started talking my language something that man understands it's call practicality. 'You only need to water it once a week and the bloom will last a month or more!' Wow, what gardener wouldn't die for plants like that. Low mileage and low maintainance plants. She continued, 'It is an indoor plant and do not need direct sunlight even indoor lights will do'. Now she is talking. I have always believed that beautiful plants should be accessible anywhere. Why should we have to slap on sun tan lotions just because we want to admire some plants? It's hot sweaty work to do gardening under the tropical sun. Now here is a plant that has jump the evolutionary grapevine and decided to stay indoors like all civilised human beings, now that is what I call a house train plant. My wife will simply love it!

My wife did love it. She said ' If I were you I would not buy it it is simply too expensive.' My romantic reply was 'Nothing is too expensive for you dear.' Noting that a dozen roses would have set me back USD 40 but that is not why I did not not buy roses. How can we say 'My love for you is forever', when the roses you give her will wilt and die in 3 days! I cannot understand that type of love.

I google for Phalaenopsis and printed a set of instructions for her http://www.orchidflowerhq.com/phalaenopsiscare.php.

That's when I found out it was not so exotic but rather common in certain countries.

'Phalaenopsis orchids are among the most popular orchids world wide and can be found in numerous homes, offices and hotels. These orchids are native to Asia and northern Australia. In Asia, they grow from the Himalayan Mountains to the Philippine Islands.'

Anyway she loves plants and it's a novelty to have a plant that 'hates to get it's feet wet'.

Isaac Lim

Happy Valentine.

Speed Healing For Slipped Disc

At 9.30pm just two days before CNY I had an emergency call from my sister in law. She was in panicky state as she was unable to move or feel her right leg. It seems she was walking down the stairs when she heard a crack sound and suddenly her right leg went numb and limp. She sat on the stairs wondering if she had just suffered a stroke but her arms and head were fine only her right leg had gone limp. Her daughter brought her to my therapy room. She got off the car with a rolling walking frame her right leg was dragging behind her with the foot twisted at 90 degrees.

I asked a diagnostic questioned, did she squat down or carry any heavy objects before the incident. She replied she was squatting for 30 minutes washing clothes in the bathroom. Whammy I got my answer! I use Qigong to scan her back vertebrae with my hands and felt blockage at the lumbar area. I unblock and sweep each time she said her right leg experience an intense sour pain. This confirmed my suspicion it was a slip disc at the lumbar area as moving the chi in that area cause sciatica pain (radiating pain with or without numbness) behind her knee. After energizing each vertebrae I proceeded to pull the blocked energy from the sole of her feet and flushing it out by sending energy from her feet to her spine and out again through her sole. She experience some slight pain but it begin to diminished as I continued until it was gone. I finish off by energizing her knees.

I told her to test it , she stood up now with less pain and her foot was now straightened. She could now shuffle about. Treatment time one hour.

Follow-up treatment of 30 minutes the next morning helped her to walk without her frame. The numbness had been reduced considerable . After the 3rd and 4th treatment she was almost back to normal except for some pulling pain beside her knee which I worked on. She was very happy and relieved over her quick recovery but I warn her not to squat or carry any heavy objects. I told her if she were to go for conservative western medical treatment they would locate the problem with MRI scan and pump her full of painkillers as all they could do was allow the herniated disc swelling to reduced in size naturally which would take an average 6-8 weeks even with regular physio. If this fails after 8 weeks they will consider operating.

The following extract from a medical article on slipped disc will confirm this conservative medical procedure:

A review of your medical history and a few simple physical tests may be all it takes to determine whether you have a herniated disk, wrote Dr S. Craig Humphreys and Dr Jason C. Eck in their article, Clinical Evaluation and Treatment Options for Herniated Lumbar Disc.
“Usually, about 80% of patients complain of acute lower back pain, or buttock pain on one side with sciatica (radiating pain with or without numbness) of one leg (pain going down the side of the thigh and leg, involving the foot),” said Dr Siow Yew Siong, a spine surgeon practising in a local private hospital.

The remaining 20% would have lower back pain with radiation into both buttocks without lower limb (legs) involvement, he added.

Further tests like MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) and CT (computerised tomography) scan may help your doctor confirm the diagnosis or locate the location of the injury.
Conservative treatment still first-line
Fortunately for herniated disks, surgery is not required most of the time to treat the condition.

“In most cases, if a patient’s lower back and/or leg pain is going to resolve after a lumbar herniated disc, it will do so within about six weeks. While waiting to see if the disc will heal on its own, several conservative treatment options can help reduce the back pain, leg pain and discomfort caused by the herniated disc,” wrote spine-health.com in its own Overview of Lumbar Herniated Disc...

Ninety percent of the time, patients can be helped by (conservative treatment such as) paravertebral injections, epidural injections with cortisone, medication and physiotherapy, he added.

In Dr Siow’s experience, about 70% of patients with slipped disks will recover irrespective of whether treatment is sought. The remaining 30% will generally suffer from pain if not treated.

This provides us with a comparison between complementary and conservative treatment procedure and effectiveness. However in no way am I saying conservative treatment does not work but waiting for natural healing while covering up the pain with drugs is not as good as speeding up the natural process of healing with Qigong.

With Blessings

Isaac Lim

www.qigong.eftwonder.com