This guest post is from my husband, Pete Chandler.

Preparing for Major Surgery

About six weeks ago I learned that I needed heart surgery; in that time there has been plenty of room for stress and tension headaches during the day and tossing and turning at night… I realized soon enough that I needed to be at my best heading into surgery, giving myself the best chance at a smooth and uneventful procedure and then recovery.

With Blair’s encouragement, I have scheduled massages, acupuncture, movement therapy as well as taken my daily herbs. Most importantly, I have found that regular Reiki/Healing Touch sessions with Blair have been blessings to my challenged immune and nervous systems (and somewhat fragile psyche!) Being on the table, I was able to achieve a deep level of relaxation. Coming out of such a deep and blissful state was easier that I would have thought, and, interestingly, seemed to make my night-time sleep deeper and more restful.

During the surgery tomorrow morning I am requesting some (short) distance Reiki/HT from Blair. Then, during recovery, I am eager to see how Reiki/HT can assist in a steady recovery from invasive surgery. I’ll report on this phase soon!

Recovery from Major Surgery

I am well into my 56th year, and I feel fortunate that until now I had not had to deal with major surgery. Elbow surgery over a dozen years ago was my only experience with surgery period, and my main memory of that time was the anesthesia-caused nausea.

Now, two weeks after open heart surgery, my recovery is proving to be a major challenge physically, emotionally and spiritually.

Physically there has been a lot of pain and discomfort from the moment of waking up in a fog after four and a half hours of surgery. Fortunately, Western medicine has developed effective medications to help with the waves of pain that, for me, have shifted to different parts of my body over the last two weeks. Pain, of course, is my body’s natural defensive response to the major “assault” that it has just experienced. The pain meds dull the nervous system pathways, allowing for some rest from the constant attention being brought to the wounds. My reliance on pain meds has dropped significantly, with only one or two Tylenol sufficient to see me through the day.

Blair was with me all but one of the seven nights that I spent in the hospital. Her numerous Reiki/HT treatments, in addition to pain meds, played a major role in effectively assisting my body’s physical response to surgery. This was primarily done by calming my nervous system, allowing me a rare few moments of deep relaxation and focus in a time when my body was on high alert, preparing for more possible incursions.

I am only two weeks into recovery, but my it is clear that although I prepared pretty well for surgery, calling on different modalities, I was not–and perhaps couldn’t be–fully prepared for the emotional and spiritual impact of open heart surgery. The “sternotomy” (accessing the heart through the sternum) was in the end necessary but relatively unexpected by both me and the surgeon. Being opened up like that has brought me into greater touch with miracle of human life, modern medicine and how the heart is not only, of course, a crucial physical component of my life, but, truly, the center of my emotional and spiritual being.

This is where Reiki/HT is most valuable–allowing for deep thought, relaxation and meditation in an emotionally chaotic time. I get emotional thinking about the tremendous outpouring of support from friends and family and the appreciation that this new chapter in my life is such a tremendous opportunity to peel away layers in my heart, to address my mind’s often debilitating negative chatter.

I can’t express strongly enough how much I believe that, from my still relatively limited experience, how important a role Reiki/HT has in the healing process. It is perfectly and rather subtly an excellent complement to Western medicine. Sometimes the sessions would be short and others would be longer in order to help me get ready to try to get some sleep (a serious challenge in the ICU or really any bed in the hospital).

– Pete Chandler

Read my perspective as the caregiver in my Care for the Caregiver blog post. So many people are struggling with small and large health issues requiring medial procedures. Healing Touch and Reiki sessions can be a wonderful compliment to the process – I’m happy to talk to you about how I can incorporate these modalities into your healing. – Blair Chandler