SUPPORTING YOUR HEALING SINCE 1994

It Takes a Village ( or How I Spent My Fall Vacation)

By Philip Buttenfield, LCSW, JD

Winter, 2005, Volume 2, Number 1

This is a first-hand account of what it is like to undergo major heart surgery with about fifteen good friends.

In August, I learned, quite suddenly, that I had a congenital heart condition known as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. In conjunction with another congenital condition that affected my mitral valve, this condition had quite suddenly resulted in a severe reduction in the ability of my heart to pump blood. It was the medical equivalent of the Squirrel Hill Tunnels at rush hour (or any other hour, for that matter).

In one sense, this discovery was good news, in that the first symptom many sufferers from this condition experience is sudden death. There was also more good news, in that the condition can be corrected. The bad news was that fixing the problem would necessarily involve the use of sharp knives, and I would have to be personally involved in the process. There were no other viable options.

But although I could not avoid this little adventure, it became clear with the swiftness of angel wings that I would not have to go it alone. When the surgery date was set (it was subsequently postponed twice), a team of volunteers was assembled to send Reiki energy to me on an almost continual basis. These fine folks (Nancy Murray, Jane Critchfield, Lella Lombardi, Pam Arianna, Cynthia Kinney, Aaron Heimberger, Kiersten Carlson, &. Holly Lasilla) began sending to me as of early September. Additionally, Nancy, Jane and Lella have seen to it that 1 received hands-on treatment almost daily. Jane and Nancy actually came to Cleveland to treat me in the ICU, and Leila has stayed at my side throughout the week-long hospitalization and my recovery, which is still ongoing. There have also been sendings from Nancy Pearce, my second-favorite Reiki master, and from other practitioners who have sent at Key Stone Reiki's monthly exchange. Thanks to all of you dear souls.

So, what was the effect of all this energy? No, it did not render the surgery unnecessary. Yes, the surgery hurt—I still require pain medication. And no, I can't even say there were no complications. I even have a nagging problem with persistent congestion that causes me to cough whenever I attempt to speak, which means that all of you are guaranteed to get the last word in any discussion with me—at least for the immediate future. On the other hand, 1 was placed on a recovery "fast track", with the ventilator tube being removed while I was still in the OR. And, less than one week out of the hospital, I am able to take walks of fifty minutes or more on a daily basis, some of the distance involving extended uphill travel (hey, this is Pittsburgh). My appetite has returned, and 1 sleep like a baby. (If only my hair would grow back...) Are these developments the results of Reiki? I don't know. But maybe so. And maybe the pain and the complications are far less serious than they would have been without the wave of Reiki.

I do know this: Both before the surgery—right up to the moment I was lying strapped to the table in the OR and the anaesthesiologist put that cold, chemical-smelling mask over my nose and mouth—and afterward— from the moment I came to right up to this very second—I have been at peace. There has not been, at any time, a single iota of doubt, fear or anxiety about what I was going to go through, nothwithstanding extensive research into the procedure on my part. I knew beyond my capacity to explain that however the operation turned out, all would be well, all would be as it should. There was, and still is, a sense of being in balance. If you have ever been in the ocean near sundown, when the air is cooler, when the water is calmer and still warm, and the waves rock you as gently as your mother's arms did when you were a child, stray gulls soaring peacefully overhead in search of a last fish and screaming children gone home to dinner and a movie, leaving you and the ocean deliciously alone, then you will know exactly what I mean. There is a palpable harmony, a deep comfort that touches every aspect of the being that is you. This is what I felt, what I feel now.

Perhaps this is the essence of healing, to be at peace with the way things are. So much of the pain we see in our healing practices, so much of the pain we experience personally, comes from stress and struggle in our daily lives. There can be no argument that stress does not either initiate, facilitate or exacerbate any medical condition you care to name. Perhaps the power of Reiki is to help restore the sense of balance that is in each of us. Just a thought...

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