Reiki and Shingles

A few weeks ago, I noticed a strange rash on my right hip.  While it didn't itch, the skin did feel a bit tender.  I wasn't sure what it was.  The next day, I noticed the rash wasn't just on my hip anymore, it had moved around to the front of my thigh and around to my back and the bumps looked a little more like blisters.  By that night, I started to feel stabbing pain in every area where the rash was and that was when I knew for sure that I had shingles.

I was not happy with that realization.  I had shingles before, about nineteen years ago and I remember that it was a miserable experience.  Even though I went to the doctor right away and got the anti-viral medication, as well as medication for pain, I was still out of commission for weeks.

The nerve pain is awful.  If you've never had shingles before, it feels like you are being stung over and over and over again by a wasp.  Honestly, it is a horrible experience and one I wasn't looking forward to going through again.

I knew I wasn't going to see a doctor this time because my beliefs about western medicine have changed quite a bit in the last nineteen years.  I decided that this time, I would treat it with Reiki  (ok, I also broke down and took some advil those first few nights so that I could get some sleep, so I am not totally against taking some sort of medicine) but I wanted to try a different approach this time.

I gave myself Reiki treatments every day.  I wasn't sure exactly what it would do or how it would help, but I was wiling to give it a try and see what happened.

Much to my delight, seven days later, the pain was completely gone, the blisters had dried up and were forming scabs.  As I type this, eleven days after the initial onset, all evidence of my bout with shingles is almost gone.

Last time I went through it, it was several weeks before I could handle clothes touching my skin and several more weeks after that before the blisters healed.  I was excited to see how much the Reiki helped and incredibly grateful that the whole ordeal was over so quickly.  It has inspired me even more than before to rely on Reiki to assist with medical issues when they arise.