How to be sick

[Tai Shi]

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[Tai Shi]

I have found the greatest sickness is happening everywhere everyday inequities by race gender and sexual abuse and sexual orientation an even more than one person by religion or thought see it by thought controlled minds without my mind for a short time did it happen again to realize deadly disease of thought control. We may use our mindfulness to alter our own thinking to freedom.
Gassho
st/ lah


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[Tai Shi]

I don’t mean sick in a traditional way but mental illness and I was first diagnosed 1974 never diagned properly until 2011. This is a terrible thing and reach out to others who need good care! This we can thoughtfully as mindful people, help with friends and neighbors and relatives.


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[Tai Shi]

I adhere to my belief that good medicine means good science. People need doctors, nurses, technical people who support and usually difficult decisions are best made with help of good medical professionals who are qualified to help along with patient and families whenever possible.


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[Koriki]

I adhere to my belief that good medicine means good science. People need doctors, nurses, technical people who support and usually difficult decisions are best made with help of good medical professionals who are qualified to help along with patient and families whenever possible.

That kind of insight is very beneficial and is usually very hard to achieve, Tai Shi. Deep bows to you.

Gassho,

MarkJ
s@

[ZenKen]

Mental illness is so insidious because it creeps up on people in the privacy of themselves and often, it seems to me, by the time they realise it isn't healthy, those thoughts have already sunk their claws in deep. I think talking to people and asking - genuinely - how they are and whether they are well on a regular basis is a simple practice that can have huge benefits.

Thank you, TaiShi, for bringing it up.

Gassho
Anna
stlah

[Meian]

I saw this article about "warmlines" and thought it might be helpful. This resource is only available in the US (I think), but there may be versions of it in other countries also.

The link to the resources is near the end of the article.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/warmline-mental-health-help-hotline_l_63695bfee4b05f221e7cda12

Gassho, meian

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[Tai Shi]

Today I receive a complete body body scan mapping my body from top of head to bottom of feet. This will allow a workaround because my Ankylosing Spondylitis does not allow the regular bone marrow biopsy made with samples from the hip. My lower back is filled with longspurs, fused vertebrae and compressed bone material including cartilage, ligaments, and actually there are no longer disks in my lower back, and completely in my neck, and Thorax. My possible complications might mean severing a nerve such that I would no longer walk. IN addition, I have a three inch wound on my left calf fro an eight foot fall. This morning is the first morning I have been able to sit zazen in several weeks. I'm receiving care three times a week at the wound clinic to scrape out dead at my hospital's wound clinic, and I wear a wound vac 24/7 to promote healing of the wound, I am receiving Radio Frequency Ablation on day after my bone marrow biopsy. There may be a fale positive because my kidneys produce fewer red blood cells. I have stage 3 kidney failure with complications. A protein factor has been found in my blood which could indicate Malignant Myeloma. This is a fairly rare blood cancer. I probably do not have this cancer, but I must be anesthetized and a bone marrow sample taken from a potentially safe site in one of my bones. In addition, I have bipolar one disorder which complicates the entire processes. I need all the prayers, metta, special considerations you can spare. So far, DRs CNPs and nurses have been upbeat and friendly. However, I say enough is enough. I may not allow treatment in the case of cancer because it require multiple bone marrow transplants. This is temporary because I am seventy-one and may not survive treatment. I did learn yesterday my heart is strong and a good muscle.
lah/ sat
Gasso

[Koriki]

Much Metta to you Tai Shi. Those are some of the most agonizing moments in life and present a major challenge to spiritual practice. For me the hardest part would be the uncertainty of diagnosis. It's my nature to fret and ruin every moment between now and likely finding out that I don't have the dreaded illness of my worries. The ability to set that concern aside (or at least beat it back with a whip and a chair) while I take refuge in the Three Treasures, even for a moment, is priceless.

I have a three inch wound on my left calf fro an eight foot fall

8 foot fall?! (Sigh) It's always the tough as nails older guys with debilitating health problems that end up on a roof or ladder. I'll probably be the same way...

Gassho,

MarkJ
s@

[Shinshi]

I will sit Metta for you Tai Shi. It certainly sounds like you have many challenges in front of you. May your strong heart carry you through.

Gassho, Shinshi

SaT-LaH

[Rich]

Tai chi, Sorry to hear of your condition. Will send healing energy.

Sat/lah


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[Tai Shi]

This is addressed to Meian and all of you. In my area we have a 211 line, a warm line, staffed by trained professionals who offer assistance for everything from birthing a child to chronic pain to chronic depression, to full blown mania, to threats to taking one's life. These are only a few of the situations professional counselors at 211, a warm line, face in my area. For 26 years, since I knew of its existence, and I have been in thought distress, to suicidal, to full blown mania, to depression, and I add feelings of being utterly alone. Now I am faced with a challenge. I have Ankylosing Spondylitis which has all but destroyed my spine. I began with huge amounts of Oxycodone a medium dose of Fentynal patch 48 hours, and a large amount of Valium. I dumped Valium, I dumped a large amount of Oxycodone, terms being relative. I am faced with this, my provider says I can taper down to off all Fentynal with aid of less strong narcotics, and one less Fentynal. I will speak with my therapist remotely, on this very computer, where I attender Rohatsu on Sunday, and on Friday my therapist and I will meet. I ask about going off Fentynal or staying on. The 211 help line, a warm to hot line, has helped me in ways no other therapist could. Tonight she offered me a third alternative which I had not considered, one which I will seriously consider, with a pharmacists, with a physical medicine and rehab, and my very qualified provider. This was something I had not considered, and with the help of the 211 "warm" line I may well be narcotic free for the first time in 10 years. free not only of the dread of can I make it to the "next" one, and the guilt of making use of a medication at all which is a controlled, schedule 3 substance, why do I feel guilt? Treeleaf undertaking the Precepts has and is my path. I am a Soto Zen Buddhist. Christians are fond of asking, "What would Jesus do?" so why not ask what would the Buddha do? The Buddha would apply loving kindness, with the chance of a parable much like Jesus did. So I have heard of Loving Kindness. For me this is the ideal situation, How do I land softly and ask, "What would the Buddha do?" If indeed he preached the most important message humans can entertain, Loving Kindness. How do I apply Loving Kindness to my own situation, and how do I undertake the precepts in this "crossroads." It is my strong desire to be narcotic and any addictive substance free. Lovingly, with kindness, I have backed off of my own situation, asked a 211 (warm) help line and given the third option, include pharmacist, Rehab, and provider in this discussion. Then asking painstakingly as a Buddhist, "So I have heard?" what would the Buddha do? Lovingly with Kindness make a decision based in the Precepts, and with information, a rational and feeling decision. Here is what my hypothesis might be, a hunch, I suspect with the information, I will opt for waiting until wound vac machine is removed, then with guidance from Rehab, Pharmacy, and provider, I will tapper off to zero narcotics. This is a process which may take months and months, first enough healing of my wound to remove the vac, next throughout the whole period to undergo Rehab, next for pharmacy and provider to monitor my progress. My Primary care provider will be the one most monitoring me. I answer to her, and Marjorie my wife, Marjorie is the most honest person I know, and she administers all my medications, lovingly Wirth kindness and yes lovingly administers my medications, and I am oversight for I review each time I take my medications, have caught mistakes. Thank you "warm line!" You let me think through and added information. The caring sound of a woman. My mother, my wife, my daughter, the warm line, 211 line. Thoughts of cancer are diminished because the biopsy was benign, though I do have the protein marker in my blood, and a "hot" spot in the canter of my right foot, I will be retested with PET scan, and bloodwork in about 3 months, if so again in 6 months, then again annually. For this I am not concerned because my cancer doctor from the May Clinic said he "thinks" my results are benign. Now I am concerned with another pain, another thing, and for me, all decisions from here on made with loving kindness.
Gassho
sat/ lah

[Meian]

Thank you for sharing your practice and your journey with us here, Tai Shi. Much metta to you and Marjorie. [emoji120][emoji120][emoji120]

Gassho, meian stlh

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[Tai Shi]

The PET scan reveled a cancer "watch spot" on the middle of my right foot. My Hematologist believes the spot to be benign; however, watch in the next year with PET scans in 3 months, from then 6 months again, at one year, and every year after for the rest of my life. The wound continues as after two attempts at pressure bandages, back to the vac. The wound vac and pressure bandages reveled one mor smaller and just as serious wound. I will participate in Jukai. Although Jundo has offered any position, I will as last year participate sitting, and as the year before. It's not clear yet if Jundo will decide on a separate place in the computer spots for those of us returning to Undertake the Precepts or if we sit with others and it makes me no difference, the precepts have fashioned the way I approach life, since 1-10-16. I believe I count several times I have participated, and for one point I stand corrected. There are three Nobel Prizes in literature. first Kenzaburo Oe ?, then also Yasunri Kawabata 1968, and Kazuro Ishigro 2017, there is one who changed to British Citizenship; however, all are native born. Japanese.

[Tai Shi]

I’m better than I was and didn’t realize I was creating my own thread How to be sick so I am sorry for my pain and suffering from my arthritis arthritis
Gassho
sat/lah


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