Tuesday, June 6, 2023

Dick’s Survival through Reflexology

 Dick was “morbidly obese” at the time he went into the hospital for a stomach stapling operation. He was over 400 pounds. The doctor gave him a 50/50 chance of surviving as Dick’s vital signs were fading rapidly after the operation. 

Kevin went to the hospital several times a day to work on Dick’s feet. His Aunt Bea sat in the corner of his hospital room glaring. As Kevin tells the story, Aunt Bea thought we were nice people but thought we were crazy for practicing reflexology. 


After Kevin’s first visit, he returned a few hours later. To Kevin’s amazement Aunt Bea rolled up a chair for him to sit at the foot of the bed and rolled back the covers to expose Dick’s feet. She then propped Dick’s feet up on a pillow. It left Kevin wondering why Aunt Bea’s attitude had changed radically.


Apparently Bea, a retired nurse, had been taking Dick’s vital signs.  They had changed dramatically. 


She became convinced of the value of Kevin’s reflexology work after the first visit when his vital signs had return to normal. Dick left the hospital in 5 days rather than the standard 7 days for this type of procedure. 




A few months later we (Barbara and Kevin) were visiting Dick at his home to discuss a printing matter. It was a dramatic moment as he greeted us at the door, grabbed hold of each of us and, quite literally, dragged us inside. 


As he told it, he, a former restaurant owner, had been cooking hors d’oerves for the company Christmas party and decided to sample several cocktail-sized meatball. A meatball had become lodged in his pyloric valve. 


Now, most people are not familiar with their pyloric valves and, if they are, it's of little concern. But, since Dick had recently undergone the stomach stapling operation there was a real possibility the meatball could cause a staple to become dislodged. We were all aware that, should this happen, he would bleed to death before an ambulance could arrive.


He sat down in his recliner and we both took a foot, suspecting that Kevin, working on the left foot where the stomach reflex area would be reflected, would find something first. 


(When I say find something, I mean that we were both using the thumb walking technique to search through the stomach reflex area for a touch stress cue that would direct us to the part of the foot to which further technique should be applied. BK)


Barbara had the “lucky foot” as she came to think of it. “I found an unusual touch stress cue, a soft, definitely round shaped area to the inside of the right foot toward the solar plexus reflex area. It's been years but I could still point it out on a foot”, Barbara said. The pyloric valve location?


After a few minutes of work, Dick excused himself, went to the bathroom and lost the meatball. 


He was fine. Crisis over.


Dick lived another 20 years.


The Complete Guide to Foot Reflexology: 3rd Revision https://a.co/d/8KRF1ST

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