Enter the Dragon

As I was winding up my work for the day, I was reminded that my body is harbouring a very large cancerous tumour.  I shall refer to the tumour as "The dragon".

There have been a few rumblings of pain over the last few days but these have been from deeper in my stomach and more associated with eating.  The pain I experienced this evening was similar to the pain I had before the chemotherapy started, but this time it was all-consuming.  It seems that The dragon stirred in the cave, as if bothered by a small noise, before I assuaged him with the sacrifice of two paracetamol in his honour and the hypnotic journey of a short nap.

I got the feeling that I may only have experienced a docile flick of his tail and it would be a good idea to keep him sleeping until he battles with the English Master surgeon.

Continuing on the dragon theme, I had a text exchange with a good friend and colleague of mine regarding the 1970s David Carradine series "Kung Fu".

Italian man (who is English reared and of English and East German extract but married to an Italian and now full fledged in Italian culture and language - I said that in one breath, did you manage to follow it?) is on holiday in Switzerland, skiing and ice-skating.  My friendship with Italian man dates back to the beginning of senior school and he is also director of the company we work for.

Over the years we have never "lived in each others pockets" but there has always been a "connection".  We find it easy to communicate thoughts and ideas with each other and, whilst we don't by any means agree with each other on all issues, we always seem able to reach compromise through reasoned debate.  In other words the personalities don't seem to get in the way.  He is quick to think and slow to talk and I am quick to talk and slow to think, but we are generally on the same wavelength.

At the age of around 16 we took up martial arts together and were inspired more by the philosphy of the Kung Fu series rather than any naked ambition to rip lumps out of people. Those days are sadly gone and now I can just about lift my legs far enough to do the Hokey Cokey, but we do manage to go ice-skating together with our respective families.  Kitten even tried once, but clung onto the sides like she was desperately clinging onto a lampost in a hurricane.

Anyway, he texted from Switzerland to say that having just skated on a rink the size of a football pitch he was back at the hotel and, with no TV available, he was catching up on my Kung Fu dvd box set.

"When you can take the pebble from my hand, it will be time to leave" he quipped.  To which, I replied.

"I took the pebble many years ago, but it has been tossed into a lake and I must recover it".

The analogy has some recent significance as I have resurrected an old activity of mine Chi Kung.  I practised the very basics of Chi Kung about 12 years ago and found it to be very useful in combatting a short phase where I experienced difficulty in getting to sleep.  As a more progressive thing I found it useful as part of meditation; putting the body at one with the mind.  I guess like a Chinese equivalent of traditional types of yoga (rather than Western yoga for fitness).

Before I continue on this thread the scientists amongst you may be interested that Chi Kung has been found to be helpful in the treatment of cancer in a clinical trial by the American Society of Clinical Oncology.  Here's the link http://www.asco.org/ASCOv2/Meetings/Abstracts?&vmview=abst_detail_view&confID=65&abstractID=30347.  The conclusion of the trial was that : This study suggests that MQ (medical Qigong) with usual health care can improve overall QOL, fatigue, positive mood status and reduce the side effects of nausea, sleep disturbance and inflammation of cancer patients. This study supports the use of MQ as an intervention for cancer care.

Now I hasten to add that pisses me off slightly because I lose the power to antagonise, but it is interesting that the West is now giving serious thought to ways from different cultures rather than the age old tradition of "it isn't ours so its nonsense".

Chi Kung (or Qigong) is practised by over 200 million Chinese and is engrained in their history and culture.

The way that I see what I have done in the past with Chi Kung could be summed up by an explanation I once read of getting to grips with the simplest posture.  The analogy that was used was that in the freneticism of Western life our energy becomes fragmented and if we visualised our body as a sea of energy then it would most likely be a stormy sea. The idea of practising the basics of Chi Kung is to bring that sea under control so that the body's energy is more akin to mill pond.  It's probably a shame that I didn't continu with this kind of practice but there is an awful lot of Jack Daniels to drink and parties to be had in the world.

I have considered practising Chi Kung from the beginning of this journey but I wasn't comfortable in my own mind because I viewed the "calming of seas" as being like a spreading of the energy. A bit like icing a cake with a knife, slowly smoothing.  I considered that I only wanted to do that when the chemotherapy had started, as I wanted to spread the chemotherapy rather than the tumour.

This sort of philosophy is personal and not everyone's cup of tea but I feel comfortable with it in my little world.