Healing After Surgery and Hospital Stay

I wrote previously about my husband’s crazy hospital story. How Chris went to the emergency room for kidney stones at the height of the pandemic and ended up unexpectedly on the COVID floor. This caused a delay in what would have been a simple procedure, causing a cascade of problems that ultimately led to multiple procedures and a very evasive surgery.

In the end, there were two surgeries and three additional procedures, 5 emergency room visits, and 4 hospital stays over six months. It was a scary time for the whole family.

Luckily, there was a happy ending to the story. Chris fully recovered. However, it was a long healing process after leaving the hospital. Recovery was needed for me, as the primary caregiver, as well.

Below I summarize what we both did in the hopes that it helps someone else in their post-surgery journey. It does not matter how evasive the surgery or medical procedure. Ultimately, you want to support your body so you can heal faster, more easily, and more completely.

I will talk about at-home strategies, frequency-related support, and other types of therapies.

For Chris, we needed to be very proactive. There were multiple things we needed to accomplish:

• Rebuild his body after losing over 50 pounds and most of his muscle when in the hospital
• Reactivate his digestive system and bowels after invasive abdominal/pancreas surgery
• Rebuild his gut after strong IV antibiotics and fungal medicines
• Detox from the many pharmaceuticals (including anesthesia) he was given in the hospital and for the first three weeks at home
• Rebuild his immune system and nutrients
• Support his mental and emotional wellbeing
• Reconnect his energetic/spiritual body to his physical one

Recovering the Patient

Chris could not wait until it was time to leave the hospital so we could be more proactive at home. Once he was able to show that he could eat solids again, he was finally discharged.

I would like to say it was smooth sailing once he was home, but there were several complications along the way. Let’s just say there were more unexpected trips to the hospital.

Over several weeks and months, we put together a great team of practitioners that worked with me to help Chris heal: energy healer, Shiatsu therapist, nerve specialist, chiropractor, physical therapist, functional medicine doctor, etc. We were fortunate to have many practitioner friends who helped point us in the right direction as many offices were still closed at the time.

First and foremost, we needed to strengthen Chris. Unfortunately, being in a hospital setting is not the healthiest place to be. Yes, our healthcare system can often perform miracles when you have a crisis. And, when you need a lifesaving procedure, you want to be where the trained professionals are.

However, you are also in an environment where it is nearly impossible to heal: constantly beeping machines and interruptions making it difficult to sleep, food choices that are much less than optimal, high EMF and radiation frequencies regularly bombarding your body, medicines that (although may be necessary at the time) become toxic to the body, no fresh air and sunshine are allowed, etc.

All of this is hard on the body and takes its toll over time.

While Chris was in the hospital, I was able to give him minimal support such as giving him Vitamin D3/K2, topical glutathione, oral probiotics, etc. (I am thankful to the first doctor on the team that allowed me to initially send supplements to Chris, while he was on the COVID floor.) I also brought in homemade bone broth, since he was often under strict orders not to eat solids. Understandably, Chris did not want to do too much because he was still on quite a few medications.

One lesson Chris and I learned after being in the hospital a while was that we could refuse some of the meds. Yes, he needed the pain medication at the time, but they also wanted to give him Tylenol, which is hard on the liver, so we refused that one. We learned to ask more questions and limit what we could.

Once out of the hospital, we could be more proactive. Below is a list of the many things we did at home to help recover. The goal was to heal, detox, and rebuild the body. Some of the items were more critical in the early stages. And, throughout, I was assisting Chris using my frequency work.

Nauseousness and gut/gas pains.

These are common symptoms after abdominal surgeries. We used the homeopathic remedy Arsenicum album as well as a variety of teas that included par d ’arco (to help detox meds) with ginger and peppermint (both known to soothe the stomach and help with digestion). Peppermint essential oil on the tip of the tongue, held to the roof of the mouth, is also helpful.

Digestion assistance.

We added supplements with meals to include bile salts (since his gall bladder and bile ducts had been compromised) and veggie-based enzymes. He also used an infrared pad on his abdomen almost daily to help the internal healing process.

Regaining gut mobility.

Chris worked with a Shiatsu therapist (Japanese bodywork), which helped to get the energies in the organs to flow again, and later added visceral manipulation to help stimulate the gut peristalsis and help open different valves (like the ileocecal valve between the large and small intestine). The second therapy also helped with internal surgical adhesions and scar repair.

Rebuild muscles and overall strength.

At first, Chris could barely walk unassisted, so he started with chair and bed exercises. When his physical therapy sister supplied him with a “desk bike,” it was a game changer. Eventually, walking daily, especially outside in the sun and fresh air, was very helpful until Chris was able to be more proactive with his workouts.

Scar repair.

Once the scars healed and the stitches were out, we used castor oil packs on the entire abdomen regularly. Additional scar healing included clearing interference fields using mud packs (as I explained here) and visceral manipulation to help with nerve pain.

Rebuilding gut microbiome.

Chris took a variety of probiotics using supplements and foods as well as prebiotics such as stewed apples, onion, and garlic. Over time as he healed, he added more fermented foods. (See this article for more information.)

Energy clearing.

Chris worked with an energy healer to clear trauma from surgery as well as the many attachments that were picked up while in the hospital – everything from the negative energies of caregivers (and c-virus fear) to spiritual entities, such as those that previously passed away in the hospital. When your physical body is weak, you are more open to attachments like these. (See more below.) I teach people how to do some of this themselves, but it can be difficult to do these clearings on yourself during high-stress situations.

Emotional balancing.

This goes hand-in-hand with energy work. We used flower essences and frequencies to clear trauma energetically. This included newer emotional triggers/traumas from his recent experiences as well as older and generational issues that may have contributed to the kidney stones in the first place.

Medications.

Chris worked with a functional medicine doctor who monitored him so he could get off the long list of medications he was sent home with, which included an IV antibiotic, as soon as possible. Luckily, he was medication-free again in a few weeks.

Detox from meds and anesthesia.

However, we still needed to detox Chris’s body from all the toxins pharmaceuticals can create. We used a variety of therapies and resources. I muscle-tested him daily to see which was optimal. (You can learn how to muscle test here.) Therapies included things like Epsom salt baths, far infrared saunas, binders like bentonite clay, ionic foot baths, topical glutathione, homeopathic remedies, bone broth, etc. It can take up to six weeks to detoxify from anesthesia alone, so it was an ongoing process. (For some people, there may be side effects to address as well.)

Detox from EMFs and wireless radiation.

This included the many exposures in the hospital room as well as the radiation and toxins from the many hospital scans (x-rays, MRI contrasts, CAT scans, etc.). At first, Chris could only handle sitting in the sun with bare feet in the grass, but eventually did more of the following. We also incorporated positive frequencies to counter some of the EMF effects.

• Walking barefoot in the grass
• Taking Epsom salt baths, especially after the scars healed (and later other types of detox baths). Epsom salt foot baths are another option, especially when getting in and out of the tub is difficult.
• Taking supplements, especially homeopathic remedies and binders
• Using an infrared sauna, or what we currently use: far infrared sauna
• Taking ionic foot baths  

Dealing with inflammation.

Throughout the process, Chris used supplements like CBD, Boswellia, and ashwagandha as well as frankincense oil on the bottoms of his feet regularly. All of these help with inflammation. Many of the other therapies mentioned above helped as well.

Helping the Caregiver

When you are working hard to help a person recover from surgery and/or an extended hospital stay, it is easy to lose sight of the caregiver and the rest of the family. Because of all the COVID restrictions both in the hospital and in our state, I ended up being the main caregiver the entire time. I am used to helping people with their health but, to be honest, this was a whole new level of challenge.

I could tell the stress of everything took its toll on my own health. What I found most interesting is how difficult it was to get my mind to cooperate. I had a hard time accessing my vast knowledge of health and natural healing and applying that knowledge to Chris.

Part of this was because Chris ended up in a health crisis that was way beyond the norm of chronic and persistent health issues that I am used to, but mostly the stress, lack of sleep, high EMF exposures, and continual unexpected complications made it difficult to concentrate. I was in a constant state of shock.

So, I too had to do many of the same things that Chris did to recover. I may not have lost the weight, had the difficult surgeries, or taken the medications, but I was being exposed to the same hospital setting, not eating like I usually did, and the stress was affecting my own digestion and sleep.

Instead, I gained weight and went into full menopause almost overnight. I also picked up many negative energies from the hospital, something that I am sensitive to.

The most beneficial therapies for me included:

Visceral manipulation.

I know I tend to hold tension in my abdomen when I am stressed and always felt I did a good job of releasing this tension with exercise, meditation, deep breathing, etc. However, when I had a physical therapist work on my abdomen, I could tell I needed more. The therapist told me my stomach was so tight that I was restricting the valve between my stomach and small intestine. The first time he did a release on me I realized that I had held a tightness in that area probably from the time my dad first had his stroke almost 3 years previously! (Looking back, I had noticed a tightness there if I sat at my computer too long or sat with bad posture.)

Energy Healing.

I don’t know what I would have done without my energy healer friend working on both Chris and myself from a distance. I can normally clear myself of negative energies, but I was too overwhelmed to do a good job. A good hands-on energy healer can remove energetic attachments (like the ones we picked up in the hospital), untangle energies like me getting intertwined with Chris’s energy, clear/balance/align all your chakras, and so much more. Regularly clearing all these negative energies helped us to cope better. When I was able, I also worked with my own energy tools, including frequency signals, tuning forks, magnets, and lots of prayer and meditation.

EMF Healing.

If you have been following me a while, you know I am sensitive to EMFs and wireless radiation. A big part of coping with these invisible negative frequencies is staying positive and using tools like prayer, meditation, gratitude, and positive thoughts to keep your own frequency as high as possible. However, being stressed nonstop does the opposite. Especially in this situation, other means of protection were necessary. A hospital is a high EMF environment between the many wireless systems in place to run the hospital and monitor the patients and the many devices used in a patient’s room. I had had another unusually high exposure to EMFs/radiation a few years prior, so I knew how it affected me and recognized the symptoms. In addition to having my bare feet in the grass as much as possible, my two favorite recovery tools (in addition to my frequency work) included EMF Rocks and the Wellness Blanket.

Additional supplements.

To rebuild my gut and the rest of my body I used some of the same supplements Chris did. Binders were also key because long-time stress can create toxins in the body just as much as being exposed to bad food, medications, etc.

Consider Being Proactive

What Chris went through was a drastic situation and one that I hope you never have to go through. In this situation, Chris needed a lot of support. Because of my holistic health and frequency knowledge, my network of practitioners, and the many tools we had at home, he made it through to the other side. I did too.

It is impossible to be prepared for everything that happens in life. However, you can be proactive.

There are many ways to help the body heal and many supportive tools and therapies. Some of the tools I mentioned above you can purchase and use at home. Because of what I do and the health challenges I have had in the past, we accumulated a number of tools over the years: infrared pads, tuning forks, ionic foot bath, infrared sauna, EMF protection, etc.

Over time, I recommend everyone invest in at least some of these tools so you too can support your body when you need to. We all need help once in a while. And, in this more toxic world, these tools can be very helpful.

Many of the items that I use and trust are listed on my Favorite Products page. (Discount codes are there too.) Many people like to start with an infrared pad. You can also purchase things like an ionic foot bath and share it with other family members.

If you are having a hard time recovering from a previous surgery, it is not too late to get help! Contact me if you need more information.