Copyright 2012
Case Study by: "Gopita" Katharine Manning

It started with a sore throat and malaise, but this was getting ridiculous! A fever of over 102 degrees, and it wasn't going away. I had been sick since Christmas, and I never got sick! Of course there were the "discharge" type sore throats and colds each fall and spring because I had indulged in too many sugary foods, but I rationalized those away as necessary. After all, didn't Chinese medicine tell us we needed a cold at least once a year for a type of spring cleaning or a type of "mucuosy" clean-out?But this was different. It was already March and I had such a terrible fever and cough it seemed I would break a rib with the intense hacking. And worse, I couldn't do what I usually did – just "muscle through." And not only could I not muscle through, I couldn't get rid of my fever. And…I couldn't get out of bed. For three days. Then four days. Then six days…then seven days… I became so dehydrated my doctor talked about having me sent to the hospital for fluids. No matter how much water I drank, my kidneys were so weak I was not urinating! And when I did, the color of the urine was either dark or such a pale color that I became very concerned.

The fever did not remit. The cough did not remit. I took an antibiotic and a strong; codeine- based cough syrup, realizing that breaking ribs from coughing could only make things worse. I became nauseous and still coughed and had a fever. Something was going on!

It took my body over two weeks to shake this terrible bug, whatever it was! This may not sound like a long time, but it seemed like forever. And truthfully, I probably should have been hospitalized. I was very, very sick. It turns out the clinical diagnosis has eventually led to "walking pneumonia," so I have been very careful to get loads of rest in the last three weeks, drink tons of fluids, and eat a very alkalizing diet. I can say I feel I am now out of the proverbial woods. I feel much better, although I have been humbled by this experience. Oh, and need I say I did energy medicine, energy medicine, energy medicine all through the experience? I was on the phone with energy medicine colleagues and our dear teacher herself, Donna Eden, I was working on myself, I called a friend for several sessions, yet I had still continued to decline….it was puzzling indeed. All the more puzzling because it was my second or third illness for the year, yet there was no metaphysical or emotional or traumatic event to explain the phenomena. Something was indeed going on.

I was becoming hopeless and more depressed than I had been in a long time. I was becoming depressed in a way I do not think I had been in my life. I attributed it to the illness – who wouldn't? I mean, here I was, coughing and spewing and feverish, unable to work, my body so weak I could not stand up without falling down….And did I mention the dizziness?

Something else was happening also; something which I had not experienced before. There was this inner angst, this emptiness; no, emptiness is far too interesting a word for what was happening. It was just a pure and unadulterated feeling of everything being "done" and over" - not liking anyone or anything – whoops – here we go again with emotions which are far too interesting and powerful to describe the inner machinations of what was happening to me – it was just, well, empty. I felt – nothing. I did not feel anything for anyone. I felt nothing for myself. It was a despair beyond a despair. An emptiness beyond an emptiness. A gloom beyond a gloom. And anyone who knows me knows I AM NOT LIKE THIS!!!!! I am up and up and energetic and positive!! What on earth was going on!!!?

This state had been coming and going, mostly coming, for some time, and now it seemed with me for good, and especially since I had been sick. And it seemed to be bringing on these illnesses. It seemed to be compromising my immunity, and this was not something I had previously seen in myself. I am almost 62 years old. This was alarming and somewhat weird, but again, these adverbs and adjectives are far too interesting and passionate descriptions for what I was feeling.

Mercifully, one day, I answered my phone to speak with our dear teacher and my friend, Donna Eden. She listened to me describe the hopelessness of my plight and said simply, " The only time I have ever felt like that was when I was depleted of estrogen."

Well, you know how it is when you "hear the truth?!" Everything, but only EVERYTHING, clicked into place!!! Of course that was it! I had stopped using my bio-identical hormone cream months ago for some reason (more about that in a moment), and I had stopped doing what I know to do – for me – everyday if I am to remain free from despair - correcting homolateral patterning!

Donna softly and gently directed me to Energy Medicine for Women to find the chapter on correcting estrogen deficiency. And – lo and behold! – the first correction is that of correcting homolateral!!! I went on to read what to do, and it was so simple, and worked immediately. And I mean – immediately. I was completely well within one day. I do not exaggerate. I was back to ME within one day, and have remained back to me, at peak level, with only energy medicine and the addition of a few dietary changes along with the re-addition of my bio-identical hormone estrogen/progesterone cream (I will tell you why I stopped using that, below, as embarrassing as the reason is.)

So, here is what I did:
The first correction for estrogen deficiency is, as I said: CORRECTING HOMOLATERAL! I had stopped doing it when I was sick because I was so sick, which is the opposite of what is needed. And the lurking depression, which was like a fault line for an earthquake, got more and more shaky, and the earthquake happened! I became so depressed I would like to say I was suicidal, but again, there was no energy for this type of action; there was only a vast inertia. It is an unusual type of depression, this estrogen deficiency. It is somehow different from a situational or clinical depression.

The second thing I did was to prepare Triple Warmer (which for this purpose governs the endocrine system) by doing the "Triple Warmer Smoothie;" patting and stroking around my ears like the good doggie I am; I then sedated my Liver Meridian, to prepare for any hormone increase; I then did what we used to call the "Rooster Crown Pull", but which is now called the "Triple Axis Hold." This is a brilliant way for the hands to acknowledge the pituitary, hypothalamus, and pineal glands on top of the head and balance the hormones. It is described on p. 134 in Energy Medicine for Women.

Now, here comes the MOST IMPORTANT PART, NEXT TO HOMOLATERAL, FOR ESTROGEN: MASSAGING THE ADRENAL NEUROLYMPHATIC REFLEX POINTS ON THE TUMMY. YOU CAN FIND THESE BY TOUCHING ABOUT ONE INCH OUT FROM THE BELLYBUTTON AND THEN ONE INCH UP FROM THERE. MASSAGE DEEPLY FOR TEN CIRCLES WHILE YOU BREATHE DEEPLY. REMEMBER THAT THE ADRENAL GLAND IS USUALLY WHAT IS OUT OF BALANCE FOR ANY HORMONE DEFICIENCY/EXCESS 'PROBLEM' WE ARE HAVING.

And finally - the piece de resistance – I held the neurovascular points for Triple Warmer at the temple and behind the knee on one side of the body and then the other for four deep breaths each. You can find the location of these points from any Energy Medicine or Kinesiology chart or book, and they are, of course, diagrammed in Donna Eden's book, Energy Medicine, as well as Energy Medicine for Women. This protocol, from Donna, has worked perfectly for me. I rarely need my bio-identical hormone cream, compounded for me by my doctor. The cream contains progesterone and estrogen in a compatible formula, and it is prescribed for me to use daily. Again, I energy test it, and need it about once every ten days or so. Sheepishly, I will tell you why I stopped using it altogether…..I do not put my glasses on after my shower. I wait until I re-enter my bedroom to dress, and I am blind as a bat without my glasses. Anyway, in the bathroom, when I would reach for my cream, I would grab the first one on the shelf. For months I had been using the first cream in the "row." Well, it was not estrogen cream. It was testosterone cream! This prescription cream was also compounded for me, and the directions state that I was to use it once a month. I had been using it daily for many months. Among the many side effects it can cause are: rage, weeping, emotional "labiality" – need I go on? I did notice furthermore - and I kid you not - that I was becoming somewhat hirsute.

I wear my glasses in the bathroom now, and I have thrown out the testosterone cream. In all honesty, I am not unsure that this cream isn't prescribed by male doctors who need for women to have higher libidos. According to some of my women friends, and certainly several of my clients, I am not the first woman I know to have thrown the cream out. And when I called my prescribing doctor's office, his wife, who runs the front office, told me, "I threw mine out long ago. I ALWAYS recommend that women do that!"

Finally, and I cannot stress this enough: diet is everything for us as we navigate the waters of volatile and not-so-volatile post-menopausal hormones. We all seem to agree that adrenal burn-out (there is actually no such thing, but we seem to understand through the urban dictionary what we mean by this) is very real, and nothing can calm this phenomena like a good, calming, high- fiber diet, low in simple sugars.

I am serious about my diet again. I am eating brown rice cooked with a small amount of soaked seaweed (the only way for us to absorb minerals – I assure you it is impossible through a pill – even a so-called vitamin pill!), and loads of root vegetables. Roots for the roots, you know?

Nothing has tasted as good to me as a root vegetable casserole I can throw together – consisting of parsnips, yams, onions, rutabagas, carrots, turnips, and whatever other root veggies I can find which look fresh in the market. I drizzle olive oil in the bottom of a glass casserole dish, cut up the veggies, drizzle them again with oil and a good quality soy sauce (remember the taste of salt for the water element and also to bring out the sweet for the earth element/spleen) and bake it at 400 degrees until it is done – about 30 – 45 minutes. I cannot describe the clarity of thought and the lightness in my mind and body after eating these vegetables. The sweet taste, so essential for spleen and our hormones, keeps me feeling light and balanced for days. And this is one of those dishes that balance blood sugar really, really well.

Eating my food, served in a simple and beautiful ceramic bowl, chewed thoroughly in front of an open window while I look out and breathe deeply, keeping my heart open and polishing an "attitude of gratitude" has led me back home to a peace more profound that I have experienced in a long while. (Without knowing it I had been pushing things off a countertop and wolfing my food, an old habit which left my stomach in knots, keeping me perpetually overeating and yet undernourished.) Now I was back to ME, my hormones balanced, my sleep improved, my body lithe and fit, because grace had led me back to the subtleties of hormone balancing through energy medicine. How simple it is, and yet how easy it is to go astray!

I do the Daily Energy Routine with the MENOPAUSE MODULE daily, adding the routine described above when I feel I am deficient in estrogen (not so much these days – once I balanced, I balanced!), walking with my dogs in the beautiful hills – remembering my meditation practice – and well, it just doesn't get much better for me…And, oh yes – I correct HOMOLATERAL EVERY DAY!!!

Gopita Katharine Manning
March 28, 2012