Ten years ago when my IBD symptoms were at their absolute worst I was desperate. I'd been seeing a gastroenterologist, I'd had all the tests, gotten the diagnosis, and was taking my prescribed medications. But I wasn't really improving - I was still having 10, 20, 30 BMs per day, blood and mucus, and severe pain along with depleted energy, virtually no appetite, and rapid weight loss.

I wasn't angry at my doctor - I liked him, trusted him, and felt he really was doing for me what he knew best to do. But, I also felt that I had to try something else to get my health out of the hole it was in that was slowly getting bigger and deeper every day. At the time, I lived in California and a good friend lived in Prescott, Arizona, near Sedona. He had tried for months to convince me to go to Arizona to participate in "energy healing" that a friend of his did -to me, a girl who grew up in the Midwest, this sounded like a bunch of granola-crunchy-West-Coast-mumbo-jumbo. But, as the days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months and I continued to live my life pooping, in pain, and continuing to lose weight I became desperate and finally acquiesced to my friend's suggestion.

My husband and I drove from our home in Lake Tahoe, California to Prescott, Arizona. The car trip, alone, was an adventure [You can read about my whole Arizona experience in my book, Living with IBD & IBS: A Personal Journey of Success]. For the next week I spent two hours each morning with Katie, a Reiki master and energy healer. She used a "hands-off" approach to using my body's own energy to nurture and heal itself. This was all new, foreign, and very odd to me but by the second day of working with her I actually noticed differences in my body. First, and foremost, I had an appetite, the frequency of my BMs was less, and I had more energy than I'd experienced in months. I wasn't cured but I was better.

At the end of my five days in Arizona my husband and I went back home but Katie was still able to give me Reiki treatments long distance - there were times when I would be in my home in California and would feel a warm, tingling sensation in my abdomen or my butt and I knew Katie was working on my energy.

I know this all sounds odd and weird - remember, I was dubious from the beginning, too. But, over the past ten years since my first experience with Reiki I've since gone through the training and am now a Reiki master, able to treat myself and others with this energy work. And the virtues of "alternative healing therapies" are coming a little more into the mainstream each year. In fact, the most current issue of Take Charge magazine from the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America is almost 100% devoted to discussing the merits of combining conventional medicine with alternative therapies.

Back in 1998 when I tried Reiki and actually had a positive experience with it on my IBD symptoms I relayed the information and experience to my GI. His reaction was not what I had expected. I thought he would poo-poo the idea of "energy work." But, to his credit, he was interested in my experience. "Because," as he explained, "If it worked for me it might help some of his other patients as well." His attitude was quite progressive for the times and I appreciated his open-mindedness.