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Struggle Against Sarcoidosis

Date: 17 October 2007

The Story of Life One Woman’s Struggle Against Sarcoidosis

What would you do if your doctor told you that you only had three months to live? Vasanthie Naidoo walked out of her GP’s rooms with only one thought in her mind – how she was going to beat the disease that had launched an assault on her body in order regain her life.

In 1996, Vasanthie, director of student housing at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, noticed small lesions appearing on her left cheek and nostril. “I went to the doctor as if it was a small problem, that I would be able to treat easily, I was not expecting the outcome I got and the journey I would go on,” remarked Vasanthie. After a biopsy, she was diagnosed with sarcoidosis, a disease that involves inflammation that produces tiny lumps of cells in various organs in your body.

This autoimmune disease began with her skin, this being the largest organ, it’s the first place where sarcoidosis makes its appearance. “This was hard for me to swallow,” says Vasanthie, “I had always had great skin and now this disease, that did not belong in my body, had created a person that I didn’t recognised.” The tiny lumps form on the organs and look like grains of sugar or sand, which grow and clump together, making many large and small groups of lumps or lesions. If many lesions form in an organ, they affect how the organ works and effectively cause the organs to shutdown.

The lesions weren’t severe at first, says Vasanthie, merely irritating. But a year later, her condition was much worse, with the disease attacking her lungs and eyes “I needed to get rid of this disease – get it out of me,” said Vasanthie, eventually she was put on steroids in 1998. “The side-effects of the medication were horrific,” says Vasanthie, “including massive weight gain.” She explains that she was exhausted all the time, “I had no energy whatsoever!” Later on the lesions spread to other parts of her body and covered most of her face. It became an everyday event that people would ask what was wrong with her face and continue to prescribe what they felt would cure her condition, “I met with street doctors everywhere,” says Vasanthie, “everyone had their comments to make about me, the way I looked and what I should take.”

Stress also aggravates this condition, and a tense relationship with her partner didn’t help. In 2002 she decided to end both her relationship and her use of steroids, and turned to alternative therapies for help. “I tried out a series of modalities – such as kinesiology, massage, reiki, meditation and colour therapy – and gave each one a period of time to see if they helped,” explained Vasanthie. “It was while I was being treated by an Ayurvedic doctor that I was referred to practitioners of two different therapies – journey therapy and Life Alignment.” Giving up the steroids was strenuous, and it allowed the sarcoidosis to take over. “It was a catch twenty two situation, taking the steroids exhausted me, to the point that my children were now affected by this disease, but it also suppressed the symptoms. By stopping the medication, I would still be exhausted as the inflammation used up my physical energy, but I just felt that I could not continue putting my body through this. If I was going to die, I wanted to go gracefully and being on the medication would not do this,” reflected Vasanthie.

By 2004, her lung function had dropped to only four percent. An exercise fanatic in the past, now even walking up the steps to her flat was a huge undertaking or walking from her bedroom to the bathroom was a task; she felt she had no quality of life. “I was once a confident woman and now I retreated, I made no eye contact with people, for fear of their thoughts or comments; I became a hermit – I only left the house to go to work and only because I had to.”

After much thought she chose journey therapy first for three months and then, at the beginning of 2005, began having sessions in Life Alignment with Merle Westcott in Everton, near Durban. Life Alignment is an umbrella title for several different therapies - Body Spin, Body Alignment, Life Purpose Alignment, Vortex Alignment and Home Alignment.

“It is a vibrational healing that works on energy fields,” clarifies Merle. “We work from the view that people store memories in the cells in the body, which is called cellular memory. These, often negative memories, can result in physical problems. “We store stress in different parts of our bodies – some people always have stiff shoulders and necks, others overeat or don't eat, while some develop stomach problems when under stress.” A phrase commonly used in the technique is “the issue is in the tissue” – in other words, emotions are stored in the tissue of the body.

In Life Alignment, Merle says, practitioners work according to the body’s priority, which they find by tuning into the energy field of the person being worked on. “We access the problem area by touching it - we use points similar to acupuncture - to access organs, glands etc in the body. Each series of points will have emotions connected to it, which we access by number. In this way none of our perceptions of what is wrong with the client emotionally get in the way.” The body is then balanced by using energy through gateways into the body.

“Basically,” says Merle, “if you rub your hands together and then move them apart you will feel a pull between the hands – this is the energy we work. We then balance the physical body using Body Spin, and then move on to the next priority.”

Merle emphasises that they never promise to cure anything. “What we do is facilitate the body’s healing process. We are a complimentary therapy – not an alternative therapy – so we work with clients on all sorts of allopathic medication, which we never tell them to stop taking. Any decision to cut out medication has to be made with their doctor.”

After three months being treated by Merle, Vasanthie said she didn’t see any physical changes, but psychologically she was feeling much more optimistic. “I had hope again, my spirit had picked up and I realised that each day was a new day and something good would come out of it.” The disease depressed Vasanthie, living with the complicated lifestyle caused by both the disease and the medication, but once she started the Life Alignment sessions, the depression started lifting, she knew then that she would conquer this. “Then my gynaecologist discovered that the disease was in my ovaries and my doctor at Westville hospital told me I only had three months to live if I didn’t go back on the steroids.” But this was not an option for Vasanthie. She felt that the steroids could only hold the disease at bay, and the side effects had a severe effect on her quality of life. Determined to not only live, but to be able to live well, she crumpled up the prescription for the medication and returned to Merle. Leaving the doctor with words that she remembers like it was yesterday. “I am going to beat this, I will not let this disease take my body, it does not belong to me!” This was a major turning point in Vasanthie’s journey.

“Life Alignment is seldom a one-off exercise,” says Merle. “The body heals itself as you release past trauma. I started seeing Vasanthie every week and then only once a month.” Each visit to Merle facilitated the healing process, allowing Vasanthie’s body time to heal. “The healing process – in my case – took a long time. You sleep a lot and can’t get involved with too many people, you just don’t have the energy to do so.”

By the end of 2005, she was still inflicted with lesions, but her lungs had improved and she was able to return to exercising. A year later, her gynaecologist couldn’t find any traces of the disease in her ovaries. And today, the only reminders of the illness are a few marks on her face and body. The gynaecologist could not believe the outcome and kept asking Vasanthie – what is this ‘thing’ you have been doing? Vasanthie thinks back on that day. “The doctor was so astounded, he ran test after test after test, just to make sure he wasn’t missing anything.” It was a costly exercise, just to prove that she was finally starting to heal. “Our bodies are so powerful,” says Vasanthie. “All we need to do is take the time to examine them and listen to them. Once they’re balanced, they are no longer at ‘dis-ease’ and you will come out with such a positive attitude, where you believe anything is possible.

“Apart from the physical changes, I have also changed emotionally – I am far less stressed in my job and my attitude to life has changed immensely.” So much so, that Vasanthie is now training to be a Life Alignment practitioner and continues to heal herself and others. “I now live with amazing energy, managing a department across five different campuses at the university, exercising 6 times a week and passing on my energy to others.” Her daughter, Yashini is doing her Masters in Pharmaceutical Micro-biology and her son, Darryl, is completing his final year in a Bachelor of Science, majoring in maths and physics. “It is a blessing that my children came through this, while I was sick, their pillar of strength was shattered by fear, they were terrified of losing me,” adds Vasanthie.

“I am a happy person now, where I couldn’t walk, I can now, where I didn’t go anywhere, I now travel at least once a year,” she says. “I don’t feel restricted in public anymore, I can go out now, be with my friends and family, I can live!”

VN. KwaZulu-Natal

CONSCIOUS SPACES - transforming places into extraordinary and sacred spaces

In 2007 a dynamic group of like minded Capetonian Life Alignment practioners founded Conscious Spaces, to focus their combined energies on Home, Office and Land Alignment in the community.

This eight-member group consists of Mark Wellens, Christine Cameron, Lorna Morrissey, Jason Harris, Jodi Gordon-Forbes, Carol Nelson, Tanya Harris and Val Kuys who pool their creative and financial resources to ensure that Conscious Spaces is being exposed 'out there' and that awareness for the modality in Cape Town is strategically built. As a group they have undertaken various community projects such as a Cape Town city balance, Welfare Animals and Street Children in Tokai.

The Conscious Spaces group have created new ways to work with business and land Alignment and documented specific information related to this aspect of Life Alignment has lead to exciting developments and LA practioner Arleen Hanks joining the ranks of Conscious Spaces in Australia.

Marketing the concept of Vortex Home, Office and Land Alignment to the public has been undertaken via a series of talks with Dr. Jeff Levin whilst he was in Cape Town as well as popular Open Days to create awareness. The next Conscious Spaces Open Day takes place at the Tokai Library on 15th August between 11 a.m and 4 p.m. where the public are invited to bring along floor plans of their homes or businesses. Various aspects of the entire process is worked on at a small fee, to allow the public a taste of a few elements of the complete process.

A website www.conscious-spaces.com has been set up with full information about the process of Vortex Alignment with links to the Life Alignment website.

A number of Public Relations opportunities such as the submission of editorial articles to the local media and targetted magazines with current editorial being directed to the benefits of Office Alignment in the business magazine, Succeed . Conscious Spaces was recently highlighted on the SABC 3 programme "Free Spirit" where Jeff and the team were seen at work on the new home of Val Kuys. In addition the highly acclaimed lifestyle television programme and magazine 'Top Billing' also showcased Val's beautiful home making mention of her association with Life Alignment and that her home had been energetically balanced by the Conscious Spaces team.

Regular promotional displays have been set up at various public fairs and expo's and in 2007 a highly successful Conscious Spaces stand at the Organics Fair drew interest from thousands of Capetonians.

So far so good for this energetically driven group of like-minded practitioners and together with their enthusiasm and great intention Conscious Spaces will be transforming the homes and offices of Capetonians into areas of complete harmony and joy for many years to come.