She Embraced Meditation – and Let Go of Sciatic Pain

Summary

Three months before the retreat (January), a nurse giving her an anti-inflammatory intramuscular shot accidentally hit her sciatic nerve, causing severe damage with intense nerve pain, leg weakness that would make her fall over, and difficulty walking that required her to bring a cane to the airport and through the hotel. She had tried medications, heating pads, and massage with no real relief, couldn't lay on her back due to pain (only on her side), and was afraid she would fall over but hoped the retreat might help without forcing expectations. On the first full day (Wednesday) during meditation while laying on her side after being told to "let go," she felt a strange pulsing sensation isolated to just a small section of the sciatic nerve - like a muscle spasm but only in the nerve itself - pulsing out of her leg for a few minutes before fading. When the meditation ended and she got up, she had no pain whatsoever and nearly forgot her cane in the room that day, walking normally since then with no pain or leg weakness as if the injury never happened, appreciating how Dr. Joe's work is easier to understand because of the science and tangible evidence that makes it like a literal how-to book.