Seems a little quiet on the forum at the moment and had intended to reply recently to a couple of forumites who were enquiring about Reflexology in Bali, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to share my experience/story with all. Careful, this is a long one!
The Reflexology Centre I went to (and hope they still are) is located in laneway that runs off Poppies II opposite the Barong Hotel. Note sure of the name and have been searching high and low for their card so unable to provide specific name/location, but will continue searching. We moved house 9 months ago and still haven't unpacked all the boxes.
The Reflexology Centre is located a couple of hundred metres down the laneway, just before the old Adrenelin Park (Bungy Jump and Sling Shot) that is now closed. Can't miss their shop, it's all in blue with a sign showing a big foot out front. Cost was 75,000 Rp for 75 minutes and don't imagine it will have increased too much since my visit in mid-2004. Missed out on our annual pilgrimage in 2005 - you'll find out why if you read on.
One of my greatest pleasures whilst in Bali is to have a massage and usually endeavour to have one everyday as a fastrack to relaxing and shedding the stress and tension built up over the year. I work in a high-stress position as a Project Manager and our company was also going thru some major change management including the possibility of redundancies hanging over our heads. We (hubby & I) have visited some of the day spas, much to both our delight, but had never tried Reflexology. Having passed this place so many times whilst on one of our regular walks from Poppies II to Jln Melasti, I'd never given much thought about Reflexology until I'd read on the BTF of someone's recommendation and again soon after through a friend who had just returned about the same place.
Day two of our holiday, off I go to see what it's all about. It's only a small establishment that can cater for about 3-4 people at the same time with curtains to provide privacy. Run by a lovely man and wife team (can't remember their names), who was trained in Australia - actually in WA by a Master of Reflexology. They are frequented by many local's so are well respected.
As with any full body type massage, I needed remove most of my clothing and was provided with a sarong for modesty - not that I'm overly modest, but the Balinese can be very much so. Firstly they start with your feet, which for those who are not aware, have a huge affect on the rest of your body. There were so many pressure points that relate to specific body parts, I was amazed. I could see a chart on the wall where I was laying, so could study this at the same time. Now this was not relaxing at all for me. So many of my pressure points were very sore and painful to work on. I as told, later on, that these sore points showed where many problems laid - and my goodness I have my fair share with regard to ‘girlie parts'.
Luckily for me, I was being worked on by the lady - a lovely soft spoken woman - who wasn't quite as strong as her husband, but nevertheless, you could tell those hands have worked some long hours. As she worked away at my pressure points she started asking me a few questions, first being: 'Do you have children?' My standard reply, which hadn't differed for the past 15+ years, was 'No.' But didn't elaborate any further. She then progressed to ask me if I had any problems, which I have, the main one being Endometriosis. She didn't understand the term, so I explained in simpler terms that it has resulted in infertility problems from very early on. I further added, that we had tried many times in Australia to conceive via IVF. She then told me that my ‘energy' line was blocked and could help to unblock. This is the lower back area that connects to the ovaries and other important bodily parts. Surprised I wasn't but certainly intrigued.
After the session had ended she asked me to write down my condition and she would do research so as to understand along with the recommendation that I return the next day for further treatment, which I did. I ended up seeing her for 3 days in a row then one day of rest, then another 3 days with a day of rest before it was time to return home to Australia. I have to admit I felt a relaxed tired afterward, but also a ‘zing' at the same time, for want of a better term.
On returning the next morning, she had indeed investigated what endometriosis was all about as well as consulted her husband - he's really the expert of the two. They both explained all about the energy line and impacts it can have. She also mentioned some other areas that weren't what they should be either. Once again, she was right, without me telling her anything to indicate. This all came from her feeling pressure points on my feet and other places.
Each session became much easier to cope with, the more sessions the less sore the pressure points became and I honestly started feeling the best I'd felt in a lot of years - an overall feeling of wellbeing. At the last session my new-found reflexologist's spoke to both hubby and I. Felt a bit like a counseling session actually. I think they both sensed how much we would love to be parents. She also performed Reiki at the last session to ‘help my spirit'. Never had Reiki done before. It was interesting but can't say I felt any different.
We had been telling friends who we met over in Bali all about my Reflexology and they jokingly commented that we would probably fall pregnant in the next six months. As usual I just laughed if off and never even gave the comment a second thought - defence mechanisms can kick in automatically if they've been trained to do so over so many years.
Well, to cut what's turning into a very long story, short. On return home to Australia and in turn the same old, same old at work, I did notice that I was much more relaxed than would have normally after our holiday. Small things didn't affect me the way they used to, if at all, much to the delight of my ever-enduring hubby and closer workmates. It was great to feel so good, but holiday was over and already a memory. Apart from my daily BTF fix and new found sense of wellbeing, life was really no different than before we left.
It should be pointed out here that we (hubby and I) had been trying, unsuccessfully, to have children since 1988. Hit the IVF program fast and hard from 1991 to 1997 with no success, just a roller coaster ride of hormone imbalances, mood swings, frequent injections, surgery, complications, prodding, poking, weight gain and after some time a noticeable change in personality on my part. One of our only saving graces was to plan and travel to our beloved Bali each year. We could only afford to travel once a year - IVF can be very expensive - and I had also committed (some say bury would be a more appropriate term) myself to my then ‘climbing-the-corporate-ladder' career, so time was also in short quantity.
After so much emotion and disappointment we put IVF behind us, but I promised myself I would always give it one last go before I turned 40! I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if I didn't try again with all the 'what ifs' that would haunt me. Besides, IVF treatments (aka cycles) had come a long way and weren't quite as intrusive as they used to be. We also had 5 embryos on ice since '96 for later use, which meant missing most of the needles and no general anesthetic.
A week after returning from Bali my little sister had just pushed out baby number 3. She's over 10 years younger and now has 4 boys! At the time, deciding that 3 under 4 years of age were more than enough, she wanted to get her tubes tied. My little sis just loves being pregnant and not wanting anymore of her own, offered one of the most selfless gifts you can - to carry a baby for us. This came as a complete and unexpected shock. The only provision was that she wanted to do it as soon as possible, before she had her op. Well this through me for a sixer. After so many years of keeping feelings buried, I now had to open up again and start to face it all - and earlier than I had expected.
I won't bore you with nitty gritty details, but the option was explored and dropped quickly as Victorian laws are very strict. You basically need to be without a womb before they allow surrogacy and the legals would have been an expensive nightmare. From there, everything seemed to move so fast, my IVF doctor had retired so saw a new doc who suggested that time is of the essence and to give it another go now.
Next thing I knew two weeks later I was in hospital having a small op prior to going through a frozen IVF transfer. Two weeks after that, in early December 2004, I went in and had 2 frozen embryos transferred - unfortunately 2 didn't survive the thawing process, so only one now remains for later use. I had medication that had to be used 3 times daily which could be quite messy, otherwise the next 16 days were uneventful personally, but work stress was reaching all time highs which was of concern. I was going home in tears nearly every other day. No doubt hormones were playing a big part here, but felt all this negative energy was doing no good.
Early morning on December 21st 2004, I went in for my final blood test before work. As it was Christmas week, most staff were already on holidays and not many patients around at all - only me and one other lady. I was convinced that yet again it hadn't worked, just didn't ‘feel' like I could be pregnant. Being a frozen egg transfer the success rate is very low, not to mention that I was on the downward side of my naturally fertile days as well, so that did help. Left work early and headed to hubby's workplace to make that dreaded call at 4pm. I was shaking like a leaf - this is just the worst part of all to be told that you're not pregnant after everything you go through. After 3 attempts to get onto my IVF coordinator, I finally got through. 'Merry Christmas, you're pregnant!' I asked her to repeat what she just said, surely I didn't hear right. I burst out crying in the middle of a supermarket carpark but hey who cared anyway.
When I contacted our Bali friends who live in Perth, the first thing they said was 'We told you so'.
After an easy pregnancy - no morning sickness - and the only complication being a baby who turned into breech position at 36 weeks, I gave birth, by c-section, to our beautiful daughter Laylia. We have been blessed with a contented, happy little angel who sleeps through the night and rarely cries.
The odds were really stacked against us, particularly considering my age. We will never really know whether the Reflexology played a part or not in our success at falling pregnant, but I choose to believe it did.
My life couldn't get much better - a loving husband, a new home and a beautiful baby. I'm only missing my little piece of paradise which we will hopefully be visiting once again in June.
BTW - little sis was already pregnant with no.4 when she made the offer, but didn't yet know. 4 weeks between our babies. Oh, and she is now booked in for her little op later this month. LOL
Dorene