Voodoo Witch Doctor

One day when I was still an intern in school, my husband who travels a lot for work was getting ready for a business trip. He is the CEO of a nonprofit called Canning Hunger, Inc. During the winter he prepares to provide hundreds of volunteers to travel to AZ for Spring Training. At Spring Training his volunteers work at the baseball stadiums serving food to the patrons who attend the games. That being said, my husband was preparing to walk around 5 different venues to check-in volunteers, etc.

The day before he left for his trip he began to experience debilitating pain in his left heel. He was limping around the house and making comments about the sharp pain in his foot. He was not happy. I felt very badly for him, and to be honest, both of us were very concerned that he was going to have to walk so much during his trip. I mean, he could barely walk at home.

Both of us knew that staying home was not an option. Both of us knew that he didn’t have time to see a proper podiatrist, and besides, a proper diagnosis wasn’t going to make the pain go away. So, my husband asked me if there was anything I could do for him. Did I have an acupuncture skill that might relieve his pain? Well, as an intern I was not permitted to needle him. But, I did have some fine Japanese-style moxa at home that I could roll into rice grain and burn directly on the skin over the painful points and possibly over some proper meridian points in the local area to circulate Qi and blood and hopefully alleviate pain.

Moxa is dried Mugwort, it's used by burning it on or over the skin. The heat produced by the moxa penetrates deeply into the body points to relieve painful obstruction, enhance circulation, bring the heat to a colder area, and dry up dampness.

So, I rolled some moxa. I chose three points on his ankle/heel. And, I proceeded to burn about 7 cones on each point. While he looked at me very skeptically. When I was done I think he may have even rolled his eyes at me a bit, like those little cones were really going to make a difference. He sat up and began to walk. His pain was gone! He and I were quite surprised. He walked around and around...no pain. He started hollering, “What kind of Witch Doctor are you?” And to this day the pain has not returned. 

Today, he lovingly refers to me as his Voodoo Witch Doctor. It’s funny now, but I was truly afraid he might call me that at church, where somehow I don’t think that pet name would be well received.