Woman Beats Addiction and Chronic Pain with Tae Kwon Do
Five years ago, Sun Farrell, a 57-year-old Erie, Pennsylvania resident and South Korea native, could barely get off of her couch. She was addicted to the pain medication she took for her chronic back pain and multiple abdominal surgeries, and she had Type 2 diabetes. She needed the aid of a wheelchair to go shopping at the mall, and couldn’t walk more thatn 30 feet, even with a cane. But today she has a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, performing kicks and jumps and breaking concrete blocks with her palm. And she doesn’t take any pain medication.
In 2005, Sun realized she needed to change her life. “I was sweating but my skin felt like ice,” she said. “I realized I wasn’t taking care of myself. Did I want to be six feet underground or live to see my grandkids get married?”
She disposed of all her pain medication and contacted her doctor, who said she needed to be hospitalized to wean herself off the drugs. However, she refused to go because she knew the hospital would just give her different drugs, so she decided to stay home. “…It was hell,” her husband, Mike, said about the withdrawal. Sun didn’t sleep for 24 hours, and then could only nap for about 30 minutes at a time. “It took a while,” she said. “Even months later, my body kept saying, ‘Give me medicine! Give me medicine!’” But she refused that little voice inside.
When she was feeling good enough to start exercising, an important factor in beating addiction, Sun tried riding an exercise bike and walking on a treadmill, but she found it boring. Then she saw a commercial about the popular South Korean martial art form Tae Kwon Do, and her husband convinced her to check it out. She was extremely nervous and shy the first day, but she decided to stick with it.
She started out slowly, just doing simple stretches and taking many breaks. Although she still used her cane to walk and needed to rest every 10 to 20 minutes, she had regained flexibility in her legs through deep-tissue massages. She slowly improved her flexibility and balance, and started getting stronger. “I lost some weight, and I started feeling a little better,” Sun said. “I didn’t need many breaks in class, and I was walking better.” Soon after, she was able to quit taking insulin injections for her diabetes, as she could control her blood-sugar levels through diet and exercise.
“I was feeling much more normal,” Sun said. “I was working out three times a week at class and every day at home.” Three years later, Sun is now a black belt, the highest ranking, having just passed the three-hour test. Her next goal is to get her job back as a housekeeper at a health center—she was placed on medical leave years before due to her back pain.
“It felt really good,” said Sun of her accomplishments. “At my age, being able to develop myself this way has given me a lot of pride.”
Tags: chronic pain, exercise
