That role never ends, I am learning the hard way. The terrain surrounding the battlefield to champion your post-cancer health in the best possible way is fraught with landmines and negative energy. How crazy is that?! Once chemo was over, I thought the hard part was behind me. But every day I am faced with conflicts in what western medicine believes is the best, and in no uncertain terms, the only way to ensure survivorship. I have been forced to spend more money out of my own pocket to consult with naturopathic and spiritual healers to find a more well rounded approach to achieving and sustaining optimum health. While the Mayo may be the best (or at least one of the best) western medical facilities in the US for cancer treatment, it has become a pawn of the evil pharms that run our world and economy.
If I were less adversarial and far less stubborn, I would probably be taking over a dozen pills a day, one to suppress estrogen and four to counter the effects of that drug, another to address my new diagnosis of high cholesterol (apparently triggered by the chemo), and so on and so on. But being the pig-headed Irish girl that I am, I put my foot down and just said NO! I am addressing my post-chemo issues the old fashioned way – with a change in life style, diet and exercise. And guess what. It’s working, in very quantifiable measures. And just the other day, when I insisted on sitting down with my oncologist (whom I have not seen since the last chemo treatment), his nurse told me that his new “mantra” for his recovering cancer patients is, guess what, DIET AND EXERCISE. Go figure.
All of this conflict and stress comes with a price, though, and I am struggling to find my way back into the light.
Oct. 14, 2014
Judy Richter 