I read a blog today that was extremely anti chemo. The woman who wrote it said she had stage 1 cancer and she eventually healed herself with alternatives. This is all well and good, but she also said her doctors wanted to do chemo after surgery and she said no. I was confused why they would want to do chemo after getting everything with surgery with a stage 1 cancer diagnosis? It brought to mind a time I joined a support group. I tried to respond to her blog and it wouldn't post. Here is the response i wrote:
I once joined a cancer support website, and it was very supportive of the people who wrote, this is true. A girl had asked about alternative to help her relative and the moderators berated her and were very negative. I read the threads over a couple of days and the responses and the girl was so hurt she got such an awful response, I had to respond. They went on and on how the site was to support chemo patients and they, they are the brave ones, and the people who choose alternatives are taking the easy way out.
I was livid. I wrote to them, asking how choosing alternative was the easy choice? Did they think it was easy to get ridiculed and dissapprovement from your doctors? Did they think it was easy to change your lifestyle, watching your family and friends enjoying food and drink, and there you are with gluten free, sugar free, and water?
I promptly schooled them that alternatives are a scary choice and in no way easy. At every corner people love to remind you there is no proof alternatives work, and if there was a cure, wouldn't we have heard about it by now? i told them I was insulted and would now remove myself from the forum for ever.
They wrote back asking me not to leave, and apologized, saying I had enlightened them. It was a good step in the right direction, but I erased my account anyway. I did write to the girl personally and told her what I did. I also gave her some tips I hope helped in some way.
It is hard to go against the masses and the advice of people who are supposed experts. It is scary when the treatment you choose seems to be getting nowhere. Sometimes the challenge seems too much, when you are tired and people question you and you just don't feel like keeping a stiff upper lip. But know this, whatever you choose you have to know you will heal for it to stick. It's your body and if you look inside you will realize you know best. Don't do a treatment out of fear. Don't be strong armed into a choice that feels wrong.
Chemo was working for me, but I had an allergic reaction. When they said they wanted to do a different agent, I said no. I felt as if the chemo will work, but in the long run, my body would suffer in other ways from it if I didn't stop right away. The doctors and nurses made me feel stupid and wrong, and I was distraught and wavered for weeks. The cancer did get bigger, but I stand by my decision. I know i will figure it out, it is just going to take a lot longer then I want it to. I would never tell anyone who decides to do chemo they are wrong because believing in your choice is so important. When they've made their choice then you tell them chemo is useless and it only works 3% of the time, they are now full of fear. I will always teach others about alternatives and hope they choose that instead. Being scared is normal, but it has no place for a person who will heal from cancer.
So I say to everyone i meet and hear their story; "Look inside yourself, meditate on it. Do you truly believe this is the right choice for you?" If they say emphatically yes, then I tell them, "Then this will work." Belief and connecting to your spirit are stronger tools then most people can even imagine. Chemo can work if you truly believe. I don't believe in it so I made a different choice.
