The Navigator
In the weeks following my diagnosis, I had a few conversations with the nurse navigator assigned to me by Ascension. Her name is Brenda.
One of the conversations we had was about my hesitation to jump right into chemo.
We talked for over an hour. I shared some of the resources I had been looking at and asked whether I would be fired as a patient if I didn’t go along with the standard treatment protocol through the hospital. She assured me that they wouldn’t fire me, and she almost seemed a little bit excited to be talking through some alternatives with me.
She told me that most of the patients she works with just go along with the surgery, chemo or radiation procedures that western medicine hands down to them.
Not me.
Eyes Wide Open
I always knew that if I or my children were ever faced with a cancer—and I knew it was likely because the world is far more toxic to humans than it used to be (especially in America)—I wouldn’t be blindly following the medical model for care. I’ve never been one to have blind faith in anything, so why start now?
Long before I had my babies, I learned about birth. I noticed how doctors and hospitals treat pregnancy like a disease and an expecting mother like a patient. I wondered why it had to be that way and learned that it actually didn’t.
For any illness or injury I’ve had, I’ve always sought out ways to work with my body’s natural abilities than bypassing them in favor of “standards of care” like drugs. I don’t even take over-the-counter pain relievers if I can avoid it. The way I see it, pain is my body’s way of communicating with me that something’s wrong just like a fever is the immune system’s way of defending against what’s making me sick.
Toxic
When the oncologist explained the next step of getting a “chemo port” put into my body, she said that the reason that they don’t administer chemotherapy drugs via an IV is because it’s more likely to get on the skin that way, which could severely damage the flesh.
That did it for me.
If something is toxic to the skin, I’m going to be thinking twice about putting it inside my body. The skin is the first line of defense? And chemotherapy is going to bypass that? Something doesn’t seem right.
I’d been devouring information from chrisbeatcancer.com and beginning to adjust my diet to reflect more of the clean, whole, plant-based food that aided his cure. Carrot juice isn’t going to burn my skin off, even though it might turn me orange if I drink enough. There was no way that overdosing on healthy, organic food was going to hurt me.
The decision to turn down chemotherapy was easy for me. And if I’m being honest, I thought it was going to be more difficult to explain and defend with other people in my life.
Validation
What’s been interesting is that the more I talk about my diagnosis and my decisions so far, the more stories I hear about people who have chosen or would also choose similarly. I’ve heard story after story from people who lost loved ones, many people sharing how they believed it was the chemotherapy treatments that had killed them and not the cancer itself.
I’m not afraid to explore chemotherapy as an option. I’m just not cool with a system that claims it’s my ONLY option.
The worst part of my cancer experience so far was the uncertainty. When I decided not to move forward with chemotherapy right now, I settled into my choice. I made the first decision. Now I could move forward with the next one. And slowly create MY OWN plan for healing.
Thanks for following along with our journey. To return to the list of support options, click here.