[Previous entry: "Wheatgrass Juice"] [Next entry: "No More Getting High"]
11/30/2007: "Conventional vs Alternative"
As I sit here in my reclining chair at the infusion center at Alta Bates for five hours, I can’t help to think about the differences between traditional medicine and alternative medicine. As we know, doctors and hospitals are tied to big pharmaceutical by the FDA. Unless it is an approved drug, it can’t be recommended or administered. So that leaves us with chemotherapy as our only option. Besides the side-effects, it has a terrible track record for “curing” or saving patients.
For me there is also a mental level. As I read books and articles almost daily with the focus on prolonging or saving my life from an early demise, I am finding many recommended alternatives that may help. This blog has documented many of the ones that I have tried. Now that I am on a chemo regiment with no real end in sight, I feel as if I have surrendered my body to traditions. Handed it over to the pharmaceutical companies. Since making this decision, my mind wants to slack as well. Battling cancer is a daily and sometimes hourly process. It is tiresome. It’s so easy to just go with the flow and let the doctors drive.
But when I read my books searching for answers, explore diets to make me healthy, discover supplements purported to help, and work to keep my attitude strong, I feel as if it is in my hands and I am handling the fight in a proactive way. When I put my life in the hands of American medicine, it is a passive process and I have lost control of the fight. It makes me lazy and takes me off my constant vigil.
If I am going to be true to myself, then I must fight my own battle with my own efforts and my research. I need to be an active participant in the battle for my life.