Build Your A-Team Of Health Professionals & Support

Photo by Baim Hanif on Unsplash

Put Together a Health Team and find a practitioner in alignment with you.....I can't stress this enough.  The oncologist assigned to me had terrible bedside manners.   I'll call him Dr. S.  He dismissed my desire to use some natural therapies.  He dismissed a report I had gotten to find out which chemo agents and natural agents were best suited for me.  He called my integrative doctor and yelled at her because he disagreed with what she prescribed to me.   I became anxious at the thought of having an appointment with him.  This is wasted energy.  You should feel like your health practitioner is on your team.  I dropped him shortly after. Months later, I returned to him to get a refill prescription on hormone therapy, instead of having to return to the clinic in Mexico.  He brought up doing targeted agents.  After a visit with my integrative doctor, Dr. B, she encouraged me to do this and so I did.  I began to see great improvement in my tumor markers.  But if I had a supportive, kind oncologist in the first place (like I do now) I would have began this treatment 8 months prior.  That was time wasted.  Or part of the journey.

I now see an oncologist who is patient and listens to what my concerns are.  He listened when I said that I have reservations about doing scans because of the radiation.  He said that he wanted to do a scan after my 2nd round of chemo, but that we could put it off until after the 3rd round.  This made me feel supported and heard.  Because after all, it's my body.

I'm also seeing an acupuncturist who agreed that fasting was a good idea, along with having bone broths and juices.  When I was still Dr. S getting chemo at his office meant sharing a room with over a dozen other people.  During my first round of therapy there, I was kept waiting for a couple hours longer what I was told.  I ended up feeling frustrated and I left in angry tears.

Now, I am seeing my new oncologist and the infusion center includes my own room and bathroom, a pull-out couch for friends, family to relax on, free reiki and reflexology sessions and an excellent staff that constantly checks on me or drops by for questions I may have.  The experience is so different.  One night, right before a round of chemo, had an entire night of pain & discomfort.  I tried taking 2 detox baths, took my pain killers and did two enemas.  I finally got to sleep for an hour before leaving to the hospital for my chemotherapy.  I felt nauseous during the car ride, and the nurse happened to call to see how I was doing.  As we pulled up to the hospital, I had to ask her to wait while I vomited.  She said she would make sure the infusion nurses knew I wasn't feeling well so they could give me something for it.  Whatever it was, it worked like a charm.  Within minutes of getting hooked up to the IV, I felt better.  The reflexologist came shortly after and began massaging my feet.  I professed my love to her.

So I've got my oncologist (who listens), the acupuncturist and integrative nurse and doctor.  I also have friends, family who are supportive in different ways.  They listen to me while I sort out my thoughts, ask questions to help this process along, listen without judgment, make me laugh even after an entire day of self-inflicted anxiety, offer help in ways where I don't have to ask and I didn't even think of and give me unconditional love.  Lucky me.