Firing My Doctor
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In the past few weeks I have become very frustrated with doctors based on the many conversation's I've had with health professionals lately. Health professionals of all stripes; Eastern, Western, Functional, and Conventional. At this point I'm about to fire them all, and some I have already.
This process has led me to discover Patient Advocacy (which was a bright side to this whole exasperating process), thanks to a dear friend who's gotten the run around from doctors concerning her thyroid autoimmune disorder for many years. She too has been frustrated looking for doctors who will support her in her healing, and she was the perfect person to vent to.
Fortunately I love synthesizing information for myself and will do a lot of research on my own for holistic ways to bolster my health, but the next step is finding doctors--conventional and functional-- who support this as well, and who are willing to listen, not just tell me what they've seen before. (Let's be honest: the MS of the past was pretty depressing.)
That approach will never work for me because I know there is so much being discovered now. And there are so many health improvements that occur at the hands of the patients themselves. This is why I get so frustrated when doctors try to diminish my feedback and input. (I mean, it's my body, right?)
I believe in patient empowerment.
I believe that the MS of the past will not be the MS of the future.
I believe that a diagnosis does not define us, and even in the face of some pretty scary ones, we are in control of our future.
On a simplistic level, it's step one into the land of self awareness; a growth opportunity to say the least!
I believe that until we do the work to love ourselves fully, we will not be able to heal and recover fully because it takes unwavering confidence in our own self-worth and our inherent value to charge ahead, and take on the task of self-care.
We are in a body so that we might learn from it. We are surrounded by experts, yet no one is an expert in our body other than ourselves.
While on the subject of healing, the idea of 'cure' needs to be examined and redefined in our society. In my opinion.
What is a cure?
A pill?
A quick fix?
A one time solution?
A reversal of symptoms?
...Short term or long term?
Challenge what you think a cure is and what true health can be.
What chronic diseases do we seek to "cure" and why? Do we just want to 'get on' with our lives? And stopping to think about that for a second- do we really expect our body to take a back seat to everything else the busyness of our daily lives?
This is really a learning opportunity. A freaky diagnosis is a lesson in self-love of epic proportions.
I like to think that it's here to help us grow.
Don't underestimate that there are lessons and guidance trying to reach us and teach us along the journey of life. But are we listening? Or are we striving to in fact silence the body's functions with long-term prescription drug use?
Speaking recently with a distinguished neurologist who was a friend-of-a-friend, after hearing my diagnosis he offered a consolation, "well all you can do is chronic health management." Meaning there was no one drug or procedure to quell my immune system's debilitating effect on my nervous system, and all the side effects that come with that.
But there ARE ways to quell the immune system's debilitating effect on the nervous system. People are doing it. Not in the form of one pill, but in a combination of lifestyle choices- diet being chief among them.
Maybe this means that a *cure* may have been under our noses all along:
chronic. health. management.
It's living the cure. It's being the cure.
It's stopping to understand each individual body's needs, and creating a bed of health from which to heal, and ultimately thrive.
Chronic health management is a non-sexy term for loving myself long-term and loving my body so much that I prioritize sleep, healthy food, surrounding myself with positive energy, healthy activities, and anything else that makes me HAPPY.
It means taking responsibility for my health and not just listening to doctors who are so sad when they don't have a magic pill to give me, and think I have no other alternative.
I have every alternative. It's up to me to seek it. It is for me to believe in my own ability to heal. FROM ANYTHING. It all takes work, and an understanding of our view of "perfect health" may end up not being what we thought it was. But we create the reality we live in, and it is our choice whether or not to take responsibility for that.
That starts with me knowing my body.
And you knowing your body.
We're the only ones who will ultimately defend it, protect it and honor it.
Everyone else is just an outsider looking in, offering what they know from their limited scope of understanding.
It comes down to standing up for what I know to be true inside-- on a physical, emotional or soul level.
When is the moment when we gain the perspective to see the divine truth in our selves, guided by an inner knowing?
This knowing, this truth is alway with us, but too often we deny listening and trusting in it. But it's there, buried under the busy schedule, the work demands, the too-full social calendar. It's our higher self, knowing and wise, there always to recall within us the Truth. That which we were born with, our instinctual, child-like self. Filled with light and love. We can harness that energy again. Use it for healing, guided by feeling.
It takes a little work, but it works. Reconnecting with our highest-level energy reveals a new perspective, eradicating fears and illuminating a path that is nothing less than awesome.
I'm putting this into practice, and I hope others will too.
Thank you.
xo, Mary
#ThrivewithMS
(Stay tuned for how to put this into practice.)
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