Heather Feldkamp
I just recently purchased a new book that I discovered on Amazon called The 22 Non-Negotiable Laws of Wellness: Take Your Health into Your Own Hands to Feel, Think, and Live Better than You Ever Thought Possible, by Greg Anderson. The title and description alone say a lot and inspired me to share my story.
In 2013 I was diagnosed with stage 4 Breast Cancer that had spread to the lining of my brain and onto my bones. There wasn’t a lot of hope offered by traditional medicine, just the old “do what we always do” approach. While I eagerly, yes I said eagerly, started radiation followed by chemotherapy, I didn’t stop there. I also began the education of a live time. I set out to find answers and solutions.
You see in this day and age we have options, opportunities like never before, BUT and this is a big BUT…YOU have to take your health into your own hands! There are several reasons why. What one young neurologist did admit to me during my ordeal when discussing alternative/holistic medicine was that he agreed things like Acupuncture work, because he has witnessed it, but doesn’t know how/why it works, “They didn’t teach us that in medical school” he said. There are a lot of things our traditional medical school education system doesn’t teach, which is a shame, but a topic for a different day.
You are the one that knows your body best, nobody else knows better how you’re feeling or if something is out of the ordinary than you. There is no bigger or better advocate for your health than you. You have to be the one to take charge, research alternative medicine/therapies, ALWAYS get a second option. I did get a second opinion from a different hospital than the one that diagnosed me, but their treatments where going to be no different, so it was evident to me that I needed to get serious if I was going to beat this thing.
I took to the Internet, books, and my social networks. I immediately changed my diet to organic and cut out sugar and carbs as much as possible as I read cancer feeds off of sugar and since we know unused carbs just turn to sugar, they both had to go. I affectingly called it the “caveman diet” basically you eat from the earth and as natural as possible, no processed food. I followed-up on referrals from friends and social connections and went through several alternative doctors before finding the right fit. The key here is perseverance, don’t give up. I ultimately beat the cancer (for now anyway) and it was because of my efforts to take my health into my own hands, not from traditional medicine. 
So be your own advocate, if you are too ill to really perform the research needed, than ask a friend or loved one to help you investigate alternatives. Cancer doesn’t have to be a death sentence, no matter what diagnosis they give you, trust me I have been there.