An Open Letter To Those Claiming To Have "Cured" Themselves

We've all found ourselves in disagreements or flat out fights on social media platforms, even those of us who detest such things. We all also know that in arguing the odds of changing the other person's mind are slim to none. However, sometimes a topic arises that you just have to wade into with the tiniest amount of hope that you'll help someone understand why what they're claiming isn't quite true. I have recently found myself in just such a situation.

The idea that one can cure a disease by eating healthy and living a healthy lifestyle has been around forever. I've seen it more times than I can count and while I generally keep my opinion on that to myself I simply can't stand aside anymore and allow people to make these claims. Do I believe that eating healthy and living a healthy lifestyle helps someone with a disease be it Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson's, ALS, AIDS, cancers, or any of the other numerous diseases attacking people daily? Yes. Notice, however, that I said that it HELPS not that it CURES. To simply throw aside all of our medical advancements and say that they actually do nothing and that it's simply Big Pharma looking to get as much money as possible is, in my opinion, asinine. Is Big Pharma a problem? Yes. Is it the reason people have diseases? No.

I've heard it said that diseases are nothing but a group of symptoms Big Pharma has decided to call a certain name in order to gain vast amounts of money by creating new diseases and then new drugs by which to cure said diseases. I'm not saying that I'm a fan of Big Pharma and that they don't play a role in certain issues but again, it's not the culprit. Yes, diseases are comprised of symptoms. That's how you know which disease you have. It's very simple logic.

When I was about 8 years old, the doctors tried to figure out what was going on with me and although I never tested positive and do not have the antibodies for it now, the decision was that I was suffering from mono at a young age. I wasn't. It was, in fact, the beginning of my journey with Multiple Sclerosis. The problem was that MS was not, at that time, considered a pediatric disease so it was never in the running as a potential possibility. 11 years later I sat in a neurologist's office being told that due to the symptoms I experienced I either had a brain tumor, ALS, or MS. After several studies it was shown that I have MS. I was relieved and grateful to finally have a reason and name for the symptoms I was experiencing all of those years.

In 2014, my oldest sister was diagnosed with the most aggressive almost always fatal form of brain cancer. She had surgery to remove what they could of the tumor. She did not do chemotherapy. She did not do radiation. Neither would have saved her life serving only to make her far more miserable. She was gone in less than 2 months. According to the person I've recently argued with, eating nothing but fruits and vegetables, cures because there's no such thing as disease. I can tell you with absolute certainty that no amount of fruits and veggies would have saved my sister's life. She had a cancer that is almost always deadly. Do the "no such thing as disease" people have an answer when I bring this up? No. They do not. They skip over it or don't respond at all.

I have an immune system defect that keeps my immune system from fighting certain strains of streptococcal bacteria. I've lost my right leg above the knee to it and to date have lost my right ulna to it and may in the long run lose my right arm to it. Again, no amount of fruits and veggies could have saved my leg nor can they save my arm should it come to that. They also cannot save me from sepsis which I've already fought off several times. I am literally missing pieces of my body and pieces of my immune system. Also, the "no such thing of disease" people say if you just relax the body will heal itself without any medical intervention. Not for nothing but my leg isn't going to grow back because I eat nothing but fruits and veggies and exercise daily.

I know far too many people who've battled cancer. Some of them have been taken by it and others are alive and living incredible lives today and each of them treated their cancers with modern medicines. Those who are alive today are alive because of the hellish chemotherapy and radiation treatments they had to endure. Do you think any of them enjoyed it? Hell no but it was the only way they had a chance to save their lives. Children die of cancer. Adults die of cancer. But hey, all they had to do to live and cure themselves was to eat fruits and vegetables. How foolish of them to have not done that and only that.

It really upsets me that people dare claim to have the cure for all diseases. I'm in no way trying to belittle anyone who has improved their health by eating healthy and living healthy lifestyles. I do have a problem with someone who has what is a well documented disease that relapses and remits claiming that they're cured by doing such things. Diseases go into remission and if you're one of the lucky people who has gone into remission no matter what disease you have, I'm incredibly happy for you but to then tell everyone else that they're doing it wrong and they are making themselves sick because they aren't just eating fruits and vegetables and are taking advantage of modern healthcare is just plain wrong. Believe what you choose to believe but don't you dare tell the rest of us that we're sick basically because we want to be sick and are choosing to be sick. Not only is it disgusting and disturbing but it's potentially harmful and could actually potentially be deadly if someone decides they'll take that route to treat a disease believing it will cure them because it "cured" someone else.

Again, I am not trying to belittle people. I'm simply asking that should you be one of those people who claims that they've cured themselves and that diseases aren't real that you stop and think before you spout off about it and that you be wise enough to add the disclaimer to your assertions that your way of doing things may not be effective for everyone.  False hope is a horrible thing especially for those who've just entered the world of disease. Be respectful of those around you and if you do choose to spout this crap make it perfectly clear to those you preach to that you are NOT a medical doctor or nurse or in the medical profession in any way. You're just an every day person who has absolutely no training who is currently lucky. It's hard enough to live with any disease but to have people preaching that you're doing this to yourself only makes it harder and, in my opinion, is cruel.

Thank You Nurses

May 6-12 is apparently Nurse Appreciation Week for 20071, and for someone who loves the written word, it has taken me quite some time to come up with the right words for the nurses in my life and to explain why nurses in general are so important. I have been incredibly unlucky when it has come to my health but I won’t the mega jackpot when it comes to my medical team especially the nurses.

No one WANTS to be recognized by nearly every nurse in a hospital. It’s definitive and loud proof that you’ve been sick far too long and at the hospital far too many times. I used to be terrified of ever having to spend a night in the hospital. Little did I know that I’d spend oh so many nights in the hospital as a young adult. At this point, I’m recognized and fought over as far as who is going to be my nurse in pre-op and while I’m never with it enough to notice, apparently a similar thing happens in the recovery room in regards to me and regardless of who wins the “Meg’s My Patient” lottery, every nurse who knows me and knows I’m there tries to stop and see me. There’s an upside to this. Several years ago I was under the care of Stephanie, a recovery room nurse who I’d known for years, when she knew immediately something was wrong because I wasn’t my normal self at all. She’s the reason my first case of sepsis landed me in the ICU and treated before it could do permanent damage.

Another post-op recovery room nurse, Blaze, was the nurse on duty a day in September after an infection chest port was removed and in pre-op I took a rapid downhill turn. My BP plummeted, my pulse skyrocketed, I was freezing cold with a fever of 106.2, and seizing. He was with me the whole way, rarely ever leaving my side. When talk of the ICU came, I completely lost my mind. I struggle with PTSD resulting from my health especially the ICU both for my own experiences there but because less than a full year prior, I’d been forced to see my oldest sister in ICU after her fatal diagnosis of brain cancer. I started sobbing while my mom filled in the rest of post-op and my doctors and Blaze knelt beside me patiently listening to my fear filled sobs about how I COULD NOT go to the ICU. I just couldn’t do it. In the end I was kept in post-op.

The nurses on the orthopedic floor at my hospital are true heroes. They not only attend to the physical issues but the emotional and mental effects as well. Due to my recurrent infections I’ve been in and out of the hospital since 2004 and have cultivated so many friendships amongst the nursing staff. How many nurses come to your 30^th birthday because they’re so glad that you’ve survived another year – another year they weren’t sure I’d get. How many nurses look into your eyes and see the terror you’re hiding with stupid humor and order pizza to have a party in your hospital room? How many spend money of their own to buy you a bagel on their day off purely out of the goodness in their hearts or buy magazines and goodies just for you? (And by the way…they DO NOT get paid nearly enough.) How many nurses send you birthday and holiday cards? How many nurses recognize how important the memorial bracelet you wear to honor a fallen hero that you don’t want to leave it in the room, and volunteer to wear it for you until you’re back from surgery?

When osteomyelitis (a severe infection of the bone) struck my arm there was one late afternoon turned evening when it was just my older sister and I. It’s incredible how fast a 32 (at the time) year old and 36 year old turn into 12 year olds who just “want their mom” when you want something done and it’s taken forever and you KNOW that if mom was there she’d take charge and get things done because nobody messes with your mom. When she speaks they listen. I was still in shock that I now had osteomyelitis in my arm after a 13-year battle with it and other soft tissues infections in my leg leading to the loss of said leg and I. Was. Pissed about it. At one point my sister noticed a nurse we’ve known since nearly the very beginning and whom I have a genuinely amazing relationship with was in the hall and called her into the room,  A few minutes later she told me she needed food and left the room. She KNEW that I needed to talk to someone I trust outside of the family and someone who has been on this wild ride for years with us, again outside of family, to talk to in that moment and I, the girl who can’t stand letting people see her tears, broke down in tears.

Doctors get all of the recognition but it’s the nurses who make medicine what it is and keeps things rolling as fluidly as possible and take on so much of the grunt work. The emotions they circle through during one shift might take the stuffing out of others. What they go through on a daily basis from unruly patients would often cause so many to walk away.

Without the amazing nurses in my life I have no doubt that one way or another I wouldn’t be here anymore both in their care for my physical issues but their care in my emotional and mental health as well. To all of the nurses who’ve been a part of my life, part of my journey, either at the hospital or through home care I simply cannot tell you enough how much you mean to me and that I do not simply rely on my amazing OR teams when things go south for my health – I rely greatly on you.