By Penny Scheenhouwer, Brisbane

Growing up, I had all the recommended vaccinations. My mother never questioned the wisdom of vaccinations, or indeed any other recommended medical tests or treatments of the time, for any of our family.

When I was 18, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. At this time she started a very different relationship with medicine. She started to look at all the natural and alternative medicines. As she went along this path, she began to dismiss much about conventional medicine and what it had to offer. I watched her go into complete remission (medically stated) using ‘natural’ methods, and I found this very inspirational.

Through this process I began to read many of the books that she had (and she had literally hundreds). I too began to see things in a ‘different’ way than I had before. Somewhere along the way my mother became anti-vaccination and I too took on her anti-vaccination stance, after reading much of the material that supported that stance.

I decided that the harms of vaccination seemed to far outweigh getting a disease. I came to the decision that if I ever had children, I would not vaccinate them and intentionally put them at risk. Continue reading “Changing our Perspective on Vaccinations – thanks to Serge Benhayon” →

by Gabriele Conrad, Goonellabah, Australia

My teeth used to really distress me, and visits to the dentist even more so. Not because I was scared, but because I just didn’t get teeth, this part of our body that does not regenerate. It felt like my teeth were aliens in my body and didn’t behave how they should, but ran their own agenda.

• You start with one filling and then you have more.
• You keep getting bigger fillings as new bits of decay appear.
• Bits of a tooth might break off requiring reconstructive work.
• A tooth comes out, and of course it doesn’t grow back and you get a bridge.
• Another tooth comes out and you decide you can’t afford the bridge and leave the gap; and also, it is at the back of your mouth. But chewing becomes a bit more difficult and uneven, food can get stuck and the teeth on either side of the gap start leaning across.
• More teeth come out and you need dentures or decide to have implants.
• Your gums are not looking that great, they bleed a lot and your teeth are sensitive.
• You want to have implants but there might be problems with the bones of your jaw.

And so the list goes on.

I found teeth depressing and visits to the dentist a bit of a downer. They do a great job and I haven’t really had any bad experiences at all, but the relentlessness of the deterioration, no matter how slow and well managed, together with the perpetual catch-up and “what’s the bad news?” flavour of each dental visit, never failed to put a dampener on me. Continue reading “My teeth and what they have taught me” →

by Julie Goodhart, human resources, United States.

I was pregnant several years ago and had a healthy baby, who was delivered seven weeks early. The experience of being pregnant and giving birth was difficult, nearly disastrous, and I learned a great deal – and am still learning – from that experience seven years ago.

I was not healthy during my pregnancy, and didn’t realise this fact until I ended up in the hospital at 32 weeks with a mysterious case of cardiomyopathy. By this time, my kidneys were shutting down, I was retaining water in enormous amounts, I could barely breathe due to fluid building up in my lungs, and my heart was enlarged dramatically and could not keep up with what was going on in my body, beating at a constant 150 beats per minute (talk about being racy!).

After several days in the hospital in this condition, I went into heart failure and gave birth by emergency C-section. There was a point during this whole event where the doctors told my husband that either myself or my baby, or both of us, may not make it. Continue reading “Heart Failure: a message about love” →

by Bina Pattel, 52 yrs, London, UK 

At the age of 45 – I was 14 weeks pregnant, had a miscarriage and did not stop bleeding for 11 weeks. After 8 internal examinations by different doctors, I told my husband I would rather die than have another doctor examine me. I thought this was the worst time in my life. I had no idea that worse was yet to come.

I collapsed at home and the ambulance came and picked me up and dropped me off like a parcel on a stretcher to the super busy A & E department at the local hospital. I vaguely recall a nurse passing by me twice and looking concerned. She pulled my eyelid down, saw how pale I was, and went off in haste. Before I knew it, I was on a drip and told my blood count was very low and I needed 2 blood transfusions and there was no time other than to give my consent, which I did.

At no point did I ever consider the seriousness of what my body was telling me. Continue reading “Hysterectomy – a wake up call.” →

By Steve Matson, UK 

My family’s choices and my choices – what a difference they make!

Both my parents are now gone, but they proved that, like Mr Burns always says in the parody that is not too far from the truth, The Simpsons: ‘You can almost live forever if you have lots of money and great health insurance.’ The quality of life in this trade-off is questionable.

My mother was a walking encyclopaedia of things that can go wrong in your body. She had all of today’s standard old people’s ailments. She had smoked for years, so that gave her all the respiratory and heart related conditions. She drank a soft drink daily for most of her life. That should have ticked the diabetes box. She loved to cook and the standard fare was meat, two veg, bread, butter and a glass of milk. Breakfast was cereal during the week and a fry up on weekends that included pancakes with lots of butter, maple syrup and toast with butter. In the US they have State Fairs where each year the food vendors try new gastric delights for the visitors to consume; they always have a deep fat fried process in their making. My mother loved the Battered Deep Fat Fried Cheese Curds. I just can’t understand why she had cholesterol problems and four heart attacks, three strokes and a triple bypass! In the end she had her own cupboard for all her drugs. She never had a job after all of the children moved out, except retail therapy. Continue reading “My family’s choices and my choices – what a difference they make!” →

by RB, massage therapist, mother, artist, business owner, Goonellabah, NSW

I recently had my first hospital experience and since then I have been on a roller coast ride that I created myself in my mind.

I had severe swelling around my spinal cord that was causing nerve damage to my left leg, digestive system and urinary system, so that I could not walk or pee properly. I left the hospital with a wheelie walker and was taught how to use intermittent catheters each time my bladder was full.

When the doctors first told me I had transverse myelitis I researched all about it, and I got so into it, the fear of it all and the “what ifs”. Then I went to see a Neurologist 3 hours drive away, the next step in the process, and she was certain that I have what is known as Neuromyelitis optica (NMO). I then research this, join Facebook pages and really investigate it. I get so into it, that I become it. I am no longer me. I have suddenly allowed myself to be NMO. I am planning what will happen with my 10 year old daughter when I am in a wheel chair and who will take care of her when I die.

Continue reading “Medical Diagnosis and how the mind can take you on a scary roller coaster ride…” →

by RB, massage therapist, mother, artist, business owner.

Recently I was away from home, studying and training for a week. I developed a pain in my back which got worse by the day, but because I am always so tough on myself, I just continued on regardless. It was compulsory work training, after all!

I have never taken much medication – instead I have been the hippy herbalist who would avoid doctors and medications at all costs – but this time the pain was getting too intense. I started taking off-the-shelf pain killers to the maximum dose and was still not getting any relief. I tried hot showers, sleeping on the floor, walking, moving, whatever, to just get relief from the pain, but it kept increasing.

By the end of the week, the pain was crazy, so I asked my trainer if I could leave early and drove home. I tried to play with the kids when I got home, but was really struggling with the pain, and the next morning my flat mate tried to convince me to go to the hospital or at least to see a doctor. I kept saying I would be okay, but when I realised that I couldn’t urinate anymore, I finally admitted something was wrong.

Continue reading “My First Hospital Experience” →