Page 7 - Summer 2017 Journal

organic diet rich in high-quality fats and low in carbs, in addition to a few other things. The oncologist within his conventional medical system agreed to track the cancer, and appeared humbled and dumbfounded when in December I sat before her to receive the results of various tests and scans. She could not argue with the answers before her: no sign of cancer!
So what killed him? Well, two months after his surgery he began ex- periencing severe sciatic pain. No cause could be found, and no chiropractic or other treatment would help. Nothing but rounds of prednisone, which of course he knew he could not continue, and bouts in the hospital when even the highest doses of oxycodone and fentanyl couldn't cut it. On his last hospitalization, it was noted that he was very hoarse, not from a cold or other illness, but from screaming out in unbearable pain! When my siblings and I think of our poor father in such a state, it drives us to tears.
From the outset, I had encouraged my father to monitor his blood sugar as it just made sense; after all, he was missing half of the very organ that he needed to keep his blood sugar under control! But he assured me that the doctors weren't worried (they weren't), and they would test it when he had an appointment. If they weren't worried, he wasn't either. And as he was on a fairly low-carb, high-fat diet for the cancer, I dismissed it as well, hoping that the diet would take care of it. (Dad still enjoyed a heavily buttered slice of bread in the morning, a beer in the afternoon, or a very occasional small treat, and I was not about to insist on the deprivation!)
Dad liked for me to attend his doc-
Letters
tor appointments when possible, and I often did during those last five months of his life, making frequent trips to be with him to help. So I was with him when his neurosurgeon finally gave the diagnosis, and prognosis, for Dad's condition: demyelination of the sciatic nerve brought on by high blood sugar. The good doctor told my father that if he controlled his blood sugar, the myelin sheath should regenerate in six to twelve months. He saw this often, he said, and Dad was now declared “diabetic.” It mattered not, as I gently protested, that my father wasn't truly diabetic, but that he was missing half of his pancreas and thus the ability to control blood sugar was duly sliced in half as well!
I sat with my father while the dieti- cian discussed his new diabetic diet, very high in carbs. My father knew better and took it with a “grain of salt,” which of course was literally restricted in the hospital and rehab, along with fat! And as he spent many weeks in and out of that hospital and rehab, he was doomed!
Should I mention those rounds of prednisone which Dad was given for the sciatic pain, driving his blood sugar into the four hundred range, and holding it there for up to two weeks at a time! So, he was put on metformin. A band aid. Meanwhile, I consulted with the func- tional medicine doc, who was frustrated that Dad wasn't working with him on all of his issues. After all, that is what func- tional medicine doctors do: they work with the whole, not just parts. But as this was not covered by insurance and was quite expensive, Dad chose to stick it out with his health “care” system. Dr. Schwartz urged Dad to continue with
the alpha lipoic acid and do several rounds of vitamin B12 shots, methylco- balamin in particular. Dad was okay with this, but wanted it to be within the “system” so as to have costs covered by his insurance and doctors. So, I made phone calls and gave information to the nurses in charge. They were intrigued, curious, but not convinced. Thus, it was declared unnecessary.
On February 10th, my sister took our father to what would be his last appointment with the neurosurgeon, who gave him no hope. None. My sister overheard Dad telling the doctor that if this was what life was to be, it just wasn't worth living.
Two days later, he was gone.
So what is to be learned from this? If only more people would hear! Our current medical paradigm does not heal people—far from it. It is a system of disease management, of controlling symptoms by slicing and dicing, of prescribing chemical pills for ailments, instead of understanding and correct- ing the root cause. It is a system that looks at individual parts rather than the whole. And it never actually “cures” anyone of anything! It is a business, and it robs people of not only money but their very lives every single day. This is not to say that there are not many fine people out there truly dedicated to healing, as they understand it, and helping people. It's just that their under- standing is deeply flawed, and literally dangerous.
Maureen Diaz, chapter leader Linden, Virginia
SUMMER 2017
Wise Traditions 7