Valerie's Assessment

My 30's have been rough

A full-time mother

Out of the blue

The pain was real

Difficult pain to treat

The pain was from treatment

Incredible pain from chemotherapy

Nerve pain was a 10

Valerie's Assessment

Valerie was 31, new in the area, and without health insurance when she was diagnosed with leukemia. Her only possibility for a cure was a bone marrow transplant. In dealing with the pain from related treatments, she discovered that acupuncture in combination with milder medications gave her the greatest pain relief.

Dealing with cancer is such a multi-faceted thing. It is hard to say whether it has helped or hurt. I think initially it shatters. At least with my family it totally shattered the entire family, including extended family relationships. It's just sort of like this is your life, it's this nice mirror and you throw it up in the air and it crashes to the ground. And now you gotta put the pieces together again. And, let's face it, you know, you can do all you want but those pieces never fit together the same. For all of us it has been a recognition of, and people handle it in different ways. I've seen people just determined to make all those pieces fit just the same way that they did before. You know, that's the people who are really gonna be in control of the cancer, and in control of the pain and in control. And for me, that hasn't worked, I find that to be really like a waste of my time. What we've ended up doing is just sort of like figuring out what pieces of that mirror did we like after all and how are we gonna put them together now.


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