I’ll never forget my very first breast cancer patient. I’d only been in practice for a year and here she was, a residential school survivor, and now a breast cancer survivor. I remember trying so hard not to cry, not to let my patient see how deeply I was hurting alongside her. But I just couldn’t hold it in. (If you’ve ever been a patient of mine, you’ll know I’ll be balling my face off along with you, best lesson I’ve ever learned as a practitioner.)
I remember holding her hand and telling her we were going to conquer the neuropathy, chemo, exhaustion and trauma, and we wouldn’t go lightly. We would be kicking and screaming for survival together. Since that first patient, I’ve had the honour of supporting hundreds of women through their breast cancer escapades.
One year ago, within days, I heard from three women very close to me that they had just been diagnosed with breast cancer. It prompted me to get a mammogram, which you can read about over on my blog.
The hardest case most recently was a dear friend, local entrepreneur and badass mom. From her fear of needles, to frustrating doctor’s appointments, chemo, multiple surgeries and a lot of Ativan, she—like every woman I’ve had the honour of treating—is a shining example of how every woman’s story is uniquely their own.
There is a growing body of evidence that acupuncture is helpful in managing cancer symptoms and drug side effects like nausea, vomiting, neuropathy, brain fog, and instant menopause. Here in the clinic, we’ve been conducting our own research for years now, and I can say with all confidence that acupuncture is a highly beneficial adjunct therapy to all cancer treatments.
