Stepping over the Line with Alternative Health Ideas

This blog is a little off the beaten path, but I was so touched by this information I feel I have to share.  This morning I was on Facebook, looking at my friends and commenting on what they had posted.  My initial idea was to go to my friend Jennifer Allan‘s page and wish her a Happy Birthday.  My husband was sitting next to me in bed and I was showing him what our 16-year-old nephew was posting.  My husband, Jim, is not on Facebook so I was telling him about it.  I showed him how many friends Jennifer Allan has (260+) compared to my 64 friends and I noticed one of my friends changed her last name??  How could that be when I knew her wedding wasn’t planned until this coming October.

So I went to her page and sure enough there were wedding photos posted.  I was a little surprised, why would she change the plans.  What was going on. This is one of my younger friends (if you must know I’m old enough to be her mother!), but she is a little bit of an old soul and maybe I’m a little bit of a young soul (or so I like to think).  I sent her a congratulations and told her the dress was fabulous and of course it really was.  But something wasn’t sitting right with me.

This friend is pretty special to me.  She worked for a couple of insurance companies in the beginning of her career and would periodically show up at my office and do the stuff that sales reps do, but she was really good at her job.  Once I started to do business with her, wow, I was impressed.  She was the one that actually did what she said she was going to do.  In business, lets face it, it doesn’t get any better than that.  I’ve asked her to help me with a writing assignment in the past and she has helped me to be a better writer.  Asking why this and explain that in her commentaries.

I sent her a text and gave her a congrats.  She said thanks and told me she was still having the October wedding.  So of course I had to ask why the two weddings.  She told me she has been diagnosed with cancer and wanted to get things in order before she goes through chemo and then surgery.  I am totally stunned.  She said there’s a good prognosis and I support her and want to help her if I can, but I am glad I’m not talking to her on the phone because I start to cry and I pretty much cry off and on all day.  What if I lose her as a friend.  Geez, she’s only 32!  What a shitty thing to happen to my friend.  I’m totally distraught.  My husband, tried to calm me down but I can see how it upsets him too. He has lost a couple of friends over the last few years and it’s hard for him.

But my friend is really positive and I have to stay positive for her too.  I know she is going to beat this thing.  My big dilemma is if I should tell her about alternatives to common medicine practices.  I am a natural health enthusiast and I think things can be resolved through eating the right foods and following certain ideas that are outside of western medicine ideas.  Should I send her a book written by Charlotte Gerson and her healing ideas?  What about Hippocrates Health Institute.  If I give her this information will she think I am nuts?  So many of us just follow along the western medicine ways, but don’t we all deserve to know about the alternatives as well?  Maybe I shouldn’t worry about what she thinks of me and I should just do what I think is right.

When a crisis arrives in our lives and we tell our friends about it, we get so many opinions and tons of advice.  I just don’t want to step over the boundary of friendship, but most importantly, I want my friend to live and be health and happy.  I think I already know the answer.

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