Honor Your Health: How to Use Holistic Healing to Create a Life of Clarity, Comfort, and Connection

By Karen Creamer

Are today’s doctors getting paid to heal us or to harm us?
                You spend a ton of your hard-earned money to be told what to do by medical professionals who, in many cases, do not support your values and instincts. You’re told that if you follow the rules, you’ll feel bet

• Language: English
• Publisher: Author Academy Elite
• Release date: Jul 26, 2018
• ISBN: 9781640852778

Karen Creamer

Karen Creamer is a Registered Nurse Health Coach whose own personal experiences combined with over twenty-five years as a health care professional uniquely qualifies her to blend conventional medicine with holistic healing measures to provide an integrated approach to making health care decisions.

Book preview

Endorsements

Karen’s books—both her fiction and non-fiction—resonate with essential themes that appear in the lives of all women. Her work speaks to making weaknesses into strengths and guides any woman who has ever questioned herself about health, love, or life.

~ Sheila Brownlow, PhD, Professor of Psychology

In today’s world, we go to our doctors to solve our problems by giving us a bottle of pills. What do you do when this quick fix no longer works? Karen Creamer gives us a pathway to living an insightful, whole and healthy life through alternative methods. I highly recommend this powerful read!

~ Victoria Teague, author of Finding Heaven in the Midst of Hormonal Hell, Reaching For Life Founder, and Director of Victoria’s Friends

I love how the author gives the reader her personal stories, building trust and validating her knowledge and experience. She tells us that nurses are the conscience of the medical profession—I love that! When an alternative health modality is introduced, she provides a description of what it’s about and includes resources so that the reader can do further research. You’ll want to underline passages to return to again and again. I can see this book in medical offices, cancer clinics, and waiting areas.

~ Lynn Covelli, RN, BS, Health Coach

Karen uses her education and common-sense wisdom to help people take control of their own health decisions. She introduces avenues of health that might be unfamiliar to some, but she invites you to explore with an open mind. She also reminds us to revisit time-honored practices of connecting with music, art, faith, and nature to enrich and give value to our health. This book is not only a treasured reference for alternate approaches to health, but it is a window into the soul of a humble, caring, and generous woman.

~ Nanette O’Neal, author of A Doorway Back to Forever: BELIEVE and A Doorway Back to Forever: TRUST

"I love how Karen shares her own struggles and triumphs with incorporating natural therapies into her life and that of her family! Karen’s personal stories are proof that you can do this too. Honor Your Health will provide the information you need to take charge of your health as well as provide practical tips you can use to incorporate holistic healing methods in your own life."

~ Michele Stanford, M.Ed., Certified Health Coach, Author of Informed Consent: Critical Truths Essential to Your Health and to the Health of Future Generations

Honor Your Health

How to Use Holistic Healing to Create a Life of Clarity, Comfort, and Connection

Karen Creamer, RN

DISCLAIMER: The material that I provide is for your general information only. This book is not intended as a substitute for the medical advice of physicians. The reader should regularly consult a physician in matters relating to his/her health and particularly with respect to any symptoms that may require diagnosis or medical attention. Please consult your own trusted health care practitioner for medical advice and treatment. Remember: You are in charge of your one precious self. You make your own decisions. Make them informed ones.

Copyright © 2018 Karen Creamer RN BA

All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America

Published by Author Academy Elite

P.O. Box 43, Powell, OH 43035

www.AuthorAcademyElite.com

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Paperback ISBN-13: 978-1-64085-275-4

Hardcover ISBN-13: 978-1-64085-276-1

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018940462

Dedication

This is dedicated to my mother, Mary Burke Maffeo. It is because of what you went through that I wrote this book. Your life and your death mattered—and still matters—to so many people. I hope we inspire women to pay attention to their intuition, never stop asking questions until the answers make sense, and take back control of their health.

Contents

Introduction

Part 1: How did we get here?

Chapter 1 We begin

Chapter 2 You CAN get there from here

Chapter 3 Enter Holistic Healing

Chapter 4 Clarity (Part 1)

Chapter 5 Nurse Ratched

Chapter 6 No Zen Garden

Chapter 7 First, do no harm (Part 1)

Chapter 8 First, do no harm (Part 2)

Part 2: Along the way: Stories from the front

Chapter 9 Reiki Healing

Chapter 10 Homeopathy

Chapter 11 Aromatherapy

Chapter 12 Collage

Chapter 13 Rocks and Crystals

Chapter 14 Acupuncture

Chapter 15 Disney Ankle

Chapter 16 Humor Therapy

Chapter 17 Music Therapy

Chapter 18 Yoga

Chapter 19 Clarity (Part 2)

Chapter 20 Comfort

Chapter 21 Connection

Part 3: Putting it all together

Chapter 22 Nursing Care Plan

Chapter 23 Brave Health

Chapter 24 Create a Pros and Cons list

Chapter 25 Daily Mindset Practice

Chapter 26 Phases of Life

Chapter 27 Vaccines

Chapter 28 Medications

Chapter 29 Cancer

Chapter 30 Thoughts on Being Well

Appendix A: Your Home Holistic Healing Tool Kit

Appendix B: Preparing for Medical Appointments

Appendix C: 7 Tips for Choosing a Holistic Health Practitioner

Appendix D: Resources

About the Author

Introduction

The twenty-first century health care system is designed around diseases. It needs to switch from disease-centric to human being-centric. ~B.J. Miller, Super Soul Sunday, 5/29/17

We are tired. We are stressed. We are disheartened. We have our routine health screenings. We take our prescribed medications. We spend a lot—a lot—of our hard-earned money to be told what to do, and in many cases, what we are told to do does not support our own values and inner knowing of what is in our best interests.

We nod and say yes. We’ll do what you say. We go home, and sometimes we even do follow the instructions the doctor gives us. We take the prescribed medications, even though we often feel worse after doing so. In some cases, we begin to notice that we have new problems in the form of side effects.

And then we wonder: Why are we still in pain? Why are we still so stressed? Why, when we are doing what we are told, when we are following the rules, why don’t we feel better?

When you don’t participate as full partners with our doctors in our health and wellness, you can become a victim. You are the expert on you. It’s time to be brave and take back control of your health! Learn how to feel better every day as you confidently use holistic healing methods to care for yourself and those that you love.

I will help you discover how to be a brave healthcare consumer and self-advocate.

I will include some stories from experiences I’ve had over the years from the healthcare front, occurring both before and after I became a registered nurse.

NOTE: I use complementary, alternative, CAM, functional, and integrative interchangeably.

PART 1

How did we get here?

Chapter 1

We begin

I am a registered nurse. As such, one of my responsibilities is to help people figure out what their options are in any situation that impacts their health. I am dedicated to helping individuals become fully informed about these options so they can make the best decision about what is right for them.

I do this because, in addition to being a registered nurse, I have also been an unhappy patient, the daughter of unhappy patients, the granddaughter of an unhappy patient, the friend of ... well, you get the idea. Often it comes down to this: a patient tries a medicine or a treatment or a surgery because, They told me I had to do it. Or They said I have no choice. My knee (or hip or shoulder) is ‘bone on bone’. Or "The doctor said if I were his mother, he would tell me to have the procedure. Although these arguments may seem compelling to the patient, they are not, in and of themselves, valid reasons to choose a particular treatment. There are effects, both known and unknown, that come along with any medical intervention that are often unwanted and unexpected. This often ends with a patient crying, They never told me this could happen!"

They were not fully informed. They didn’t know what they didn’t know. They found out how important it is to educate themselves about any medical intervention which they are considering before taking any action. To be an active participant with their healthcare providers in the process of arriving at a decision is the road to empowerment. To be a passive presence along for the ride is quite often the road to misery and regret.

So often, they are sheep, blindly following instructions, sometimes without asking any questions at all. In hindsight, people sometimes realize that their gut was screaming at them not to do the thing they were about to do. Instead of listening, they silenced their internal voice and did what they were told, hoping for the best, and sometimes getting the worst.

People forget that they are the authority regarding themselves.

I am here to remind you! You are the expert on you.

I am your guide, directing you back to yourself, helping you learn to trust your intuition. I will encourage you to see your healthcare provider if you feel like something is going on with your health and then to ask the questions you need to ask to make informed healthcare decisions. I will empower you to seek a second, a third, or as many opinions as you need until you feel comfortable that you are being heard and that you are a full and equal partner in your plan of care. It is vital to know that your wishes, morals, and values are important to consider and incorporate into that plan.

Do you think taking Arnica, seeing an energy healer, and meditating on the cause of your ovarian cyst can heal it? Then do that. Does the thought of having an invasive medical procedure make you feel dizzy and sick to your stomach? Then think very long and hard before you do that.

Why am I writing this book? Because I am the daughter of a woman who knew for years there was something wrong with her physically. Her body was acting out of character. She felt discomfort and didn’t know why. She had always seen her doctor regularly, but when she began to notice these subtle changes in her system, she started going more frequently.

He had been her doctor for over thirty years since before the birth of her first child. Did he listen to her? No. He didn’t validate her concerns. He put her off. It’s just menopause. That’s what happens. Here, take this prescription for Premarin. It will help. And so she did.

When her gastrointestinal symptoms got worse, he said, Here, have a colonoscopy, and so she did. When polyps were discovered, he assured her that they had found the problem, and now that they had been removed, she would be all set. She believed him. Hopeful, she went home and waited to feel better.

But she didn’t feel better. The symptoms persisted, and some new ones appeared. When she began to make frequent trips to the bathroom, she went back to see him. Oh, it must be your gall bladder, so here, have this surgery. Let’s take it out and then you’ll be fine. When she felt worse instead of better after this, he told her to wait and give herself some time to recover from the procedure.

This went on for months. Finally, my mother had an appointment when her usual doctor had the day off. She saw his partner, a female, who was also a gynecological surgeon, who decided that it might be a good idea to actually look and see what could be the cause of her persistent and worsening symptoms. This doctor recommended an exploratory laparotomy. It was scheduled and performed by her.

This female doctor was also my doctor. My mother asked her to talk to me when the reports came in, so I got the phone call with the results. As you probably have guessed, the news wasn’t good. When the surgeon looked inside my mother’s abdomen at her pelvic organs, she saw they were covered with tumors—so many tumors that she couldn’t determine with any certainty from where they originated or what kind of cancer it even was. There was no way to remove them without taking most of the affected organs out with them. She told me that her omentum—an apron-like tissue that supports the organs—was literally disintegrating.

She closed her back up. Surgically, there was nothing she could do to help her.

In the end, in my opinion, it was the hormone Premarin that probably accelerated the growth of the cancer that killed her. For the next two years, she underwent a failed attempt at chemotherapy which left her sicker than she was before she started it, causing her to quit after three cycles.

And then, she died.

She was fifty-five years old.

The same age that I am now.

Why am I writing this book? Because I don’t want what happened to my mother to happen to anyone else’s mother. Or to any of us. It is my hope that by applying the principles that you will discover in this book, you will be brave with your health and let your good sense and knowledge of what is correct for you guide you to optimal wellness. I will provide you with the tools to help you create clarity, comfort, and connection in your life.

Let’s get started!

Chapter 2

You CAN get there from here

But you faint when you get a hangnail! he said, still laughing.