Diagnosed with a Chronic Disease or Serious Illness

Now What Do You Do? – Part 1

You have been diagnosed with a chronic, debilitating, progressive, serious or even terminal illness. Now what should you do? And where should you begin?
Whatever suggestions and recommendation I make in this post, you have the option of taking action on them or not. It’s up to you. I often share with clients and friends that the heart is the seat of true wisdom, not the mind. So if you go into your heart and see if anything resonates, you should follow that guidance and see where it takes you.

Go into your heart and see if anything resonates for you. If some of what I share does resonate, then you should follow that guidance and information, see what path they take you on, where they lead you and what new doors they may open for you. Photo by Dave Hoefler from www.unsplash.com.

As someone who has suffered for a number of years with autoimmune issues, I have gathered an array of medical and alternative medical information. It actually took visits to many different doctors to find out why I was feeling so sick and in so much pain. When there were no clear answers, I even had gall bladder surgery in case that was the culprit. After the surgery, I felt so much worse.
Finally it was a physical medicine doctor who diagnosed me with fibromyalgia. However, fibromyalgia is just a name physicians give to patients who evidence pain in certain “tender points” on their bodies. Physicians check for this diagnosis by pressing on the specific points to see if there is pain. To learn more about these points and the fibromyalgia test, you can click here. Now newer guidelines from the American College of Rheumatology no longer require a tender point exam. Instead, a doctor can make a fibromyalgia diagnosis when patients report they have experienced widespread pain throughout their bodies for at least three months.
Fibromyalgia was just the tip of the iceberg of my autoimmune issues. The real problem in chronic disease lies deep within the body and all its cells. When you are diagnosed with some kind of chronic disease that may be autoimmune-related or from some other issue, the body is seriously out of balance in some way, and the immune system is not responding properly. It either does not protect the body sufficiently from viral and other attacks or else goes into overdrive unnecessarily causing other complicated and unwanted issues.
That’s why it is so important to get to the root of what is causing all your symptoms. In addition, I highly recommend that you find a compassionate medical or alternative practitioner who will view you and your body holistically and synergistically. When patients see many different doctors for a variety of  health issues they think are unrelated, often these specialists see their patients and their patients’ bodies in a disconnected way. Whatever is happening even in different parts of a patient’s body is usually part of an overall pattern of illness. Many or all of a patient’s symptoms may be connected to some underlying malady and root cause. For instance someone can be experiencing many different symptoms and later find out that they unwittingly have Lyme disease or may have been suffering from mold toxicity or lead poisoning.

On a Journey of Learning and Healing

Following that original diagnosis, three other doctors confirmed it as well. I went on a journey of learning and healing to find what might help me feel better and what, if anything, might offer a path forward toward total recovery. I am still on that path of learning and healing, always trying to feel better and always learning of new products, practitioners, scientists and ways to heal.
My dog Socrates, who passed in July of 2011, also taught me so much about canine health issues. He suffered from chronic illness for most of his life because he was over-vaccinated at a young age. Unfortunately, I didn’t know then what I know now.
To read more on this subject, you can check out my blog on vaccinations. Perhaps his health issues were divinely orchestrated so he could be my teacher and help guide me on a path to help him feel better. In doing so, I, of course, also learned so much about how to help others.
Socrates

My beloved dog Socrates who passed in July of 2011 taught me so much about health issues as he suffered with chronic autoimmune disease for most of his life. Photo by Donna El Haber, 2008. All rights reserved.

I am an excellent researcher who is always seeking gentler and alternative modalities to improve health issues. Those who become my clients benefit from my wealth of knowledge on alternative healing modalities, testing, products and information.
In the first part of this series, I want to provide some important information, offering a higher perspective from others who know how critical your thoughts, attitude and beliefs are in affecting your health and well-being. After sharing their insights and wisdom, I will go into some more specific recommendations, noting some steps you can take to begin understanding your diagnosis from different perspectives. I will also guide you to take actions that can help you feel better and offer ways for you to begin your own healing journey and recovery.

What Do You Do Following Your Diagnosis?

Whatever your diagnosis, you probably were relieved, as I was so long ago, to finally receive a diagnosis validating all the discomfort you have been experiencing. Then you probably had to digest this new reality and begin addressing what steps you would take to feel better or to find a cure.
First I want to say that you should do whatever you can to help heal your body. However, you should not accept your physician’s diagnosis or prognosis, even if it is statistically the norm, as the gospel truth for you and your condition. I learned that years ago when I heard Dr. Bernie Siegel, author and former surgeon, speak at a metaphysical conference in NJ.
In an article titled: “Accept, Retreat & Surrender: How to Heal Yourself,” Dr. Siegel, author of Love, Medicine and Miracles, Peace, Love & Healing, and How to Live Between Office Visits, shares some important advice for those who have been diagnosed with a serious illness or chronic disease.
“When I began working with the group Exceptional Cancer Patients, I noticed many of the group lived longer than their doctors expected. I wanted to know why. I began to observe and inquire and noticed that the long-term survivors were the ones who began to pay attention to their feelings. As they expressed their emotions, made wise choices and became more spiritual, their bodies benefited. The physical changes were the side effects of an altered life.
“Physicians call the most dramatic healings ‘spontaneous remissions.’ Once we have labeled them, we learn nothing from the people in whom those remissions take place. We cannot afford to ignore these remarkable successes. We are all at risk for a great many diseases, and as the world gets smaller the list of things we are exposed to grows larger. We need to learn from people who recover and people who stay healthy.”

Dr. Bernie Siegel and his dogs from www.berniesiegelmd.com. He advises patients diagnosed with serious illness to “accept, retreat and surrender.”

He writes about the importance of forgiveness for yourself and others and also offers the important advice of “accept, retreat and surrender.”
He explains:
Those three words might scare you if you were an inexperienced warrior going into battle, but others who have employed these tactics have won great victories.
“You need to accept your situation if you want to be empowered to change it. I don’t mean you need to accept any particular outcome of a disease, but you need to accept that the disease exists in your life and you are a participant. Once you accept that the disease or other misfortune has become a part of your life, you can marshal your forces to eliminate or alter it. If you avoid thinking about it, deny it or feel hopeless, you cannot play a part in changing it and your life.”
To read the entire content of his article in “Share Guide Magazine,” go to http://www.shareguide.com/Siegel.html.
After any alarming diagnosis, you should not automatically believe that there are no cures or that your disease will progress in whatever ways you are told. Perhaps it might be the case, but your mind, heart, beliefs, will and your divine destiny are so much more powerful than any diagnosis.
During the talk I attended, I still recall Dr. Siegel talking about a medical student who was told he would go blind. Instead of accepting his diagnosis, he defied it and wound up healing from his diagnosed condition.
There are countless stories of people who healed in miraculous ways. Many of them wrote books about it. One of them was Anita Moorjani who wrote, Dying to Be Me.
In her book, she tells the story of how she battled for four years with cancer before being brought to a hospital where she was just barely clinging to life. It was in that hospital where she had what she calls a “near-death experience” and learned on “the other side” why she was sick and how she had the power to heal herself. In a relatively short time, she was not only able to feel better, but all traces of cancer were gone from her body. Dr. Wayne Dyer invited her to speak at many of his engagements. To read more about her inspirational story, you can check out her book here.
Another author, Eben Alexander, wrote Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Near-Death Experience and Journey into the Afterlife following his very serious illness that had him clinging to life in a coma. During that coma, he had a near-death experience before he revived and recovered a short time later. He began sharing his extraordinary story of the journey he took to the beyond with audiences around the world and has since written two other books.

You Can Defy Your Diagnosis

My husband and I often listen to Pastor Joel Osteen’s uplifting and positive sermons. He is the pastor of the Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. In one of his sermons, he was asking what you are giving your attention to and “putting on the throne.” Click here or on the image below to listen to his sermon. It encourages people to put God and positive affirmations on that throne. Rather than worry and fear about any diagnosis you have received, my advice would be to put hope, healing and a belief in miracles on that throne.
In this sermon, Pastor Joel tells a story about his elderly paternal grandmother who was very feisty and received a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease. She told her family that she didn’t have this disease and wouldn’t have it. She said she was too old, too strong, and too stubborn to even entertain this possibility. He told his audience that she never did get Parkinson’s and lived 15 more years in relatively good health. It seems her beliefs were much stronger than her official diagnosis.
He also often tells the inspirational story about how his mother, Dodie, beat a very serious cancer diagnosis and defied the odds to be in full remission. She is still going strong and is often seated in his Lakewood Church audience, looking healthy and radiant, as she proudly listens to his always uplifting and wise sermons.

Pastor Joel Osteen watches on with pride as his mother Dodie speaks with her inimitable passion during a stadium event. Photo from www.tbn.com.

I watched her speak at her husband’s funeral on a YouTube video. She is so dynamic. Just from that video, I understood how her spirit would have it no other way but to be healthy again. You can see the three-part inspirational videos of John Osteen’s Memorial service by clicking on the images below:
In these videos, you can also see the spunk and vital force energy of his mother and how someone with her zest and passion for serving others would defy her diagnosis. You can also see the seeds of greatness that both his parents and divinity planted within Pastor Joel, who would share countless stories from the Bible and real life of those who met and overcame extraordinary challenges.

Your Thoughts Create Your Reality

Dr. Bruce Lipton, a renowned physicist and author, wrote a book called, “The Biology of Belief.” He affirms that we are not prisoners of our genetic biology. Rather through our thoughts and beliefs, we affect the cells of our body in positive or negative ways. In an online interview, Dr. Lipton explains how our thoughts can create our reality. He also offers some ways to help shift that reality by working with the subconscious mind. You can check out his interview and the transcript of that interview here.
Here are three videos where he speaks about the ways in which your thoughts can affect your future and your destiny:
I hope you will take in very deeply what Dr. Bernie Siegel and Dr. Bruce Lipton are sharing and also the profound messages of healing and grace that Pastor Joel Osteen offers in so many of his sermons. Their strong messages affirm that you can rise above your circumstances and affect them dramatically through the power of your own thoughts and beliefs. This is the message that so many spiritual teachers like Dr. Wayne Dyer and Esther Hicks, who channels the wisdom of Abraham, among so many others, have shared with the world.
I look forward to continuing this important discussion with you in the second part of this six-part blog series.
Until then, I want to let you know that you can always call upon God and the angels for assistance. You can even hire a heavenly team of angels to support you in this time of need, to help you navigate well the way forward and also to help you on your healing journey to recovery.
I want to share a message from the Archangel Phanuel, the Angel of Hope.

Dr. Bruce Lipton affirms that we are not prisoners of our genetic biology. Photo  from www.brucelipton.com.

The Archangel Phanuel asks you to call on him to fill your heart with hope and love. If your heart is filled with dread and fear or thoughts of hopelessness, you are not a welcoming place for peace, grace and healing. Phanuel will help you uncover and release any negative feelings that are holding you captive. Those feelings might be the ones that invited illness into your cells.
Phanuel’s message in the “Angel Blessings” deck of oracle cards, by Rev. Dr. Kimberly Marooney, begins:
“Phanuel is the Angel of Hope and holds the devil in its power. Hope is a feeling of trust and desire for good, accompanied by the assumption that what you desire is attainable. It is a pathway to God and opens you to receive guidance and divine inspiration. When hope is combined synergistically with faith, it becomes a powerful force for change. The key to igniting the power of hope is through the deep feeling of trust and the belief that good will prevail.”
So call on Phanuel to help you expand into the safety that hope offers for a much better tomorrow. Ask this powerful angel to help you release any fears of the future and to free all your energy up to create the future you are dreaming of.
I hope you will check out Part 2 of this series where I will be writing about the wisdom of some spiritual teachers along with some specific first steps you can take to begin your healing journey.
With love, healing and so many miracles,
Rev. Donna
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