A journey of internal healing

Corrine Bruse Fortugno · Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 0

I was diagnosed with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) when I was nineteen years old. My journey in learning to live with a chronic illness has been a bumpy one. After a successful pregnancy and the subsequent birth of my daughter in 1997, SLE began to affect my kidneys. With the birth of my second child four years later, my kidneys suffered further damage.

Currently, I am functioning with only twelve-per-cent kidney function and I have been placed on the list for a kidney transplant.

At nineteen, I was naÃ¯ve and inexperienced in life and I wanted something to make the SLE go away fast. I didn. t want to expend lot of effort because I was looking for a cure for the disease, not internal healing. I tried many products and remedies that purportedly treated SLE, but abandoned them just as quickly when they failed to produce results. Ironically, in my effort to cure the SLE, I was actually driving it further into my body, as I was unwilling to examine the deeper issues surrounding my disease. This pattern of anticipation and disappointment continued for several years.

Although the drugs the doctors initially prescribed me helped immensely, I felt that there had to be something more available. I needed to ask myself: how will this fit into my lifestyle? How committed am I to continue it? Using alternative health techniques, methods, and products to treat chronic illness requires a serious commitment and the onus lies with patients to be well read in any alternative treatments they pursue. Alternative medicine gave me the control required to be a proactive patient.

Once I felt I was in control, I was able to accept that I had SLE and I began to investigate how treatments, be they drugs, remedies, or supplements, would work for my specific situation and stage of disease. I engaged in dialogue with my physicians and specialists and really questioned them about what they could offer me.

I realized that although I may not be cured of SLE, I can still experience healing. Clearly, facing a disease brings many issues to light, whether they are emotional, spiritual, or mental. I can experience healing in any or all of these areas and to various degrees.

In addition to acceptance of the disease and developing a good support network, I realized that there is a difference between being healed and being cured. In achieving healing in other parts of my life, I am inevitably and positively affecting the disease as a whole.