East and West

We are finally at the end of the year, and Shirley is feeling well!
She has been, for the last month doing intensive qigong, at least 4-5 hours a day and then working at the same time.
And the results of a recent doctor's appointment were better than expected. One of the tumor's has shrunk in size, which is great!
But this month, I think, more than anything has really been instrumental in learning about how east and west view cancer and how to treat cancer. Western medicine seems to be more combative in treating cancer, as the goal is to kill the cancer cells. The difficulty lies in the fact that while killing cancer cells, we inevitably kill healthy cells as well, and the patient feels like crap, at least for a while, i.e. during and after treatment.
The east, on the other hand, through it's different modalities, all seek to live fairly peaceably with the cancer. The goal is to coax the cancer away, but to treat it as a part of your body and to try to communicate with it. It all sounds a bit far-fetched, doesn't it? But TCM has been around for a while, and well, you never really know what will work.
In any case, whatever treatment anybody uses, belief and confidence in the treatment is key (hence the placebo effect).
Shirley has used a mix of both western and eastern medicine, and difficult to differentiate out the results with the treatment, but something is working, at least a little! So, we continue to be optimistic and believe that whatever treatment she uses will work and will continue to work!