[AlaskaAngel]

Thank you for carefully acknowledging personal authorship of your thoughts here, Kevin.

The perspective and experience of a person who actually has been told they have a potentially deadly disease is truly different than the perspective of even the most intensely involved and well-intentioned family members.

<OMost of those who are here have had to make the hard personal choices involved with considering the standard western toxic therapies. These choices have to be made knowing that there is no guarantee of success, and in fact with some awareness that these therapies have limited success, particularly in the case of those with metastasis.

Skepticism applies as well to a lot of the "standard" western practices commonly used in the past that have been abandoned in favor of better and better treatments over time. Please don't confuse the effort toward disciplined and documented integrative medicine with quackery.

The narratives of some of the people here who have personally struggled at great cost through toxic therapies week after week are heartbreaking. It is not foolish to be willing to try to encourage the integration of western medicine with disciplined research involving less toxic therapies from other cultures, ancient or otherwise. Quality of life is a very real part of the equation.

<OCordially,

<OAlaskaAngel<O