The diagnosis of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) took me quite by surprise. I was the only one in my circle of friends to get breast cancer. What became exceedingly clear to me right off was that I wanted, if possible, to live a long, healthy life. My parents lived to eighty-seven and eighty-nine, and I wasn’t ready to die at fifty. I had seen some women who put all of their faith in natural medicine die of breast cancer, and, being a naturopathic doctor, I wanted the best of both worlds. When I was told that my particular type of breast cancer was noninvasive and that with a mastectomy there would be a 98 percent chance that the cancer would not return later in the same breast, the odds sounded pretty good. No chemotherapy or radiation was even recommended for DCIS.

I did a lot of things very quickly. I found two surgeons in whom I had great confidence. I contacted a woman homeopath in India and asked her to take me on as a patient, found a wonderful spiritual healer (actually two), and got a great deal of support from my friends and, most of all, my husband. I was already taking a ton of supplements and had changed my diet dramatically a year before to the Zone. Turns out, the cancer had been developing for six or seven years.

Not everyone agreed with all of my decisions, even my husband. But I knew inside that I was immensely fortunate to have a noninvasive rather than an invasive type of breast cancer, which would require my facing the difficult choice of whether or not to have radiation and/or chemotherapy.

The surgery went quite well. I believe the homeopath I chose did find the correct medicine for me. The whole experience really made me reexamine my values and has led to our moving to a smaller home on an island in a community-oriented, rural setting. I try to remind myself not to work so hard, although it seems to be my nature to do too much. My recent mammogram was quite normal and I count my blessings every day.