strap on your boots

It's venting time!

I have this friend. She's a good friend. Loyal. Encouraging. Supportive...usually. She is also extremely close-minded, so whenever my philosophies on medicine come up, she becomes confrontational and rude. She asks questions with a mocking tone. It happens every time. I try to avoid conversations about anything medical or health-related with her, because they always end the same way.

For example, I would like to birth our children naturally, with a midwife, either in our home or at a birthing center. I've read about this a lot; it's not a decision I reached on a whim. My friend proceeded to argue for a good 15 minutes about why hospital births are better and that I must be a real nut case to even consider a home birth. Won't you be scared if something goes wrong? Won't you want drugs? I am probably more anti-hospital than I am anti-hospital birth. I've had friends who've had great experiences birthing in hospitals, and friends who've had horrible experiences. All I know is that I want to choose what happens during my child births, and based on the research I've done, I feel that I will have more control with a midwife, in my home or a birthing center. I know my body is capable of handling childbirth, because women have done it for centuries. That gives me confidence. My body will go into labor when it's good and ready, not when it's convenient for the hospital's schedule. Also, the c-section rate in Houston is astronomical, ranging from a low 7% at some hospitals to a repulsive 70% at one hospital. The average is in the mid-50s. I'm not saying c-section isn't needed sometimes--it is. I'm saying that if I have healthy pregnancies, I want to be able to labor naturally, with no pitocin drip and no epidural, when my babies are good and ready to come out.

Can't you just let me voice my opinion without jumping down my throat about it?

Then today, well let me telllll you about today. She asked what Jeff and I did for his birthday, so I told her. She asked if we had a special dinner, I said no because Jeff has class and he's doing a candida cleanse. I explained what it is and why he's doing it. He's doing it to try to treat a skin condition he's had for 8 or 9 years, something he's seen MDs for numerous times. Not once has any doctor ever successfully treated it. It always goes away for a little while then comes back with a vengeance. So he tells that to the next doctor and they say, Oh well you didn't do this. Try these pills/creams/etc. So he does and it goes away. Then he stops treatment because he's 'cured,' and guess what? It comes back full steam ahead. Jeff did a lot of research about the internal issues that could be causing this condition and found that a candida cleanse would be helpful. Great! He's eating a specific diet, taking specific supplements, and using essential oils to topically treat it. You know what my friend says? "So you're telling me Jeff read a bunch of hooey online and decided to treat himself? I just don't think some 20-year-old kid knows as much as a doctor. Maybe self-medicating will work. Who knows."

You know what? If you know nothing, don't pretend to know something.

Jeff and I are anti antibiotics, we are anti-chemicals. Maybe I'll explain why someday, but it sure makes sense to me. A missionary I knew on my mission was cured of cancer using essential oils. Yes, you read that right. Plant extracts with ZERO side effects. Some of you are probably reading this thinking, Pft, yeah right. But he was.

I guess all I'm saying is, don't knock something or someone until you've done a little research and tried to see where they're coming from. Don't harp on their opinions just because they're different. Don't be afraid of new ideas.

Don't be afraid to be wrong.