Your Thing, Your Choice

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“It’s your thing. Do what you wanna do. I can’t tell you who to sock it to.”

The lyrics date the song yet the sentiment is eternal. I can’t tell you what to do. I can’t tell you how to fix it. You can’t tell me either. We all have to do our own work. We all have the power to decide what we do, how we do it and when we do it.

The age of the guru is gone. Beware anyone who claims to offer “The Way” or the answer, the one process or technique. This is the age of empowerment enabling each of us to find our own way, speak our own truth and live our authentic, individual purpose.

For me, it has been a long and winding road. I think it is that way for everyone, if we are truthful. Not so much a Groundhog Day where the same circumstances are replayed forever, but more like a song practiced repeatedly but trying different instruments, different keys and pitches, differing rhythms and tempos.

I have been on a journey of physical healing for several years. This past year has been quite intense. I have a genetic condition, Primary Lymphedema Tarda. If you grew up in a neighborhood with a concentration of families of Eastern European origin, chances are you have seen this condition. Lumpy oversized legs or arms or entire bodies or swollen and infected areas, constant cellulitis that appears within a family.

LE&RN, the Lymphedema Education and Referral Network has Kathy Bates as a fabulous spokesperson and is doing so much to educate the western medical community about primary lymphedema. Secondary Lymphedema is more recognized because so many cancer survivors are at risk of developing it. An accident or injury can cause lymphedema. Any trauma to the lymph system, anywhere in the body can cause lymphedema.

In American medical schools, doctors have a TOTAL of 30 minutes education about the lymphatic system. They are told that primary lymphedema is so rare that they will never see it. In Poland, they have been performing microsurgeries for lymphedema for 40 years. The largest schools of lymphatic drainage techniques began in Germany and Austria. If you are a German citizen with primary lymphedema, it will be assumed that you will receive inpatient treatment eight weeks every year.

I have researched and self-educated, found resources, assembled a treatment team and advocated for myself. No one could do this for me. I knew something was wrong years, decades before I ever had a name for it. I am lucky to have the means to pursue alternative treatments. As I progress along the healing path, I will share my experiences.

On October 27th, ‘Innovative Voices, Stories of Women Awakening a New World’ the latest Heal My Voice book will be launched. My story is an honest account of my journey with lymphedema. We all have multiple issues in our lives. We may be dealt a hand but we each get to decide how to play that hand. We each have our life’s song and we get to sing it, change keys, rewrite it and fine tune it as much as we want.

I will not be told that there is no reason for a problem or that nothing can be done. We all have areas in our lives where we have the power to refuse to acquiesce. You can say, “No. I do not accept that. I have the power to make change. I will not be defined by your lack of knowledge or your limited imagination.” All innovators realize there is more than is accepted right there, right now in this moment. Parents of children given labels know that their children are so much more than the limited scope of a diagnosis. A friend is awaiting heart surgery because her partner trusted to take her to the hospital when she presented extremely atypical symptoms of a heart attack.

The body has a wisdom. The body has self-healing abilities. What we know right now is such a small amount. What we can do is unlimited. But it is only unlimited if you believe that. Dr. Wayne Dyer wrote, ‘Believe It and Then You’ll See It’ and I live that belief. I can believe it for you but it will never be until you make the choice to believe it for yourself.

Listen to yourself talk. Your words, your thoughts, your actions create your reality. It’s your life. It’s your thing. Decide and do it.

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