Naffah

The journey of having a child with cancer is the most difficult thing our family has ever been through. It is one of the most difficult things any family could imagine going through. Having our beautiful daughter with us today, healthy, cancer free, is a miraculous gift. We feel blessed and lucky to have her with us every day.

From the day of diagnosis to today has been a life changing experience. From the devastation has arisen a new perspective on life that is a true gift.

At the point of diagnosis and throughout treatment, cancer parents are forced to dive deep into every possible thing to learn to get their child well. There is information and decisions coming at you from all sides. High stakes decisions, acute life threatening situations previously unfathomable. There are no easy answers and lots of difficult choices, in the midst of an assault on a family’s time and emotions. It’s overwhelming, to say the least.

We believe that conventional medicine saved our daughter’s life. That same conventional medicine is know to have severely damaging physical ramifications that can negatively affect the quality of life for cancer survivors, and, in some cases, create new disease.

This tension, this challenge compelled us to look into other opportunities and modalities that could not only maintain our daughter’s cancer free state but prevent future illness and frankly, heal our family from the trauma that we all endured during our daughter’s illness.

Integrative medicine provided a new way to take control over our daughter’s health and our family’s health. It is allowing her to thrive and for us all to take active steps each day to maintain our wellness.

The pace of treatment, the volume of decisions to make during treatment is hard to unwind from. During our daughter’s treatment, it seemed there were things to be vigilant about and concrete action steps to take nearly every hour of the day. They were things that were challenging to navigate and we were glad to be rid of—however, strangely, at the end of treatment, the absence of those concrete action steps was unsettling. The desire to maintain vigilance was strong – figuring out how to move into the ‘after treatment’ chapter productively was a welcome, but new challenge.

With Dagmara, I feel confident that we are taking the appropriate steps to keep our daughter well and to heal the rest of us. In the absence of an aggressive, yet well understood Conventional protocol, she has created a practical action plan to address maintaining and promoting health as a whole.

Dagmara has given me confidence, a sounding board, actionable steps, and positive feedback and results. She provides a fantastic mix of traditional and more alternative approaches, which works very well for me and for my family. She keeps the wellness of the whole person in mind – the mental, spiritual and physical. She has become a friend and ally in our journey to a long life for not only our cancer survivor but all of us.

I feel blessed to have met her and to have her walk with me on this journey.

Working with Dagmara has been a true gift.

As a parent of a child with cancer, it is nearly impossible to truly care for yourself. I had some significant after effects from being the primary caregiver for my sick child – I had some physical issues that were a byproduct of the stress endured by our family. These things needed to be thoughtfully addressed in order for my healing to take place. Dagmara comes from a true place of understanding, and enabled me to address the complex feelings that I faced on the other side of my daughter’s treatment.

I not only have my daughter seeing Dagmara, but I see her as well. She has empowered us both to learn more about the needs of our bodies and minds and to take control over our health and our life choices as it relates to living a healthy lifestyle.

I truly rely on Dagmara to be my teacher, my guide and my partner in living a healthy life. She is a blessing to me and my family!