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Lena's
Story

Life did not
deal Lena a healthy start in childhood and early adulthood but
she overcame it! Due to her husbands severe accident and the
loss of 62% of the movement in his wrists she realized she
needed to be more than just a mommy and wife. So she went back
to college at the age of 37 to earn her nursing degree and later
her MBA along with many nutritional classes.
Now
a retired
medical office nurse and health consultant who has had a very fulfilling, exciting
twenty-five year career of a medical office nurse and then the
last seventeen years in the medical office found her taking on
consulting for medical offices by opening and growing
new medical practices. In the beginning she was teaching Medical Office Procedures & Medical
Assisting at night while working in the medical office days. Her
experience and a medical office nurse and watching the practices
that were creating more health issue led her to becoming an alternative health advocate and entrepreneur while
raising a family.
She says, "71 years
of life makes for a long story but we will attempt to
make it as short as we can." To get a more detailed story and
follow her life experiences to discover the things she knows
that you probably don't know, but should, when seeing your
doctor, read her book, "Dangers
& Secrets Doctors Refuse To Tell You." Or to
learn about herbs and how they have created a healthy life for
her and her family & friends get her latest "Handbook
Of Herbs To Health & Other Secrets."
A mother
of two sons, two daughters, 11 grandchildren and 3
great-grandsons all making for a very full life. But she managed
to intertwine a career that many dream of.. Her career was
brought about in 1974 when her husbands' horrific accident left
him with both wrists and arms shattered and looked like they
would be mostly immobile for life. Being a stay-at-home mom of
four small children took some work but back to college she went
to get her nursing degree.
The oldest of 9 girls and
1 boy. Lena graduated at the age of sixteen, from high school as
Salutatorian and won a scholarship to a teachers college. That
dream was not to be fulfilled as her old fashioned father felt college was a
waste for girls who he felt would get married and have
family, not requiring an education. He therefore refused to
allow her to fulfill the scholarship and her dream of teaching.
But strangely enough a few short months later he enrolled her in
a secretarial college without her knowledge, nor did he ask if
she wanted to go. Disliking it immensely she dropped out shortly
before graduation and became a telephone operator to his
chagrin. Her family considered her an old maid who
would never do anything with her life since she did not get
married as a teen.
She did end up married at the age of 21 and
immediately started a family fulfilling her father's prophecy
after all.
After the birth of her 4th child she was overwhelmed with pain
all over her body, which began a search for relief from it, but
never hitting the mark and multiple side effects to medications
given her put her life into a tailspin. She says she learned to live every day in pain
without grumbling about it. Meinere's Disease hit her in the mid
twenties as well . She says,
"It took traditional medicine almost 30 years to
finally give a name to those pains. The nightmares didn't end with a
diagnoses though... A most difficult part to deal with was modern
medicine's inability to effectively treat it so I could fully function! But I
learned to live with that."
Over
the years Lena had taken college courses here and there but never
received a degree so after her husband's horrific accident, at the age of 37, she went back to college
full time, which started a
long medical career. Then she received her MBA and took
nutritional classes along the way while looking into
alternatives to what she watched dished out to people in the medical offices and a career that she says, "I will always
cherish and thoroughly enjoyed my life in the medical offices as
that led me to the path I took
into Alternative medicine."
Finding her niche in life...
After receiving her
nursing degree (1976), went to work in a hospital rehab ward, which she
soon chose to leave
as the hours were too conflicting with the home life and
children. She then went to work as a temporary medical office nurse and
surgical assistant for a General Practitioner who she felt
needlessly put peoples lives at risk every day. Left at the end
of her temporary assignment and went to a Pediatric Medical Clinic with seven
to none pediatricians where she worked as back office and triage
nurse for three and one-half years. Took classes to get
her MBA while working.
Five
years of working in medical offices then found her very ill and off work for nine months and
misdiagnosed numerous times along that trek. She had become
frustrated during those years of doctors visits, misdiagnoses,
hospitalizations and medications that did some horrible things
to her, physically and emotionally. And to be there again
unable to get out of bed most days, but that too passed...
All that was before she allowed nutrition
and alternative medicine to enter her life.
After
25 years of
pain and suffering and numerous hospitalizations - usually
caused from medication side effects - she was
finally diagnosed with Fibromyositis, now called fibromyalgia, myositis
and myalgia accompanied by Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, which
are all autoimmune disorders and basically the same thing! (The
body's immune system attacking itself or body full of
inflammation, depending on who is diagnosing.)
In those early years of her
painful suffering fibromyalgia was almost never diagnosed or even considered a
disease by most doctors. There are still some today from the old
school that refuse to accept that it exists. A condition, at
that time in which a person with those aches and pains was generally given the
diagnoses of malingerer or hypochondriac. Then Meniere's Disease
had to raise it's nasty head laying her low days and weeks on
end until learning some nutritional steps to make it bearable... Lena even saw a
psychiatrist for a while, as she was sure that she was mentally ill
as nobody could have so much go wrong with them and not be, but was
told otherwise by the psychiatrist.
Given medication after
medication that relieved nothing but exhibited side effect after
side effect for her, with long term eye problems being one of
those side effects. Then along with fibromyalgia she developed
osteoarthritis. She says she soon learned to live with the
excruciating pain and fatigue that accompanied it and finally
settled on a couple of mediations that helped some but didnt
alleviate the pains nor prevented it from progressing. Then she
developed nodules on the joints of her fingers to add to the
pain and doctors visits!
She states, "Keeping busy is a
great alleviator of pain for me. I'm not telling you this
to say, hey look at me but to help you understand that I do know
a few doctors in multiple practices as both a patient, an
employee and a co-worker."
After leaving the pediatric medical group
she then worked seven and one-half years in
an internists' office as triage and home visiting nurse as
well as office manager along with assisting the doctor.
Lena says; "That internist was and is a truly great
and young genius, who I felt gave the patients the
best that so-called modern medicine had to offer and still feels that way about
him. Even though he could only practice what he was taught in
medical school and never looked outside that training for better
answers..." Even though she occasionally came to a bit of odds with him
as he was steeped in the traditional
medical syndrome and failed to look at natural or herbal remedies
as an alternative, he did his very best for the patient with
what he had been taught.
At
the ripe old age of 37 the internist decided to leave private
practice as he saw what medicine was becoming with the HMO's
coming into play and said he wanted no part of someone who
didn't know his patient deciding on their treatments.
She believes that about
75% to 80% of the patients she encountered over the years were
simple problems that could have been treated at home with
everyday common sense, applying their brain and create
better health for themselves. "This belief," she says, "was
confirmed by several doctors over the years."
Lena wants to make it clear
here that she is not anti-establishment that she does believe doctors
are a necessity in certain instances. It's
just that after twenty years of
experience with patients and the medical profession as it
practices medicine, she believes that people are too
willing to run to the doctor for every little ache and pain
while refusing to take responsibility for their health, putting
themselves into great danger and doctors education is so lacking
in true healing!
While managing the brilliant
Internists' office, one of her vivid memories is of
participating in clinic trials and
track & documenting patient studies on a couple of
medications before their release to the public. Part of the pharmaceutical companies
path prior to FDA approval - She received all kinds of great perks
for it. You can find out why she feels one of those medications should
not have been released to the public in her book "Dangers
and Secrets Doctors Refuse to Tell You." Also she
reveals in her book other atrocities that should not happen to
anyone, but did.
Lena's
feeling that testing is inadequate was confirmed recently (2000),
when information released to the public says other doctors offices
- not hers - falsified their results and created non-existent patient
histories. She asks, "How safe can you feel taking a drug now?" She is very
skeptical of prescriptions and feels, statistical
history, of having to remove so many due to severe side effects
worse than the treatment results, backs up her feelings, that the true side affects of
most prescriptions will not be known for 20 or more years after
release to the public and hundreds or thousands of human beings
will have used them and many will die or have serious illnesses
because of them. So she stresses, "Make sure the illnesses
is dire enough to actually require a prescription, as one is not
always necessary to heal or prevent the illness. Our bodies can
heal themselves when given proper nutrients and if you can't get
them from foods supplements will do just as well."
During the years with
the genius doctor she developed shortness of breath,
swollen legs and ankles, chest pains and more fatigue
complicated by Meinere's vertigo. Genius
sent her to a cardiologist who found a Mitrial Valve Prolapse
problem. The Cardiologist let her watch the ultrasound and she saw the
valve was flapping and not completely stopping the blood
flow as it should, but was assured that if she took antibiotics
with any procedures she could live a long happy life with
exercise and care! More on this later and how she cleared that
problem up!
Lena has listed a group
of questions to
ask your doctor so that you may determine the necessity of a prescription,
she also included some home remedies passed on to her patients during her
career - in,
"Antibiotic Alternatives To
Preventing Mega Bacteria!"
After leaving the brilliant
Internist she fell into a whole exciting but, as she describes,
"A gut wrenching profession of setting up new medical
offices along with setting up and instituting medical office procedures,
setting up computer programs to fit each need and with insurance
billing training."
Opening a New Office Had It's
Pluses and Minuses!
In each of the offices she
opened usually consisted of the doctor seeing patients and her
as the lone office & triage nurse, receptionist, insurance
clerk, PR person, and patient counselor until the office grew
large enough to add personnel. That process took from three
months to three years to grow into a well functioning successful
office...
She also
founded a temporary employment agency for medical personnel
while still working in a medical office and set up that
business in the same medical building giving her the ability to
handle both offices. She could be described as a workaholic as
both offices created 18-20 hour days. She says,
"There were some doctors I had to deal with in the agency
which were anything but honest. I won't bore you with the
nightmare tales, but it was a hellish experience in some
instances. I became very familiar with Small Claims Court due to
those problems. But I soon realized that particular business wasn't my
forte and the medical office was my true passion and love, I
sold the agency a year later."
She took on a teaching
position at a paramedical school and taught Medical Office
Management and Medical Assisting nights but within just a matter
of weeks after starting the teaching position, she was
approached to set up and open a new medical clinic in San
Bernardino California, which was in proximity to the Paramedical
School making it feasible to do both.
Being overworked set up a situation to
create crises flare-ups with the fibromyalgia and another step
in searching for alternative treatments that the average
traditional medical profession could not offer, in order to
alleviate the pain that the medical profession was unable to
control, without heavy sedative effects. If she took the prescribed medications she was unable to
function. With the prescription medications came drowsiness
inability to think rationally and only a slightly lesser degree of
pain anyway, leaving her feeling sure that there was something else, if she could
just find it?
She was forced to leave
teaching a little over a year later. Simply because
sitting in faculty meetings, of which about 1/3 of the
instructors smoked, she would develop horrific histamine
headaches and weeks of pain because of it, so she soon found faculty meetings intolerable, as they would not forego smoking
during the meetings.
One positive did come from the
headaches though. The prescriptions given for the histamine
headaches left her nauseous, vomiting and unable to function
from the horrible side effects and the inpatient IV treatments given
for the headaches, were equally as bad. She accidentally found
the headaches could be alleviated with chiropractic
treatment in minutes.
When leaving her first
organized medical clinic in San Bernardino, California
three and a half years later there were nine doctors and 17
employees in a very large clinic of over 3000 patients of which
about 99% were HMO patients. This clinic initially opened with
her, a receptionist and a doctor. She says, "The HMO
patient load made for a great education in juggling treatment
protocol and insurance company protocol. They collide with a
loud crash for the most part, and since I was the gatekeeper and
patient advocate along with her Medical Director, it was a real
dance and challenge to balance the patients needs and the
insurance companies rules. Just guess who is the loser there?
I wonder how many people actually can receive the care they need
as usually there isn't someone sitting as a caring sensitive advocate
for the patients in each
medical facility with the capability of keeping the patient
first and not the HMO/PPO? There certainly are plenty sitting
there with the HMO/PPO interest being taken care of."
For the next dozen or so years she
set up several clinics and medical offices throughout Southern
California. Getting them up and running onto strong footing and
moved on to do it all over again. She says, "Each was a
real feeling of accomplishment with the successes and ability to
learn and pass it on."
One Sports
Medicine Clinic, which she sat up in the mid 80's with both alternative and
traditional medicine that required a great deal of study on her part
and truly awakened her to the real conflict that exists in
medicine, but proved to be her turning point. As she calls it "a
wake up call to what other methods exist in medical
treatments for
people that truly work and is much healthier with less side
effects." She diligently studied under the nutritionist and
chiropractor and absorbed everything she could.
Her disillusionment
with the chemical medications, that never seem to cure a problem, found her interested in nutrition as a means of healing.
She then took nutrition
courses adding to her ability of helping people find cures and
preventions of many diseases... Over those years she managed to
receive her MA, MBA and Medical Office Administration Certification, and
studied alternative health & healing treatments without a
degree, which
rounded out her career. But also made for a very busy
person growing and consulting with many medical practices
and clinics throughout Southern California.
While managing a clinic in Palm
Springs California for a very difficult and demanding doctor,
she began to experience more extensive chest pains, more
frequent shortness of breath and
problems walking very far without almost passing out... After
having a stress tests & thallium stress, she was diagnosed as 75% to
80% blocked heart arteries along with her existing valve problem
making it perilous, according to the cardiologist.
Her cardiologist scheduled
her for angioplasty with probable bypass without her permission. She refused that mode of treatment and left the
hospital AMA and found Whitaker's Wellness Clinic in Newport
Beach California where she underwent successful Chelation
Therapy and corrected the blockage and even corrected the MVP that she had experienced for all those years. She
says that anyone who has a heart problem and doesn't try the
Chelation Therapy is missing the boat in natural health and
healing. Non-invasive, no side effects, less expensive and
non-life threatening surgery to contend with so why would
they not try it if they know about it?
After finding healing she
then went to
work for a friend in Irvine California and the first day in the
first clinic she ended up firing a doctor and reported him
to the state Attorney Generals Office for gross malpractice, of which she
later spent a week in trial to successfully remove that doctors
medical license
She says, "that's a whole other story in
itself
I can only say he was the worst of the worst!"
Her position
as Personnel Director, along with managing a couple of clinics, was
evaluating medical offices and clinics that were for sale, and
helping to convert
them into HMO clinics -- She says, "See I went to the
enemy's camp for a short while as a favor to a valued
friend." She would go in evaluate an office that was
for sale, look at the medical records and financial records to
see if it was truly worth buying and determine if the doctor was
practicing safely and properly then advise the Company as to
it's worth. Then would manage the employee patient ratio to
correspond properly and set up office protocols to interact
with the HMO.
She says, "I met some more
really off-the-wall money-grubbing doctors while doing that! She
says that some practice close enough that it's impossible to
remove them yet unsafe for patients... She adds, "I
cannot stress enough to people how careful they must be when
seeing a doctor - Be informed and take charge of your own health
and let the doctor be a partner
Do not give him/her free rein
with your treatment, medications and testing
you could become
one of the dreaded statistics then or later!"
Statistics found in her book
"Dangers & Secrets Doctors Refuse to tell You," are
pretty gross!
Her Most Fulfilling But
Frustrating Position!
She feels that the medical
office triage nurse was the most fulfilling of all the areas she
handled in her career. Also the most frustrating!
She states, "I
do not take the world at face value without doing some analyzing
of my surroundings... I cannot be accused of being a follower
for the sake of following, I need to know why I do things and found that disconcerting to most physicians I worked
with."
She goes on to say,
"What I saw and heard was totally different from what the
average patient or even medical office employee sees. I became
totally disenchanted with the traditional medical profession
so-called treating that I came to know! But I became healthier because of it and
helped others to do the same with alternative methods, which I
searched out. Some treatments I just plain accidentally found I
learned many alternative using balance with nutrition, herbs, etc., which I would not have found
otherwise and was able to pass it on occasionally to help
others."
"The
ability to really help people as a triage person, for those that
have the nerve to do it, is truly a great fulfillment. It takes
an independent mind to be able to fully help patients become
healthier... I had my
ups and downs with it... a patient would call in with symptoms
indicating a reaction to their prescription and the doctors
treatment of choice usually was to prescribe another
prescription to counteract the effects of the that prescription.
I have seen patients end up with three or four prescriptions due
to reactions to the first or second one causing a problem. I
have watched people go downhill because of the drug treatments
prescribed. Watching that regimen practiced by most of the
doctors I worked with was like watching a row of dominoes
falling that just didn't seem to stop and most people will not
listen to anyone but the doctor and die or become very ill
because of their 'doctor knows all' attitude."
She says that the later years she walked
a fine line between natural medicine and traditional
medicine. She added, "Sometimes if I knew the patient well
enough I would suggest stopping a prescription or two and tell them
of a home remedy or suggest herbs that would take care of the
problem. I always prefaced it with, - 'The doctor does not
recommend this and if you tell him I will be fired.' - I
never had a patient tell but I did have several who dubbed me
Dr. Lena, because the natural treatment worked."
Lena feels that there is
an alternative healing treatment for most all simple and some
not so simple illnesses and simple life-changing preventions that should be practiced
by everyone. A combining of traditional and alternative medicine
does exit and is out there for you if you are willing to risk
finding it. She feels that the traditional and natural
medicine practitioners are working against each other to the
determent of the patients and she wants that to change. Her
hopes are that she can be an instrument in helping that change
come about. Her dream is to see both traditional and
alternatives used together for the betterment of every human
being. She sees that happening a little more now.
Her philosophy is, Yes,
there is risk in everything. Medicine and medical treatments have
never been an exact science even though the profession would
like you to believe it is!
She
feels that she is now in a position to really help people. She says that
natural healing remedies and prevention can save a person
thousands of dollars a year and possibly millions in a life time
besides creating healthy longevity. Lena feels that quality of
life is much more important than quantity!
She states, "I feel like a
very lucky lady in that I have had a very successful life in two
areas - Medical Office Nursing Administration and Teaching
Medical Office Management, Procedures and law - greatly enjoyed both.
I am now successfully combining those experiences with Online
Marketing of my own Internet Home Based Business along with Dr.
Wayne Garland's Natural
Healthy Environmental friendly
Master Formulas."
Painful Experience Led to More
Information!
Then there is the Chiropractor
that ruptured her C-7 neck vertebral disc - when she went to see
him to reposition her painful TMJ (temple mandibular joint)
Christmas Eve 1996. He failed to acknowledge a problem truly had
been created and proceeded to ground the material
into her spinal cord afterward causing her to have several surgeries
creating damages to her spinal cord and almost lost the use of
her legs virtually ending her abilities
to get out and work full time. Lesson learned she
says, "If a chiropractor is rough stop in mid treatment and run out of his/her office
and don't look back!"
Having controlled the
fibromyalgia and osteoarthritis with herbs and mineral nutrients
for several years prior to the ruptured C-7, that event came as a devastating
blow and sent her autoimmune disease into a tailspin again. Even
having dissolved the arthritic nodules on her finger joints
with the herbs. Now having to start all over again to bring it back to remission...
This came close to sending her over the
edge! But she states, "Out of bad things can come good,
if you look for them and I have looked and found them. What
doesn't kill you makes you stronger"
Fibromyalgia flare up was
due to so much anesthesia and
chemicals put into her body during the course of all the
surgeries that followed the neck injury...which led her to find
natural treatments to overcome and correct the situation...
But she feels she had a great
experience with a fantastic doctor at Barrows Neurological
Clinic in Phoenix, AZ and feels that St. Joseph's Hospital is a
place every hospital should be patterned after. "Make
lemonade out of lemons," she always says.
Now
she has become experienced with the system of justice, because
of this incident, and she says, "It's not at all fair nor
just."
Meinere's Answer
found!
She says her one
frustration was Meinere's Vertigo. She spent years of having to
make sure she didn't move her head in certain positions or the
vertigo triggered, which is not a pleasant experience.
Never a night went by without turning over and being awakened
with vertigo and severe nausea from it. She adds in December
2002 her friend Wayne Garland reformulated some of his Master
Formulas and one of those was "Mind
Power," which turned out to be her answer to Meinere's
Vertigo. She says she has not had a single episode, day or night
since starting the "Mind Power."
"What is so great it only takes three capsules a day!"
she adds.
Find out how she
got to where she did and what alternatives she discovered and
how you can prevent those dangers from impacting your life.
Find
out what questions to ask your doctor to assure your treatment(s)
are necessary and if there are alternatives to replace it!
Find out how
natural alternatives
could possibly change your life and health as well as give you
deeper insight into what led Lena to learn and practice the way she
does.
Find out what doctors know and practice but do not
pass on to their patients, read her book, "Dangers
& Secrets Doctors Refuse To Tell You" and
"Antibiotic Alternatives To Preventing
Mega Bacteria."
Lena says, "Take
Charge of your health and become better for it."
To see what I do everyday to prevent getting back to bad health
Click
Here
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