HONEST MEDICINE: My Dream for the Future

Introducing a Wonderful Resource Person: Nutritionist Jeanne Wallace, PhD

During the time when my husband Tim was ill (as I described in my first posting on this website, I began using the internet to find treatments for Tim that our doctors hadn’t told us about. Of course, my research became more intense each time Tim’s situation became more critical. But almost without being aware of it, I was honing my skills as a researcher. (At some point, I will post an article on this website about how to best use the Internet for medical research.)

Along the way, friends started contacting me, asking me to help them find solutions for their health problems, or for their friends’ problems. It was through helping Tim and my friends that I found some pretty incredible resources – both web-based and non-web-based.

I am going to start now to introduce these resources to you. (I also plan to set up a series of resource links, where these folks and their sites will appear.)

The first person who helped me with Tim was Dr. Jeanne Wallace, of Nutritional Solutions. Jeanne – whom I refer to as “a medical encyclopedia with heart” -- is a most incredible nutritionist, and the person I consider most responsible for the relative health Tim enjoyed for so many years.

An Open Letter to Michael Moore

TO: MICHAEL MOORE
Documentarian Extraordinaire

FROM: Julia Schopick, Patient Advocate, PR Consultant, Medical Writer

February 14, 2006

Dear Mr. Moore:

It was back in the 1990s, at a taping at the University of Illinois of either The Awful Truth or TV Nation. You were kidding a gentleman in the first row for wearing a beret. “Don’t you know berets aren’t in style anymore?” you ribbed him. Sitting next to him, I quickly called out to you: “But he’s from Flint!” To which you answered, “From Flint? Then you can wear whatever the hell you want! Come on up and give me a hug!”

Which he did, and you did.

The man you hugged, Tim Fisher, was my late husband, and that was one of his proudest moments!

What you didn’t know was that underneath his gray beret was a huge scar, the result of his 1990 brain tumor surgery and the many subsequent surgeries for the so-called “complications” caused by the original surgery.

Tim was courageous, patient, and a truly amazing man, not only as friend and husband, but as a fearless partner in this journey into the underbelly of the U.S. “healthcare system.”

Together we battled the medical mandarins, challenged the norms, and wreaked havoc on a few doctors’ egos along the way! But we kept Tim alive – with a condition that most doctors expected would kill him years earlier.

Sadly, our battle ended when in November of 2005, at age 56, Tim died.

Introducing My Website, HONEST MEDICINE: My Dream for the Future

If my name, Julia Schopick, doesn't mean much to you now, I hope that soon it will, because with this website, I’m planning to join the many other folks out there who are intent on making important information about the so-called “health care” system available to everyone.

In my work life, I have been a Public Relations consultant for over 20 years, and have concentrated on promoting professionals and private practitioners. Some, but not all, of my favorite clients have been holistic health practitioners.

For the past 15 years, until the recent death of my husband Tim Fisher at the age of 56, I have also been a medical advocate – ever since Tim was first diagnosed in 1990 at the age of 40 with an aggressive and cancerous brain tumor. Together, we navigated through the bowels of the medical/pharmaceutical/hospital complex to find solutions that extended his life, and improved its quality. Since Tim survived many years beyond medical expectations, I will consider our navigation a success. But insofar as I had to fight medical and governmental folks every inch of the way in order to get what we both considered to be exciting, non-toxic and cutting-edge treatments for Tim, I would have to say that my efforts were not wholly successful.