Michelle Phelps

Sitting in the Radiation Oncology waiting room in the spring of 2012, I was grateful to have made it this far. My husband, Brian, was receiving an initial evaluation to begin the standard treatment protocol after brain tumor surgery. Several weeks earlier, our lives had taken a dramatic turn. In an instant, instead of leading my team at work, I was getting a fast track "PhD-level-education" in navigating the Western health care system. I found myself learning how to advocate and partner with doctors, to inspire and encourage them to take a calculated risk on a surgery that could save my husband's life, when they were highly unsure it was possible. My power of persuasion to not give up on their patient prevailed. They had taken the risk, defied their odds and had a successful, seemingly miraculous, outcome. Now, I was highly motivated to continue beating those odds. I listened to my gut and called upon my natural instincts not to rely solely on one perspective. I would dig in and explore to see what other options may be available for long-term healing and find alternatives and/or complements to the standard treatments. During my research, I uncovered a book (Anti Cancer — A New Way of Life) by David Servan-Schreiber, a French neuroscientist, clinical professor of psychiatry and co-founder of a center for Integrative Medicine. I remember, the more I read, the more I realized we needed to make some serious changes for healing and long-term survival. I began to research resources for Integrative Medicine, either in our home area in Kansas, or in St Louis, where we would be receiving treatment. To my surprise, I found there was an integrative team in the same hospital where Brian had just finished post-surgery, inpatient rehabilitation. After witnessing the power of working as a team to overcome that first, immense hurdle, it seemed like adding another resource to our team would help even more. We started working with the integrative team, too. For the first time, we experienced a “whole person” approach — not a symptomatic approach — and the impact of their focus on finding a “root cause.” I realized that both approaches would need to work in coordination with each other; however, I discovered it was not quite that simple. The Integrative Medicine team was willing to cooperate with our original team; however, to my surprise, the original team was not willing to coordinate with the Integrative team. In that moment, my natural instincts kicked in, again. I realized I could call upon my years of corporate leadership experience to enable collaboration between the teams, even without direct communication among them. We continued this team approach, with Integrative medicine leading the way. Within a year, Brian went from a “no hope” diagnosis, through life-saving surgery, inpatient rehabilitation and outpatient rehabilitation, to full recovery, "no signs of disease” and a return to full-time work as a pharmacist. This journey had led us to important personal health discoveries. As a result, both of us were healthier than we had ever been before. Much like everything else we did, we took this journey together. As Brian made changes to support his longevity and well-being, I made the same changes, with him. As he continued to heal, I started to heal, too. Symptoms, such as daily headaches, that I had frequently dismissed and considered normal or just part of my genetic makeup, surprisingly disappeared! 

Four years later, we were given the "all clear" and seemed to be out of the woods … only to start noticing something did not seem right. We had been focusing on optimizing health from an Integrative perspective, continuing to evolve and perfect everything through that lens, with great success. This time, however, no matter what we tried, we were not finding answers for what Brian was experiencing. Gradually, in limited ways, we started exploring more modalities. Several months into this phase of our journey, we came across Traditional Chinese Medicine and started working with a professional who was very willing to collaborate with our existing team. While Brian received some small temporary benefits, his energy and health continued to decline, and this medicine did not have the time it needed for healing. We had found it too late. During this time, I had begun to discover just how many more medicine approaches were available, that potentially could have supported Brian’s recovery, had we known about them much earlier. Later, I realized, although the original Western Medicine treatment saved his life in that moment, it also may have contributed to unforeseen long-term side effects. When I lost Brian in the fall of 2018, from a cause seemingly unrelated to the initial diagnosis, I set out again, on my own, and continued to explore the benefits of a wide range of treatment options. I started to understand the ways in which complementary, whole person approaches can help us to (re)discover the innate wisdom within ourselves. I started to remember all of the signs we had been given in both cases — especially the first time — that we had dismissed, because we were not taught to be present to what was going on within us. I learned how much I didn't know that I didn't know, until I was faced with a crisis moment and went searching for answers. I experienced how important it is for us to share our stories and resources with others. A few years later, as we were evolving the mission of REViVE, it became clear to me how important it is to help each other to be response-able in health. I continue to be inspired by Brian — his love for life and his desire and willingness to share with others what he had learned from his experiences — and I am passionate about exploring ways to shift current thinking about our health and well-being. I hope the possibilities we have shared in this Guidebook help you to discover your best possible health options and inspire you to never stop exploring and learning.



Michelle Phelps
REViVE Hope for Health
Founder / Co-Visionary / Board President and Executive Director