Healing in Harmony Story

Since her husband Bill was diagnosed with stage four throat Cancer—a very rare situation for someone who neither drinks nor smokes—more than 10 years ago, Claire de Ligne Meyer has taken the knowledge she gained from a year and a half of dealing with illness, doctors, hospitals and caregivers, and condensed it into a book, “Healing in Harmony.” The slim volume is simply written. It offers practical, as well as spiritual, advice to caregivers and hospital patients. “We went to the tumor board at Stanford and seven doctors told us to ‘go home, get your affairs in order, it doesn’t look good.’ We came home and started looking for a doctor that believed we could do something about this,” she said. Bill began a very aggressive treatment of radiation two times a day for seven and a half weeks. “He lost 90 pounds and was on the brink of death,” Meyer said. She was proactive as the leader of Bill’s recovery team, and after meeting with positive success, she recorded tthe results. “I learned that if I humanized Bill to the people who were taking care of him and told them what a wonderful husband			people in similar situations. The baskets contain several items to aid in a hospital stay including essential oils, dvd, spa booties and IV ivy, a vine that winds around the IV tube, “a visual reminder of Mother Earth’s healing power.” After a while she decided to sell the baskets and set up a website. “I found that if people don’t pay for something, they don’t use it,” she said. Meyer says that the “Healing in Harmony” baskets can be especially beneficial. “When someone is ill, you’ll be surprised at who is there for you,” she said. “Don’t blame the people who aren’t because they’re so uncomfortable— they haven’t forgotten you. I found that to be true. That’s the thing about the baskets—you feel like you’re doing something for the person, even though you are not there.” She plans to write books to help children cope— “what to expect when someone you love is challenged with an illness and what to expect when you go to the hospital.” “If I can save a person one step, then I feel I’ve done something,” Meyer said. For more information on “Healing in Harmony” products, visit www.healinginharmony.info. Meyer’s book of the same name is also available at Diesel Bookstore. BY ROBBY MAZZA
	and father he is, they would become more invested in his recovery,” she said. “I can understand how doctors, nurses and caregivers want to be detached, but just by talking to them I could get incredible care for him. Then I started doing things [in his hospital room] I do in my own home—I tried to keep an environment that feels peaceful, calm and inviting. I did that in the hospital with beautiful music and aromatherapy; always making sure it smelled good to Bill.” Not only did this atmosphere help her husband, but Meyer was surprised to find that the hospital staff found the atmosphere soothing as well. “At UCLA, after rounds, I would have 10 doctors come in a group to Bill’s room, asking me, ‘What are you doing in here? We don’t want to leave.’” After three surgeries and a year and a half of hospital stays, Bill was on his way to recovery. Meyer decided to write a Christmas letter thanking all who had helped, and she also listed several of	the things she had done. “I listed the practical things like having one pharmacist and saving all your x-ray images,” she said, recalling one particular incident. “One night I stayed at UCLA until 11:30 at night waiting for Bill’s images. They would not release them to me, and I was told by one of Bill’s doctors that you own them and to keep them in one spot—don’t leave them all over the place. I was told that I couldn’t have them, I patiently replied, “‘Yes I can’ and I just waited.” “I also learned to keep careful records—of blood tests, medications, phone conversations, everything— in a looseleaf notebook. I found discrepancies all the time, on the medication— they’d forget to give it to him, or they’d forget tests. Doctors are so overloaded and they’d forget. I’m a mother of four so I have to be organized,” she quipped. Soon Meyer was receiving calls from all over the country about her list and she began to put “Healing in Harmony” baskets together, that she sent to