The Good mEdicine Roadmap
The embodiment of true health is when body, mind and spirit are working together in harmony and in balance. When you address and heal the nervous system you are also healing the emotional body, when you heal the emotional body you are also healing the psychic body. When you heal the psychic body you heal and elevate your vibration. Once you have healed your vibration realities shift..
Reclaim Your Sovereignty
The Water Element
THE WATER SYSTEM:
Honoring Your Accurate Knowing of the Kidneys and Bladders involvement; your intuition about the Urinary Bladder and Kidney system is deeply correct. Not symbolically. Not loosely. Not in a “spiritual guesswork” way. Correct as in clinically relevant and energetically exact.
Melanoma expresses on the skin, but it does not begin on the skin. The skin is simply where the process becomes visible. The origin of the pattern often lives deeper; in the regulatory systems that manage:
survival stress
fear load
internal reserves
fluid balance
adrenal–kidney signaling
the body’s long-term “wear and tear” responses
In Chinese medicine, this entire category sits under the Water element, governed by KD (Kidney) + UB (Urinary Bladder). And that is exactly where you felt the signal. KD + UB store the long-term impact of stress and trauma. This isn’t woo. This is physiology through a different lens.
KD + UB reflect:
chronic hypervigilance
long-term depletion
“caregiver nervous system” patterns
exhaustion of reserves
old fear responses
the subconscious survival memory that lives deeper than everyday emotion
As a trauma nurse, you’ve lived in that territory for decades; both in your work and in your life. Your system has been operating at a high level of output for a very long time. When Water is depleted, the body pushes that imbalance upward. In TCM, this is called “Water not anchoring Fire.” Meaning:
The deep reserves weaken
Stress load and inflammation rise
Heat moves toward the surface
The skin becomes a site of expression
Cells under stress behave abnormally
This does not mean your diagnosis is your fault. It means your body is showing you where the load has been sitting the longest. Your insight… naming UB + KD right away, means you felt the origin, not the symptom and that is BIG work.
Your diagnosis is not just a medical event, it is also your body pointing to the system that needs to be rebuilt.
Water is the system that:
gets depleted in long-term caretakers
absorbs emotional shock
carries the “silent endurance” patterns
holds unresolved internal fear or tension
manages the stress hormones that keep us going
When Water is drained, the rest of the body compensates until it can’t. Melanoma becomes one way the body flags that deeper system.
You’re not imagining a connection. You’re identifying the actual piece of the puzzle that explains why your system expressed stress the way it did. KD + UB are not abstract in your case… they’re central.
The work ahead is about:
rebuilding reserves (KD)
releasing stored tension and old fear patterns (UB)
strengthening your internal terrain
cooling the inflammatory “surface” response
giving the body the resources it hasn’t had in years
You’re not coming at this from the outside looking in. You are coming at it with your instincts intact and your clinical experience informing the process. Your body told you exactly where to look, and you listened.
That’s not fluff.
That’s accuracy.
That’s alignment.
That’s Good Medicine.
GOING TO WATER- The Cherokee Tradition of healing
In my family’s lineage, the act of Going to Water is not a casual practice. It is not a metaphor, not a pleasant idea, and not a soft ritual. It is one of the oldest forms of medicine my people carried. Water was the first healer, the first witness, the first place our ancestors went when something in the body or spirit needed to be released, reset, or re-aligned. They went at daybreak, when the world was quiet enough to hear the truth of things. They entered the water with respect, because water was alive. Water had eyes. Water had memory. Water knew the difference between what a person was meant to carry, and what had been handed to them by trauma, circumstance, or the world’s demands. Water was the relative who could take what the body could no longer hold.
When someone was carrying fear, they went to water.
When someone felt heavy or clouded, they went to water.
When someone felt a sickness growing in the body, they went to water.
When someone had lived through something they had no words for, they went to water.
The person would step into the living water and let it touch their skin, not as a cleansing, but as a conversation. Water knows how to listen. And water knows how to lift what the body cannot metabolize alone. This is not a story. This is the medicine that held my family for generations. This is the same medicine I place in your hands now, because your diagnosis lives in the Water element, and your body has already begun calling for this.
You felt it instinctively. You knew it was UB and KD before anyone else named the terrain. That knowing is not coincidence, it is cellular memory.
It is the same instinct my family answered when they walked into rivers at dawn. For you, Going to Water is not about escape or ritual performance. It is about letting the living waters meet you at the deepest layer of your truth. You stand, or sit, or step into whatever living water is available, a creek, river, lake, hot spring, ocean, or rain falling on your shoulders; and you let the boundary between your skin and the water become thin. You let the water feel the weight you are carrying. You speak to it plainly, the way my people did:
“This is yours now. Take what my body is finished holding. Thank you Grandmother Waters”
You do not bargain.
You do not plead.
You do not dramatize.
You let the water take what it knows is not meant to remain inside you. The water will know what to release, even if you cannot name it.
The water will know where the fear lives, even if you cannot find the words. The water will know where exhaustion has soaked into your bones.
The water will know the pressure you have held for years as a nurse, a mother, a woman who has carried more than most people will ever see.
And the water will answer you. You will feel the body soften in certain places, not because you imagined it, but because the water pulled the bracing out. You will feel something old loosen behind your kidneys, or in your low abdomen, because Water knows how to touch Water. The UB and KD system responds to this immediately, the way a dried riverbed responds to the first rain.
This is the medicine my ancestors carried and trusted when nothing else could reach the depth of the wound. Going to Water does not heal you in one moment. It restores you one layer at a time. It teaches your body how to stop absorbing what is not yours. It teaches your spirit that it is safe to let go. It teaches your fear that it does not have to run the show anymore. It teaches your cells that they are not alone in this.
This practice belongs to the people of this land, and it has been protected, remembered, practiced, and offered again and again because it works. It meets the human body at the same depth where your diagnosis began. It meets the emotional root and the physiological reality. It meets the Water element with the only medicine Water has ever responded to: more water, living water, conscious water.
You are not performing a ritual. You are participating in a lineage. You are stepping into the oldest medicine that exists. And you are doing it at exactly the right moment in your healing. When you give something to the water, the water takes it. And in return, it gives you yourself back.
The Sacral Chakra
The Water Center of Your Healing
The Sacral Chakra is the body’s primary Water center. It lives in the same territory as the Kidneys and Bladder and is directly shaped by the same emotional and physiological patterns. This is the part of the body that absorbs long-term stress, fear, and responsibility; not in the mind, but in the tissues. It’s also where fluidity, creativity, and adaptability come from. When the Water system is strained, the Sacral tightens, dries out, or freezes, and the body begins expressing stress upward and outward.
For women, the Sacral is also the womb-space, the center of intuition, feminine wisdom, sensuality, emotional truth, and the creative force that shapes not just art or expression, but how we live, love, and respond to life. When a diagnosis like melanoma surfaces, it often reflects a deeper strain in this Water center: a signal that the body has been carrying more than its reserves could sustain, and that the emotional and creative parts of you are asking for restoration and movement again.
Working with the Sacral now will support both sides of your healing, the physiological Water element of your KD/UB system, and the emotional-spiritual terrain of your womb, intuition, and creative life force. It helps the body release old bracing, re-establish flow, and rebuild the deep reserves that make healing possible. The sacral module you’re about to enter will take you into this work gently, intentionally, and in a way that supports your recovery from the inside out.
MELANOMA TERRAIN SUPPORT
Strengthening the Internal Environment of Healing
I want to give you a set of grounded, evidence-informed supports that speak directly to the internal terrain melanoma interacts with; inflammation, immune signaling, lymphatic flow, detoxification pathways, cellular stress, and the Water element of the body. These are not treatments or replacements for medical oncology. They are supports that help the body regulate itself more effectively during a diagnosis that places a high demand on your system.
I am not expecting, or recommending that you take all of these. This is a landscape of options. Different bodies need different things at different times. Your own blood chemistry, or a panel run through your oncology team, will tell us which of these supports are truly relevant for your physiology. This is simply the toolkit I draw from when helping clients rebuild the terrain that melanoma disrupts.
Vitamin D3 + K2
Supports immune surveillance and cellular differentiation. Most melanoma terrain patterns show low D, and restoring it changes how T-cells recognize abnormal cells. K2 ensures proper utilization.
Omega-3 (EPA/DHA)
Reduces inflammatory cytokines and stabilizes cell membranes. A more anti-inflammatory baseline makes the terrain less permissive for abnormal cell signaling.
Medicinal Mushrooms (Turkey Tail, Reishi, Lion’s Mane)
These strengthen immune precision, modulate inflammatory pathways, and support the stress axis. Turkey Tail, in particular, is widely studied for NK cell activity; Reishi stabilizes the Water element (KD).
Vitamin C + Zinc + Selenium
This trio supports antioxidant defenses and tissue repair. Vitamin C reduces oxidative stress; Zinc assists DNA repair; Selenium fuels glutathione production.
Curcumin (high-absorption form)
Down-regulates NF-kB and COX-2, eases inflammatory load, and improves immune regulation. A terrain stabilizer.
Glutathione Pathway Support (NAC, ALA, or Liposomal Glutathione)
Helps your body manage oxidative stress; something melanoma increases significantly. These supports help restore balance at the cellular level.
Lymphatic Herbs (Cleavers, Red Root)
Melanoma interacts closely with the lymphatic system. Cleavers increases lymph flow; Red Root supports lymph drainage and immune clarity.
Castor Oil Packs
Increase lymph circulation, calm inflammation, and support detox pathways. When placed over the lower abdomen or back, they directly influence the KD/UB territory.
Probiotics & Gut Stability
A regulated microbiome improves immune modulation and reduces systemic inflammation; foundational terrain support.
Nervous System Stabilization (Magnesium, Reishi, Tulsi)
Long-term sympathetic activation is a significant contributor to melanoma physiology. These supports help move the body out of a fight-or-flight pattern and into a healing state.
Morning Light Protocol
Early light regulates circadian rhythm, cortisol timing, vitamin D metabolism, and immune accuracy. This is environmental medicine, not sun exposure.
Choosing What’s Right for Your Body
You do not need all of these.
You do not need to build a complicated regimen.
And nothing here is meant to override or conflict with oncology care.
Your blood chemistry; whether we run it together or you request it through your medical team… will show us exactly where:
inflammation is sitting
antioxidants are depleted
immune function is stressed
lymphatic patterns are congested
KD/UB reserves are weakened
and what your specific terrain is asking for
From there, we tailor. We simplify. We get precise. You already know this as a trauma nurse and an herbalist: the body does not need ten things. It needs the right few things. I’m here to support you in whatever direction you choose. If you want a blood-panel-based plan, we can build that together. If you want a gentler, terrain-focused approach alongside your oncologist, we can do that too. You’re not doing any of this alone.
Food Is Medicine
How Your Body Reads Nourishment, Coherence, and Healing
When we say “food is medicine,” it’s not a slogan. It’s literal physiology. Every single bite you take becomes the raw material your body uses to rebuild tissue, regulate immunity, repair DNA, reduce inflammation, and stabilize the terrain that melanoma depends on. Food becomes chemistry in minutes. It becomes hormones, neurotransmitters, cellular fuel, immune intelligence, and even the signals that tell your genes how to behave. When we shift the food, we shift the internal environment where cancer cells either thrive or have nowhere left to anchor.
The body is constantly reading the world through coherence; the level of order, clarity, and structure in what you consume. Whole, unprocessed, nutrient-rich foods carry coherent geometry: clean molecular patterns, intact structures, and signals that the body recognizes as part of nature. Your cells read these foods with ease. They enter the bloodstream smoothly, stabilize inflammation, nourish the mitochondria, and strengthen the Water element by restoring reserves rather than draining them. This is why protein, healthy fats, minerals, wild foods, herbs, and whole plants feel grounding and restorative; their geometry speaks the same language as your cells.
Processed foods, sugars, chemical additives, and seed oils create static in the body. Instead of coherent geometry, they carry fragmented, erratic patterns that the body has to decipher, detoxify, or quarantine. This static increases oxidative stress, destabilizes immune signaling, overloads the lymphatic system, and forces the metabolic pathways into emergency mode. For melanoma… which is highly sensitive to inflammation and glucose… this kind of static becomes fuel. It confuses immune surveillance and gives abnormal cells the advantage.
Coherent foods do the opposite. They calm the system. They support apoptosis, cellular repair, and healthy immune activity. They reduce background noise so the body can allocate resources toward healing instead of fighting through chaos. When you eat clean proteins, healthy fats, whole plants, minerals, and ketogenic therapeutics, you’re not just starving cancer’s preferred fuel source; you’re feeding your own body the clarity it needs to heal.
Food is one of the most direct ways you influence your terrain multiple times a day. Every meal becomes a decision: Do we feed chaos or coherence? Do we strengthen the Water element and the immune system, or do we overload it? In melanoma, this isn’t about dieting or restriction. It’s about choosing foods that bring your body into alignment with its own healing intelligence so it can do the work it’s built to do.
When you choose coherent foods, you’re giving your cells geometry they can use. You’re choosing medicine. And right now, that matters more than ever.
Guided Meditation
This guided meditation is designed to support two centers that are essential for your healing right now: the Sacral Chakra and the Root Chakra. These centers work together as the foundation of the Water element in the body; the same element connected to the Kidney and Bladder system that you instinctively recognized in your diagnosis.
The Sacral governs emotional flow, intuition, creativity, and the deep feminine wisdom of the body. It is the place where tension, old fear, chronic stress, and unmet emotional experiences often settle. The Root sits just below it, providing the grounding, safety, and stability required for the body to relax, replenish, and move out of survival mode. When these two centers synchronize, the body shifts into a state where healing becomes more accessible and the nervous system stops bracing.
This meditation uses breathwork, visualization, and gentle somatic awareness to help you soften the Sacral, stabilize the Root, and reconnect the natural flow between them. It supports the Water element by calming inflammation, down-regulating the stress response, and restoring internal coherence; all of which are essential terrain factors in melanoma healing. Nothing in this meditation is abstract; it is a practical tool for helping your body feel safe, resourced, and steady.
You can listen to this practice daily or as needed. It is meant to help your system settle, to give your Water element a channel for movement, and to remind your body that it has the capacity…and the support… to heal.
This Months Focus
This month’s work is centered around restoring your Water element, strengthening the terrain of your body, and giving your system the structure and support it needs to move through this diagnosis with clarity and resilience. Below is your focused guidance for the next four week; simple, doable, and deeply aligned with the work your body is asking for.
1. The Cherokee Practice of Going to Water (Once Weekly)
Water is your primary medicine right now. Once a week, I want you to immerse yourself in a living body of water if possible; a creek, lake, river, or natural spring. If weather or accessibility makes this difficult, a bath is completely acceptable. The key is the intention: stepping into water as a relative who can help you release what your body no longer needs to carry. This practice aligns your healing with the Water element of the Kidneys and Bladder and helps discharge deep tension at the somatic level.
2. Sacral Chakra Portal Work (Two Sessions Per Week)
Set aside about 20 minutes, twice a week, to work with your Sacral Chakra portal. You can use the journaling prompts, the sound tools, or any of the practices inside the module. This gentle, consistent attention will support the Water center of the body, release emotional and physiological stagnation, and help regulate the KD/UB system that your intuition has already identified as central to your healing.
3. Melanoma Terrain Supports (Use as Needed, Not Required)
I provided you with a full range of supplements, herbs, and terrain-based supports that may be helpful as you navigate this diagnosis. These are options, not obligations. If you feel drawn to incorporate any of them, wonderful. If you’d like more precision, you’re welcome to share your blood chemistry with me, or we can run labs together. That’s entirely up to you. The goal is to match supports to your body’s needs, not overwhelm your system.
4. Food as Medicine (Your Primary Anchor)
Your nutrition is the deepest form of medicine available to you right now. I’ve included a complete melanoma nutrition guide; a therapeutic ketogenic approach that stabilizes blood sugar, reduces inflammation, and supports the internal environment your body needs for healing. Let this guide be your anchor. The more consistent your nutrition, the stronger your terrain becomes.
5. Guided Meditation (Once Weekly Minimum)
Please listen to the Root + Sacral Water Meditation at least once per week. This practice helps stabilize your nervous system, restore a sense of safety, and synchronize the Root and Sacral centers so your body can settle into healing mode. If you want to listen more than once a week, feel free, but once weekly is enough to support your system through this phase.
Together, these practices form a simple, clear structure for your month: Water, Sacral, Nutrition, Terrain, and Stability. Each piece reinforces the others. You don’t have to do everything perfectly, just consistently, gently, and with care.
Oracle Closing Prayer
As this chapter of our work comes to a close, may these words settle around you like a cloak of protection and a reminder of who you are beneath every role you have carried.
May you remember that your strength was never meant to come from holding everyone else together. May you lay down the weight that was never yours to hold. And may your body, your spirit, and your ancestors show you that healing comes not from effort, but from allowing yourself to be supported.
I ask the Water to bless you, to wash through your body with clarity, to carry away every burden your spirit is finished holding, to soften the places that have been braced for too long, and to return you to your own depths with gentleness and truth.
I ask the Earth to rise beneath your feet; to give you a foundation that feels safe, steady, and alive, to root you in a sense of belonging that no diagnosis can take from you, and to remind you that you have never walked alone.
I ask the Fire within you to burn clean; to warm your courage, to kindle your vitality, and to light the path ahead with the sharpness of intuition and the softness of grace.
I ask the Air around you to breathe ease into your system; to calm your thoughts, to widen your perspective, and to open your future with possibility rather than fear.
May your heart feel held. May your body feel steady. May your spirit feel witnessed.
And may your life open in ways that bring you comfort, renewal, and joy.
Maggie, you are loved.
You are supported.
You are surrounded with protection and blessings
As our portal closes, may blessings follow you, may healing rise to meet you, and may the next chapter of your life be filled with nourishment, protection, and peace.
AND SO IT BE