Friends,

If you're anything like me, you have a lot of questions. You never take anything at face value and are constantly digging deeper. In fact, as a parent, you may find yourself asking 10x as many questions.

You are your child's best advocate, so it's best to be prepared..

prepared to ask the right questions.

prepared to hold your ground

prepared to find another way -- a better way.

We can't rely on modern medicine or the doctor in the white coat to do what's best.

Why don’t we learn how to stay healthy before we get sick?

To be clear, I'm not saying that modern medicine has no place; in fact, it thrives in emergency situations, but it's only a band-aid at best.

My mom, an emergency room nurse, was one of the many compassionate and courageous people who worked in our broken healthcare system. She always put the patients' needs first, and I know there are many other doctors and nurses out there who share her commitment to ethical medicine.

But I also understand what it's like to see family members struggle for years with a chronic illness and fall through the cracks of a system that was never intended to support their recovery.

I think we can be grateful for what is good while still acknowledging that this system is flawed.

Our society has been putting its faith in experts who have not been given the proper training to ensure their patients' well-being (and, in the worst cases, their lives).

Some of this brokenness, I think, is intentional, but I also believe that education may give us the strength to heal and the confidence to take charge of our own health.