Thursday, November 1, 2007

A cancer survivor in-the-making gives us her story

This was sent to me by Barbara - the same lady whose photo was taken as she strangles the cancer monstor, at the bottom of the home page of www.wewant2live.com. It is being presented in four parts.

First let me give the usual and appropriate disclaimers that I am not qualified to give medical advice of any sort.

Anyone with diagnosed cancer should seek competent medical help or as they so choose.

What I am relaying is my own story only. It goes without saying that it is up to anyone with an illness to become informed, ask any questions and make the best choices for him or herself. There are resources available for information and help, a few of which are known to me. If my story gives any hope or incentive to another person with cancer, then it will have been worthwhile to assemble what's written here, with much personal information about myself, and send it along to you.

Also nothing I am saying should be construed to mean that I am against all medical treatment for all situations, because that would not be true. A combination of two circumstances namely, no medical cure in sight for what I had, and my inclination to favor natural treatments first, steered me in the direction of choosing the holistic route as the sole source of treatment for myself at the outset. I figured if medical treatment options came along later that might prove successful, I could always use them in addition to, or instead of what I was doing. And I continued paying monthly health insurance premiums, since I knew I might need doctors and other hospital/medical resources, come what may.

During the Labor Day weekend of 2006, I was told at a hospital in Los Angeles, that the reason I couldn't walk was because I had advanced spinal cancer. This was after an MRI and CT scan were done. The doctor told me that the cancer had most likely metastasized (spread) from some primary source, but they did not know from where, since these same tests showed that the internal organs were apparently "clean". Since it was Labor Day and they had a skeleton crew, I was sent home to call in and schedule a biopsy, so that they could take a tissue sample and determine the primary source. I was also told to schedule radiation--not that this would cure me, but it could possibly cause the largest tumor at the base of the spine to shrink some. The first thing I did after I was gotten home (with the help of crutches and a walker), was to get internet data on biopsies. According to what I read, the risk of causing the cancer to spread by dragging known malignant tissue from the spine through the body, was not worth knowing what the primary source of the cancer was, without exhausting other methods first.

I then called a nutritionist Aajonus Vonderplanitz as he was already familiar to me. He had dealt with cancer patients, including his own situation which was over 30 years earlier. I had seen Aajonus about 6-7 years earlier. I went on the primal diet then for a year, and had a big resurgence in health, since I was finally able to handle insomnia and get good sleep and heal. Then I figured I didn't need it anymore since I was now "healthy", so I went off the primal diet--big mistake. In our Sept 06 visit, Aajonus agreed with my internet research that doing a biopsy first might not be advisable, plus it might not be necessary in order to start treatment. I know that holistic practitioners tend to view cancer as a whole body disease, as opposed to a disease of one or more particular organs. There is certainly no harm in starting to treat the whole body. He then proceeded to give me a diet plan to follow of all raw foods, at least until I could see him for some non-invasive testing called iridology, which is an examination of the irises of both eyes. He also recommended certain herbs that were non-toxic, and told me where in Mexico I could get these herbal preparations. The main herbal tonic is based on Harry Hoxsey's formula, and the clinic is called the
Bio-Medical Center. It is located in Tijuana.

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