Wendy's Cancer Journey

To pick up where I left off under the "My Story" tab . . .

Around Christmas time, 2011, I found and have been working with a Naturopath, Dr. Carole Patton, who herself was a stage 4 colon cancer survivor, who overcame cancer without chemo, radiation or even surgery. A big part of her program has been detox and total body cleansing.  These are things I didn't include in my protocol last time.  I think detox and cleansing are key elements of my current protocol and will help restore my body to full function so that the digestive and immune systems work at peak performance.

Another missing piece of the puzzle was finding a way to safely kill cancer cells, until an electro-medicine device was recommended to me.  Nutrition and supplementation alone didn't work for me.   I've been using a frequency generator (a Rife machine) faithfully since January, 2012.  They tell me that it vibrates the microbes inside the cancer cells at the correct frequency until they burst, sorta like the voice of a singer who can shatter glass with a certain vocal frequency. It's not supposed to harm normal cells like chemo does. Without the microbe, the cells supposedly revert to normal functioning cells.  This is fascinating technology to me.  Many skeptics discount its effectiveness and write it off as "voodoo" but it makes a lot more sense to me than some other methods.  I believe time will tell. 

On September 7, 2012, I went back for another scope to see what the colon looks like now.  The tumor has been successfully stopped in its tracks.  It's not gone, but in the past 10 months it has not gotten worse.  Even though it has not gone away, this is good news and has given me hope to keep going!  I'll tell you why.  From the day they found irregular looking cells at the location of the resection to 4 months later it was a full blown tumor, which indicated it was pretty aggressive.  I tweeked the protocol and added more therapies.   In ten months from that point, it has not changed and it has not obstructed the bowel as predicted.  I believe it is healing.  My next steps is to ramp things up a bit and get rid of it totally!  

To get a baseline on my progress, I had a PET scan on October 24, 2012, and a cancer profile blood work up.  In layman's terms these both showed that there is still cancer activity in my body. The blood work suggests there is potential for metastasis. (CEA of 4.8) The PET showed no cancer activity in the sigmoid colon - in fact it didn't even pick up on the tumor my GI doc saw in September?!  There were two "hot spots,"  one near my liver and one near my lung with no lymph involvement and no actual masses or tumors of any kind.

Before Christmas, 2012, I went back to an oncologist to get an interpretation of the PET report and his comment was that the report was wishy-washy at best and didn't really tell him anything that he could use to make a diagnosis.  So I agreed to do another CEA blood test to see if my tumor markers had changed and agreed to a CAT scan if in fact there had been some progression in the markers.  The marker blood work did change to CEA 5.2  so I had a CAT after Christmas, 2012.  Little did I know that the margin of error for the CEA is .4 so the change might have simply been the margin of error and using a different lab.  

My CAT scan after Christmas was clean - no metastasis, no tumors, totally unremarkable report. However, there was indication that I have a bulging disk in my back so that is why I've been having low back pain - nothing sinister nor related to cancer.  My mind is more relaxed knowing that nothing horrible is happening in my body.  

I consulted with an MD who's specialty is functional and environmental medicine. He gave me some options to consider such as Vitamin C infusions or taking LDN to boost my immune system.

I also consulted with a new ND who recommended some supplements and diet adjustments. One of the things she recommended, curcumin,  really helped by back pain, but didn't make it go away and it's also supposed to be a great cancer killer.  

People are always sharing new ideas with me.  Recently, muscadine grape seed was brought to my attention.  I started taking that and my back feels 100% better. It's also been show to kill cancer cells. The current plan is to continue to take care of my body and support it nutritionally with the help of some supplementation. 

March, 2013 - I had another CEA test to monitor progress. Now the tumor marker was 6.0.  So I agreed to try the Vitamin C infusion therapy to boost my immune system, which will hopefully kill cancer cells.  

For the months of April and May, 2013, I had a weekly infusion of about 50 g of Vitamin C intravenously. I was retested May 13, 2013, to see if the markers changed at all in 6 weeks. Unfortunately, it appears that the infusions backfired. My CEA increased from 6.0 to 9.2.  Hmmm... As it turns out, they used ascorbic acid instead of sodium ascorbate raising the acidity of my body, allowing cancer growth and even tumor growth and inflammation.

The week of June 20, 2013, I was very close to having a bowel obstruction.  My colon almost stopped working. Even a colonic wouldn't budge anything because the water couldn't get past the blockage. Man, was a I scared. I contacted a local ND, Dr. Maxine, to help me with my emergency as well as the GI doc. Thankfully, she calmed me down and God moved, so all is well again. I'm going to work with her on a new protocol to move forward. So far, so good. I'm feeling much better.

I went on vacation having just started my new protocol and when I returned home the first week of August, 2013, was tested again.  Vacation was actually stressful trying to take all the pills, find proper food, rest properly, etc. The CEA marker rose to 18.2, which was alarming. Upon returning home, I went full throttle on the new protocol adding things like Essaic tea, an herbal cocktail of 8 different herbs, and  additional supplements.  During the course of time, I developed tremendous gas and stomach rumblings and bloody, mucousy stool and pressure under my rib in the back on my left side. I did a liver flush and the pressure was relieved a bit.

After 2 months on the new protocol, the beginning of October, 2013, I was tested again and the CEA came in at 39!  With everything I was doing, the ND suggests that my cortisol levels are through the roof and the stress in my life is keeping my immune system from kicking in and fighting the cancer cells. The plan is to learn stress reduction techniques

I got a CAT scan on Oct. 9, 2013, and discovered that there is metastasis to the liver and lung. The doc said there are small tumors. Time to regroup for a revised protocol.  My stress must have kept that one from working.

I'm thinking that the stress of focusing on getting well has been all-consuming causing more stress than I care to admit.  It is very rigorous and detailed protocol. Being a Type A personality, I want to do it perfectly and I think I've put myself over the top in the stress category, trying to do everything right.  I have to go back to my own advice that the battle belongs to the Lord.  No matter how much I try to get well, He is ultimately in charge and does the healing. It's not MY works that produce results. It's HIS. I've lost sight of that a bit over the past couple months.

I took some time off all the supplements and began to focus on the stress reduction. I've also started getting my dental amalgams replaced. I had 3 replaced on Nov 14th. Within 6 days of that I ended up in the ER with fluid around my heart and lungs. I was rushed to emergency surgery to get a pericardial window put in to get rid of the fluid and spent a week in the hospital. It made me very weak. The CEA done on Nov. 20, 13, went up yet again to 43.1. The cancer caused the fluid and has gotten worse.

Not knowing what else to do or where else to go, on Dec 4, 2013, my husband and I went to Atlanta, GA, to Living Foods Institute for a 15 day program that has been effective for late cancer patients They teach  how to get well using a raw, vegan diet. They also offer multiple therapies to detox and recuperate. I had a lot of therapies which were good and had some emotional breakthroughs for issues I needed to deal with but I was still very tired and not myself even after the 15 days. One doctor commented that perhaps I was detoxing too fast and needed to slow down. I also lost more weight, which I couldn't afford to lose and for my 5'9"frame I went down to 110 pounds.

We got home in time to spend a quiet Christmas with family and continued to attempt to put into practice the food recommendations received in GA.  It was nearly impossible without access to a lot of what we were introduced to.  I tried to continue eating as much vegetarian as possible. I continued to research and found kindred spirits in the philosophy of Hallelujah Acres.  I ordered some of their products and tried to keep to their dietary recommendations.  I'm feeling much better and less tired but my chest has pressure and makes me short of breath.  I ended up in the ER on Jan 10th to make sure the chest pain wasn't more fluid. Thankfully, it wasn't. Everything checked out well, but no conclusion was drawn as to what is causing the shortness of breath. My hunch is that the cancer nodules in my lungs are impeding my breathing and are getting worse.  Turned out that fluid was building back up in my lungs and I needed multiple tapping procedures to keep comfortable.

A good friend referred me to information about mistletoe treatments. On Jan 28, I met with a new doctor in Baltimore to get more information about using mistletoe and potentially start treatment.  Johns Hopkins is getting ready to do a clinical trial on mistletoe so it mustn't be too off the wall.  It's a natural substance that is used in Europe quite successfully to treat cancer without killing normal cells. It is poisonous but not to normal cells. I actually started giving myself sub-q shots in March.  This doctor wanted me to meet with an oncologist to become aware of all my options as my cancer markers keep increasing. I met with an oncologist at Johns Hopkins and he recommend chemo for 6 weeks. Since the distance was a bit much, he referred me back to Hanover to an oncologist to administer chemo locally so I'd have support.

I ended up doing 6 weeks of chemo FOLFOX and it hit me like a ton of bricks. I became an invalid unable to do much of anything but sit around and nap. Needless to say, it wasn't my idea of quality of life. What it did to my body and spirit was unacceptable. At the end of the 6 weeks I decided to take a break.

I was made aware of an anthroposophic cancer treatment center in Ann Arbor, Michigan that was getting ready to offer a 2 week treatment program and still had a bed left. They use IV mistletoe and lots of homeopathic things including compresses and ointments and sub-q shots of various types. At the end of that program I was 100% improved and felt so much better. I was able to take care of myself again and went home with great hopes.

 Once home I seemed strong. I started my Rife machine and continued the protocol that I was on in MI. However, the fluid which had not been a problem for weeks, started re-accumulating and I ended up with a partially collapsed lung in June.  One good thing is that the cancer tumor markers dropped down to 19 from 33 after I ended the chemo. So something is working yet the body is struggling with fluid. I am exploring what can be done about the fluid so I don't have to get thoracentesis.  Since February I think I've had to have 8.  And that is 8 too many.