“To tell my full story I would have to write a book, so for now I will summarize it the best I am able.
I was 31 years old at the time, happily married, raising three boys, and running a growing business out of our home. My baby was about four-months-old when I noticed a large lump in my right breast. Initially I was concerned, but figured it was probably just a clogged milk duct or infection that would take care of itself overtime, so I put if off.
The next few weeks, the lump began to increase in size and a red mark appeared on the skin of my breast. At that point, I decided to make an appointment with a Thermographer, in an attempt to find out what was going on. Thermography is a non-invasive alternative to mammograms and needle biopsies that works using thermal imaging. I was told by the Thermographer everything looked okay and to come back in six months for a follow-up.
As time went on, my breast continued to worsen physically. I knew something was not right and I needed to find answers. I decided to go to my OBGYN for a second opinion. Both she and the lactation consultant reassured me it didn’t look suspicious of cancer, it was most likely a clogged duct. They instructed me to, ‘Go home, make sure your baby drains that side first, massage, and use hot packs.’
Not satisfied with the answers I was receiving, I went in for a biopsy. You may be asking yourselves, ‘Why didn’t I just go in for a mammogram right away?’ Well to keep things simple, there are known risks to both biopsy and mammograms, so I was trying to find the least invasive way to get an answer.
Finally, after the biopsy, I got the news I had HER2+ breast cancer. This news came on the very same day we closed on our home to move to another state. I decided to do everything in my power to start healing at home and would establish care when we moved, two weeks later.
Right away, I made the decision I was going to try to heal my body naturally. No chemo, radiation, or surgery. Learning about the human body has been a passion of mine for years, way before all of this. I have watched ‘The Truth About Cancer’ series and followed many people who have helped others with cancer and chronic illnesses. I knew the body is made to heal if we give it the right tools. I stayed true to what I believe and my husband supported my decision. Right away, I started a plant-based diet, juicing, reducing stress as best as I could, exercising, and taking supplements. Once we moved, I started care with a naturopathic doctor and a primary care physician to do labs and watch over my health.
Over the next few months, I would go to two different clinics in Tijuana, Mexico. Thousands of dollars and many protocols later, my body was not responding in the way I hoped it would. The cancer was too aggressive. My liver stopped functioning and I became extremely jaundiced. I experienced ascites, where the liver weeps fluid into the abdominal cavity. I was having to go to the ER to get drained every three days for this, up to 4.5 liters!
During one of my ER visits, the hospital saw my physical condition and decided to admit me to the ICU to run some more tests. They scanned my body and determined the cancer had spread to the abdominal cavity, pelvis, spine, lymph nodes and 30+ lesions in my liver. With no prior treatment they determined I was too far gone and told me to get my affairs in order, there was no treatment intervention available for me. Both my husband and I rejected that answer, and my husband told the Doctor that we were going to get a second opinion. One day before receiving this news, my husband had received a phone call at work from a customer/friend. The man had been trying to place an order online, but my husband’s website kept kicking him out, so he decided to phone his order in. This man hadn’t spoken to my husband in over a year, so he asks how life has been. My husband begins to share with him what we are going through. Thinking out loud the man said, ‘That’s why the website wasn’t working, I was supposed to talk to you.’ He proceeded to ask how far we live from a specific hospital, at which point my husband replied, ‘Twenty minutes.’ He told my husband that his best friend of 35 years was the head surgeon of Oncology there and he would like to give us his cell phone number to see if there was anything that can be done. We gave him a call that day for a second opinion and were scheduled to come in later that week to meet with a team of Oncologists. This was just one of the many miracles we’ve witnessed throughout this journey.
Coming home from the ICU, I was so sick and unable to walk unassisted. I lost the ability to use the restroom (everything was shutting down), I couldn’t do anything besides lay there in pain. It was Labor Day of 2018 when my husband looked at me and asked if I thought I was dying. I responded, ‘I don’t know, maybe?’ I definitely felt like I was. Now I know I very much was. My husband immediately took me to the new hospital where I’d end up establishing care. It was a very scary time for myself and all those who knew what was going on.
I had family members flying and driving in from all over the country. My brother and his children drove 26 hours straight because they thought they were going to lose me. When the new doctor saw me, he said, ‘Without treatment, you might be alive a week or two more, I’m not sure you’ll respond to this medicine but we’re going to give it a shot.’ I thought for sure this was the end of me as I was already so sick and now, I was going to get pumped full of poison!? Then I had this moment of faith, I imagined myself on a cliff falling back into the unknown. Having to trust God to save me.
Shortly after starting this new treatment, I was sent home with a hospital bed in my living room. I was so weak and sick but all I wanted was to start living my life again. I was becoming jealous people were doing everything I once was able to do. I couldn’t even hold my baby. I never had the opportunity to take my boys to school, make them lunch, do homework with them. I went from a do-it-all mama to a dependent. That was very hard for me. I kept fighting to get well, I would crawl to the middle of my yard, lay on the bare grass to get a few rays of healing sunshine. Very quickly I started getting better and better. Just a few months later, I was functioning as before this diagnosis. It was truly a miracle!
I’d love to tell you that it ended there, but it didn’t. This journey has been a roller coaster at times. This past April, coming home from a road trip, I started experiencing daily headaches for a week, which is very unusual for me. I went into the ER where they did an MRI. They found 50+ lesions in my brain. This was devastating news as I had been feeling SO good prior. I felt like this was a huge, uncontrollable beast. This giant was much too big for me, and it was. I was scared and didn’t know what to do. That is when I cried out to God to give me supernatural peace. Just like that, I wasn’t scared and went through my 14 rounds of whole brain radiation with faith, knowing I’d be okay.
Where am I now?
Well, I am feeling great! There is nothing I can’t do. I help others when I can, I get together with friends, date my husband, play with my boys, work, take my kids to school, go on bike rides, cook, clean, etc. I wake up and go to sleep with thankfulness on my tongue. Life could’ve ended for me last September. I had one foot in eternity, I felt it.
I have linked arms with western medicine and still practice healing holistically. As of today, every area in my body; breast, liver, abdomen, spine, and pelvis are in REMISSION and have been for an entire year! My brain has a remaining four lesions that will be healed!
What I’m doing?
A lot…but these are a few things I’m working on specifically to detox my body and heal my brain.
I juice 32 oz. or more daily. It’s my breakfast and lunch many days.
I take RSO, which is fully extracted cannabis oil before bed. I’m taking Lions Mane and Turkey Tail Mushrooms, Nebulizing Biomolecular Oxygen, high doses of Vitamin C, and parasite cleanses. I get weekly massages, use essential oils, enemas and colon hydrotherapy, and take Vitamin D with K2. I’m not perfect in my diet and/or managing stress but I am working on it every day to do better.
When I first started treatment, I was doing chemotherapy and immunotherapy every three weeks. I was supposed to have six rounds of chemotherapy, but could only handle three as it was lowering my platelets to the point where I had to have two transfusions.
When I start getting anxious thoughts, I rein them in and remember all I’ve been through, I am still here and still healing!
Conclusion, there is no right way to heal. It is never one thing that makes us sick and never one thing that makes us well. Don’t take for granted your health or your precious life.”
This story was submitted to Love What Matters by Rebecca of Idaho. You can follow her journey on Instagram and Facebook. Submit your own story here and be sure to subscribe to our free email newsletter for our best stories.
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