One Year From Lump Discovery

December 2015
Dear Family and Friends,
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! We have not sent out a mass email since July and although impersonal, it seems the best way to send updates beyond posting your life on Facebook–which we don’t really want to do.
It was one Christmas Eve ago that Allison first discovered a lump on her breast. After her double mastectomy in July, despite several unanticipated complications and visits to ERs/MDs, Allison recovered relatively quickly. It was nice that we had relatives (sister, sister in law, and mom) come help out both before and immediately after the surgery and that Jonah & Mia were away for two weeks for camp and that Noah was able to visit his grandparents, aunt, uncle and 3 cousins in PA during the same time. As a result, we had the house to ourselves for about 11 days. During the month following that surgery, Allison walked 10+ miles nearly every day and was as active as ever.
The day after we got back from picking up all the kids from PA, Allison started homeschooling the kids and then the next day she had surgery to have a port placed in her chest in order to receive one of the three chemo drugs they had prescribed—Herceptin. Although this drug was supposed to have minimum side effects (no nausea, hair loss etc…), Allison was pretty much against doing it from the beginning. She agreed to it mostly because of pressure from the medical community and probably from me too. Well, they messed up the placement of the port and after 2 sessions of the Herceptin, she declared that she was done with all of it. So after she had her 2nd major reconstructive surgery in September, she had them take out the port as well. The port site looks horrible and has a lot of keloid painful scarring which the oncologist suggested should be fixed and the plastic surgeon agreed to redo. This will be the third time that site area is worked on.
I, and Allison much, much more so, have done a large amount of research on natural methods to both heal and prevent cancer naturally—and that is the path she has decided to follow. Some of what she is doing includes: hormone balancing, making her body alkaline over acidic, cold press juicing of green vegetables, carrots, beets, and lots of stalk veggies. She has cut out meat, cut out nearly all sugar except for natural sugars in vegetables and minimal fruit, continues to exercise daily, takes 26 daily supplements that fight boost the immune system, detoxify the liver, and fight cancer. She uses a teaspoon of baking soda in a glass of filtered water at night to alkalinize the body pH and use 1-2 pippette drops of 35 % industrial/food grade hydrogen peroxide in the water to provide more oxygen in the body. She baths in Epsom salt /Himalayan salt baths and uses the coffee enemas 1-2 times per month. She uses essential oils that fight cancer multiple times throughout the day, has reduced her exposure to toxicities in the house, changed laundry detergents, done away with fabric softeners and many hair, skin, and nail products like nail polish with known carcinogens. There are many people who will read this or have heard what she is doing and think she is crazy or that there is no scientific evidence or support for these measures, but I support her 100%. I do know this; if she had gone the modern medical route, right now she would be run down, sick, nauseated, bald and look and feel like a stereotypical cancer patient. All of this would have increased her survival rate by about 9%. Instead, by going a healthier natural path, she looks and feels great.
The lab values testing cancer markers indicate that what she is doing appears to be working. Cholesterol levels dropped by 50, and Vitamin D increased from 18 to 38 and hopefully will continue to increase. By this time in the year, she would normally have already been sick with sniffles or the flu a couple of times, but she has been feeling good and healthy through the summer, fall, and now going into winter. She has bounced back phenomenally and quickly to the many, many minor and major surgeries she has had since July.
Allison asked me to write a little about changes that our kids and I have made too. Well, it isn’t just Allison who changed her eating, our family is gradually changing parts of our lifestyle—mostly right now in the realm of diet. I’ve adjusted my diet a lot in order to support Allison, and in the process I’ve lost just over 15 pounds in what the Wellness Clinic on post told me was pure body fat. In addition to reducing processed foods, we’ve become aware of the huge amounts of sugar in almost every food that is sold. Sugar Feeds Cancer!!!!  It’s what the radiologists use when the do the PET scans to see where cancer cells feed in your body. When we started looking at ingredients and adding up the daily sugar intake, I was shocked—even eating supposedly “healthy” food. Besides fitting into pants that I haven’t worn for years, I feel great and my energy level through the end of the day has increased. I’ve also struggled the last few years with migraines and while I’m not convinced 100% that essential oils isn’t somewhat of a scam, they have been instrumental in warding off oncoming migraines-so I’m not going to discount them even if it’s a placebo effect. The kids are slowly adjusting too but that has been a little harder.
Although it sounds pretty simple, if we don’t have it in the house, the kids won’t eat it. They actually ask for fruits and veggies as snacks now (because often that’s all there is for snacks). Finally, besides our morning exercise routines that we do separately, Allison and I have been walking at least 2 miles every night-in all types of weather. It gives us time alone, time to talk, and it has been a good way to decompress at the end of each day.
So that is kind of where we are. We are not claiming that her cancer will never come back or that this path is the best path for everyone who gets cancer, but we are confident that for her right now, this is absolutely the best choice. If you are interested in any particulars of the Whys and Hows of what Allison is doing, I’m sure you can ask her and she will be happy to go over what she has learned.
Throughout this time we have diligently prayed and asked God what He would have us do. There was never any confirmation during that time that chemo and radiation were ultimately the right decisions. Once the decision was made to remove the port and proceed with many alternative therapies, a sense of peace was finally there. I know the prayers throughout this journey remained, “Lord, please show us the puzzle pieces to complete this big picture!” A puzzle that reminded us of Germany was being put together in the midst of this and it was a tangible reminder of all the decisions and knowledge we needed to make it fit.
Again, have a Merry Christmas and we hope you have a great New Year.
Allison & Jamie