My name is Lisa. Thank you for your time and consideration!

I am a strong proponent of personal responsibility for one's own health. The individual - not the doctor - should be making their own life and death decisions. After months of dealing with with stage 4 breast cancer that spread to my bones, I decided to stop chemotherapy. The side effects were unbearable. Please read my full story below. Now I'm working with a functional medicine doctor using alternative treatments that show real promise, but I need help covering the costs.

[FULL STORY FOLLOWS BELOW]

Stage 4 Breast Cancer metastasized to the bones - This was my second bout. I guess I have more to learn from this disease.

Now what?

   I’d seen my father die of chemotherapy. At least it looked like that to me through the years he fought to stay alive. No chemo for me. I was dead set against it. But it’s all that was offered in the Montana town where I live.

   I tried biofeedback, reiki, hypnosis and acupuncture. I went to my daughter and her family in Hawaii, hoping their love and the Aloha life would heal my lonely heart and hence my body. But increasing pain and difficulty walking led to a cancer marker test with scary results. Treatment was imperative!

   Intense research led to a unique Low Dose Chemotherapy cancer treatment center. Two months later I was living in Seattle.

"Low Dose" Chemotherapy

   I knew it would drain my savings but I didn’t know it would be a drain on my psyche, as well.

   The clinic had a large waiting area with a reception desk, some offices in the back and twenty-five recliner infusion stations. That's where you went for the chemo. The staff were always smiling. The infusion room was its own social world. Every week we talked and laughed - sometimes while sobbing, as we checked on each other’s progress.

   This is one of the few cancer centers that give low dose chemotherapy. But for me it was like high dose. The first few weeks were tolerable but the effects, being cumulative, got worse. Chemo knocks down your blood cell counts. At best you feel debilitated and despondent. At worst - that's me - twice to the Emergency Room in the middle of the night and three blood transfusions. Plus continual bone pain, migraines and exhaustion so severe that at times I couldn't cook or bathe. All this, all by myself.

   At the onset the treatments helped; my cancer markers decreased by half and I could almost walk without a limp. Gradually they went back up and hovered there until I finally decided I'd had enough. I appreciate the power of the cancer chemicals. But the voice in my head was getting louder each day: “You’re poisoning yourself!”

Lesson Learned

Thrust upon me by cancer, was the obligation to stand up for myself. The oncologist told me they have no cure, only a way to maybe give me more time. The practitioners of conventional cancer treatment seem to have fully accepted the idea that under their care some will live, many will die and all will suffer either way. There is no option without debilitating side effects. Still, it’s hard to say no to the medical authority… until I remember that when they leave the office, I’m left with the consequences of their decisions affecting my life.    

Sometimes they’re right, sometimes wrong. Some care and some don’t. I don’t judge - another important lesson, learned by living "out of the box" in the disparate world of a big city. I met Uber drivers from Somalia, South Korea, Russia, Eritrea and India, all very friendly and happy to be in the USA. I talked with a drunken American Indian on the park bench and an overly giggly girl with her new puppy on the trail. I stumbled through the public transportation system but every time I got lost a random person popped up to set me straight. I rode the bus, the light rail and the monorail, where I met a family of Brits who’d just come back to port from an Alaskan cruise. They amused me, distracting from my hip pain and brought me to tears with their sister’s story of cancer. It can be crushing. There are so many of us!

On the fourth of July I started to cry when the driver from Afghanistan asked me how we Americans celebrate the day. “Well most people have a picnic,” I said, “but I’m having a blood transfusion.”

This Afgan man had been a translator for the U.S. Army and the Navy Seals. He’d seen much worse than I. ”I want you to know that God is with you. Go ahead and cry, it’s ok. Don’t worry. I will pray for you. Do you know that God answers?” His voice cracked as he told his story. “There were thirty of us huddled inside a room in the basement of the school. We could hear the Taliban walking around above us.” Flailing his arms as he went on, “If they found us they would kill us all, so we prayed. We prayed together silently for over three hours and finally all was quiet. They were gone.” This man’s courage gave me faith. As did the two sisters from the infusion room whose grandmother died of cancer but their mother has survived it. And now it’s their turn. I befriended a young Chinese woman unafraid to go everywhere with no hair. Her husband showed me a “before” picture - she was gorgeous! They said I was brave. I said they gave me the courage.

Everywhere I went people were nice to me. Strangers genuinely cared. And at one point it dawned on me: Did I have to get cancer to know people really love me? Sadly, it was true. I'd grown up feeling unloved, embedding false beliefs in my subconscious... Don't let anybody tell you that illness has nothing to do with how you feel in your heart.

Cancer has changed me, all for the good, and I am thankful every moment of every single day. That’s how I stay positive. That's why I don’t judge.

 Now what?

 Life ahead looks like a foggy, turbulent ocean with no land in sight. It reminds me of the vision I had when pregnant with my second child. I was on my own at that time, too. I wanted that baby more than anything and, in a time when women had a choice, I would not let anyone tell me not to go through with it. I knew somehow things would all work out. And I know that now, even though I’m limping again.

With serious research and a super smart, functional medicine doctor, I came up with a plan using off label drugs and a lot of supplements, all scientifically documented and proven to fight cancer. So here goes… I need help with the cost.

Cost

Drugs and supplements (shown in photo) - $1,500 per month

Miscellaneous services including vitamin infusions, infrared light equipment, and research-driven additions to the treatment are estimated at $1,500 per month. 

The above are monthly expenses, which cannot be fully predicted.

We all have our stories to tell. I wish I could thank you face-to-face for reading mine—and for any support you might offer and simply being here with me in spirit, in this moment.

It never occurred to me I would get cancer. I pray that you are in the best of health and you stay that way.

Sincerely,

Lisa