Hi, friends!

As many of you know, I was diagnosed with cancer four and a half years ago. I am grateful to say that I successfully went into remission and have stayed in remission! Considering that I had a very aggressive and fast-growing form of lymphoma, that felt like a miracle in and of itself. As of April 2017, I had finished 600 hours of high-dose chemotherapy. Oof. It did a NUMBER on my body. Some of you may not know this, but I had trouble doing things as simple as walking and using a can opener after treatment because my motor neuropathy was so bad. Basically, I had zero reflexes because of all the nerve damage. There were so many side effects that I didn't know if I would ever recover from. I was verrrry thin and weak. I had lingering gastrointestinal mucositis, which caused lots of severe digestive distress. The weeks and months following treatment were even harder than treatment itself.

Since April 2017, I have made lots of progress. My neuropathy is almost completely gone, I got back to a healthy weight (and then surpassed it--haha!), had a beautiful, healthy baby, and have gained overall strength. I'm truly grateful for all of those things.

As you may know, when I lived in Ecuador during my first year of college, I got infected with giardia (a parasite). It wasn't discovered until TEN years later. The digestive system can either be the epicenter of health or the epicenter of disease. Because of giardia, my gut became the epicenter of disease for me. Gut issues start by merely impacting digestion, but if they go unresolved like mine, they start to impact the entire body. And while chemo did kill the cancer in my body, it didn't help to resolve the underlying issues that caused my body to be a hospitable host for cancer in the first place. The root cause of illness and disease must be addressed, or the disease will come back.

After four years of trying to address my underlying issues part-time (and 15 years of dealing with digestive problems), I have come to a place of desperately needing to address my health full-time. In the last several months, the digestive issues I had went from being unpleasant, but manageable to being completely unbearable and unmanageable. For the last three months, I have been unable to digest solid food and have been primarily on a liquids-only diet. While this has helped my symptoms subside, it's not sustainable and it's not a solution. I'm worn out, weak, and at my wit's end about how to deal with it. I need a team of professionals working together to help uncover the root cause and help me get to the other side of this. If digestive issues are what landed me a cancer diagnosis in the first place, the only way to stay in remission and be alive a very long time is to truly heal from the most foundational level.

About a year ago, I learned of a clinic called Hope4Cancer. They have an entire team of diverse specialists that help patients heal from cancer by addressing the underlying causes of cancer. While I'm not in a place of needing to get rid of cancer, I am in a place of needing to address the underlying causes of cancer, which are still persistent in my body. On faith, I have booked a three-week stay at their clinic. I leave on July 18th. My hope and prayer is that this time will serve as a reset and jumping off point for deep healing to take place. I will be equipped with resources and tools to implement at home for further maintenance and prevention. Additionally, I will have check-ins with a member of the H4C team every three weeks for an entire year as I get my feet back under me health-wise. What a gift!

We would not have made it through my cancer journey without the generosity of our community, which is why I am writing this letter to seek support again. My nature is "I got this!", but I know that I don't "got this" without help. Would you be willing to help me reach this goal? We have stepped out on faith and booked this trip. We are now praying and trusting that God will provide what we need and that this would be a pathway to healing for me. Any amount that you can give is so deeply appreciated. Thank you for considering this! If you aren’t in a place to be able to support me financially, I would love to be on your prayer list. Holistic healing is a challenging (though rewarding) marathon and I will need the stamina and determination to keep going even on days when I feel overwhelmed and discouraged.

Thank you for being in our corner and cheering us on in any and every way that you do!

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out. We're deeply grateful for you and look forward to reporting back with positive progress!

Blessings,

Karianne and Mike (and Benny Boy)