Seeking Support for the Road Less Traveled
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Seeking Support for the Road Less Traveled
Many of you know I was diagnosed in March with Stage 3 breast cancer. I’d like to tell you the back story as well as explain why I’m reaching out from this platform.
Direction Set
A mammogram at the end of February revealed a suspicious mass in my left breast which was biopsied on March 9th to confirm invasive ductal carcinoma. Because cancer cells were also found in a lymph node biopsy, I began a series of scans which, thankfully, did not reveal any spread.
The initial work up revealed a lot to me in terms of how I would ultimately choose to address this health challenge, the most daunting I have ever faced. As I began the prescribed series of scans, MRI’s, oncologist and surgeon visits, Covid-19 protocols began to swiftly restrict the medical access I had taken for granted. It was difficult to be dropped at the door to face MRI’s and oncologist appointments on my own!
I felt as if I stepped into the well-oiled machinery of cancer treatment switched into high gear. One test led to another. It was exhausting and utterly overwhelming. By the end of March, surgery was no longer an option because of the virus. My oncologist explained over the phone that I could proceed with three months of chemotherapy. He indicated the medications he would use and told me he was prescribing a “middle of the road” treatment because I was ‘young and healthy’. Tom and I researched the chemo drugs to be administered and realized, if I proceeded, I would have an immune system severely compromised in the midst of a world-wide pandemic. There was a great deal of pressure to do something quickly on top of my own mounting anxieties! All in all, I found myself in a perfect storm of fear.
Never imagining I would face a cancer diagnosis, I was not educated about how cancer works, treatment options and how these two would affect my life now and into the future. I have always known the conventional approach was not the only way. Efforts to use an individualized, holistic approach, made sense to me and I have seen how it has helped people when their traditional options were exhausted.
Covid-19 pushed the ‘pause’ button for me long enough to take a breath and for a dear friend to say, ‘Wait, you might want to consider another path!’
Change of Direction
Over the course of the next four months, this friend set in motion a networking path that led all the way to California and the Cancer Center for Healing in Irvine https://www.cancercenterforhealing.com/ founded by Dr. Leigh Erin Connealy. It is the most advanced integrative cancer clinic available in the U.S. We learned an ‘integrative’ approach to cancer utilizes cutting edge medicine and therapies as well as treatments from alternative medicine. I had time to research and talk with doctors. I considered my choices and decided this was the path I would take.
While every cancer journey is incredibly difficult, this course of treatment seemed to offer the least collateral damage to my body and aimed for healing and managing my cancer so it would be less likely to return. I saw this direction held out hope to live through and beyond treatment with a quality of life that would enable me to continue to be engaged in my family, church and community.
My treatment thus far has involved a radical change in diet, building up my immune system, detoxification, supplementation and nutraceuticals, laboratory assessments and dealing with the emotional aspects of disease. Many of these parts have taken time especially with Covid-19 protocols. I have been extremely blessed to have two local and supportive doctors working with me.
One Way to Help
I now am taking the next step with a targeted insulin-potentiated chemotherapy (IPT) treatment which will need to be done at the center in California over a course of eight weeks. The bloodwork and lab assessments we’ve done have given the doctors insight into what chemo drugs and natural substances will work well for me.
All of this has and will be done outside my health insurance network resulting in expenditures that are financially challenging to say the least. The difficulty of treating cancer is commensurate with the cost! A member of my family has generously offered to fund a good part of my chemotherapy and so we are making plans to head to the Cancer Center at the end of August. The financial support I am seeking will be used for any chemotherapy extras, two treatments available to augment the chemo as well as housing and travel expenses. We are seeking to raise $22,000 to complete this cancer treatment trip.
Many Ways to Help
My faith in God’s goodness and love has sustained me on this journey. I firmly believe He is the great Physician and first cause of all healing First and foremost I ask that you would keep me in your prayers as many of you have told me you are. Thank you!
A Parting Thought
The first doctor I talked to put me in touch with a woman who had gone through a similar cancer experience. She lives in New Hampshire, and we have talked on the phone, texted and emailed. Her encouraging words have had weight with me because she has traveled this road. I know both the traditional approach as well as the integrative one can lead to improved health and neither is guaranteed to provide a cure. I have chosen the path that resonates most clearly with how I have always thought about health and illness and I’ve found hope and peace in it.
Cancer has forever changed me. I have experienced a renewed gratitude for life and for all the family and friends that make my life rich. My heartfelt prayer is that my journey might, in some way strengthen and encourage another traveler at such a cross road no matter which path they choose, and as my doctor aptly said, “hoping that the available therapeutic options more and more resonate with who we are as a connected community of human beings”.
“…I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
Robert Frost
Many of you know I was diagnosed in March with Stage 3 breast cancer. I’d like to tell you the back story as well as explain why I’m reaching out from this platform.
Direction Set
A mammogram at the end of February revealed a suspicious mass in my left breast which was biopsied on March 9th to confirm invasive ductal carcinoma. Because cancer cells were also found in a lymph node biopsy, I began a series of scans which, thankfully, did not reveal any spread.
The initial work up revealed a lot to me in terms of how I would ultimately choose to address this health challenge, the most daunting I have ever faced. As I began the prescribed series of scans, MRI’s, oncologist and surgeon visits, Covid-19 protocols began to swiftly restrict the medical access I had taken for granted. It was difficult to be dropped at the door to face MRI’s and oncologist appointments on my own!
I felt as if I stepped into the well-oiled machinery of cancer treatment switched into high gear. One test led to another. It was exhausting and utterly overwhelming. By the end of March, surgery was no longer an option because of the virus. My oncologist explained over the phone that I could proceed with three months of chemotherapy. He indicated the medications he would use and told me he was prescribing a “middle of the road” treatment because I was ‘young and healthy’. Tom and I researched the chemo drugs to be administered and realized, if I proceeded, I would have an immune system severely compromised in the midst of a world-wide pandemic. There was a great deal of pressure to do something quickly on top of my own mounting anxieties! All in all, I found myself in a perfect storm of fear.
Never imagining I would face a cancer diagnosis, I was not educated about how cancer works, treatment options and how these two would affect my life now and into the future. I have always known the conventional approach was not the only way. Efforts to use an individualized, holistic approach, made sense to me and I have seen how it has helped people when their traditional options were exhausted.
Covid-19 pushed the ‘pause’ button for me long enough to take a breath and for a dear friend to say, ‘Wait, you might want to consider another path!’
Change of Direction
Over the course of the next four months, this friend set in motion a networking path that led all the way to California and the Cancer Center for Healing in Irvine https://www.cancercenterforhealing.com/ founded by Dr. Leigh Erin Connealy. It is the most advanced integrative cancer clinic available in the U.S. We learned an ‘integrative’ approach to cancer utilizes cutting edge medicine and therapies as well as treatments from alternative medicine. I had time to research and talk with doctors. I considered my choices and decided this was the path I would take.
While every cancer journey is incredibly difficult, this course of treatment seemed to offer the least collateral damage to my body and aimed for healing and managing my cancer so it would be less likely to return. I saw this direction held out hope to live through and beyond treatment with a quality of life that would enable me to continue to be engaged in my family, church and community.
My treatment thus far has involved a radical change in diet, building up my immune system, detoxification, supplementation and nutraceuticals, laboratory assessments and dealing with the emotional aspects of disease. Many of these parts have taken time especially with Covid-19 protocols. I have been extremely blessed to have two local and supportive doctors working with me.
One Way to Help
I now am taking the next step with a targeted insulin-potentiated chemotherapy (IPT) treatment which will need to be done at the center in California over a course of eight weeks. The bloodwork and lab assessments we’ve done have given the doctors insight into what chemo drugs and natural substances will work well for me.
All of this has and will be done outside my health insurance network resulting in expenditures that are financially challenging to say the least. The difficulty of treating cancer is commensurate with the cost! A member of my family has generously offered to fund a good part of my chemotherapy and so we are making plans to head to the Cancer Center at the end of August. The financial support I am seeking will be used for any chemotherapy extras, two treatments available to augment the chemo as well as housing and travel expenses. We are seeking to raise $22,000 to complete this cancer treatment trip.
Many Ways to Help
My faith in God’s goodness and love has sustained me on this journey. I firmly believe He is the great Physician and first cause of all healing First and foremost I ask that you would keep me in your prayers as many of you have told me you are. Thank you!
A Parting Thought
The first doctor I talked to put me in touch with a woman who had gone through a similar cancer experience. She lives in New Hampshire, and we have talked on the phone, texted and emailed. Her encouraging words have had weight with me because she has traveled this road. I know both the traditional approach as well as the integrative one can lead to improved health and neither is guaranteed to provide a cure. I have chosen the path that resonates most clearly with how I have always thought about health and illness and I’ve found hope and peace in it.
Cancer has forever changed me. I have experienced a renewed gratitude for life and for all the family and friends that make my life rich. My heartfelt prayer is that my journey might, in some way strengthen and encourage another traveler at such a cross road no matter which path they choose, and as my doctor aptly said, “hoping that the available therapeutic options more and more resonate with who we are as a connected community of human beings”.
“…I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
Robert Frost
Organizer
Cheryl Lanoue
Organizer
Great Barrington, MA