Telling People

I didn’t really know if I wanted to tell anyone else I had cancer, after the last round of comments weren't so great form my husband's family. 

I didn’t want people to treat me differently or to see the awkward looks on people’s faces.

My husband and I were still struggling to figure out how to make people understand that cancer wasn’t a death sentence. We had just learned a great deal of information ourselves.

My great grandmother and I were supposed to meet up the weekend after Thanksgiving, but an ice storm brewed up outside. Our power went off several times throughout the weekend. There was ice everywhere, broken trees and down power lines.

Unfortunately, this meant canceling my plans with granny. I called her and while talking to her I just couldn’t keep it a secret from her. I had to tell her about everything that had been going on in my life.

I told her all about the doctor visits, the cancer and my decision to fight it naturally. I explained that I would be Vegan from now on and I had to explain what that meant. 

Surprisingly, my grandmother just told me to do what I felt like I needed to do.

I couldn’t have asked for a better response than that! If only everyone were as calm and understanding about things as grandmothers. 

After a few days had gone by, I guess word got around. My aunt called me, a little angry that I didn't call her to tell her, personally. It was then that I decided to post about my cancer diagnosis on Facebook for all of my family and friends to see at once. 

It's just easier that way.

The Results And...

The results came in (11/23/15). I was at work and I got the phone call to come in to the doctor's office for a review of my biopsy results. 

I. HAVE. CANCER. Yes, it's true. Stage 2 Squamous Cell Carcinoma Cancer. It's in my tongue and it's not just on the surface, but in my muscular tissue. It's still sinking in for me.

Even more frustrating was that literally as soon as the doctor told me what my results were, he had already scheduled an appointment for me to go see another surgeon the following morning.

At that scheduled appointment I was supposed to talk about the surgery which would result in cutting out part of my tongue, skin grafting from my legs and/or inner arm and putting it in my mouth. 

We told the doctor NO!

Yes, cancer is serious. We know, but we also know the body has its own healing abilities when given the proper nutrition to do so.

Over the last 5 days my husband has been doing non-stop research. We watched several documentaries about food and nutrition on Netflix. Then, my husband found a website called "Chris Beat Cancer," which led him down a rabbit trail of sorts. 

That website led my husband to learn about Cancer Tutor and that led to The Truth About Cancer: A Global Quest. This 10+ hour documentary (that we broke up and watched over a few nights) gave us hope, determination to make the changes necessary and enlightenment!

I made my "Giant Cancer Fighting Salad" for Thanksgiving while everyone else around me stuffed themselves with toxic foods. 

My husband's family was supposed to come over on 11/27/15 for our Thanksgiving, but I canceled the eating portion of the festivities and asked everyone to just come over, play games, watch movies and if necessary, discuss my cancer. 

I hadn't chosen to tell anyone else about my cancer yet, because already I received comments such as: 

"I know you want to be healthy, but don't you think you should do what the doctor says?"

"Try something else if your Vegan diet plan doesn't work." 

"Are you sure about all this?" 

Let me be clear. It's my body. It's my choice. 

I am not doing chemo or radiation which only serves to put more poison into my body... the exact thing I am trying to avoid since that's what caused my cancer in the first place. 

I am not having a surgery that doesn't even have a 100% guarantee of curing anything, because after all the cutting up of body parts and skin in my mouth, there would still be a chance the cancer could grow elsewhere. 

My answer? Nutrition. I'm starting with that. 

My Biopsy

Wednesday (11/18/15) started out like any ordinary work day. After getting off work a little early, I decided to take my husband to the doctor to get his ears cleaned out (they were horribly compacted with gunk due to multiple ear infections). 

I thought to myself “why don’t I go ahead and have the doctor look at the sore spot on the bottom of my tongue while I’m at it”? I have had this sore for a little over a year, but I just learned to ignore it, because it didn't hurt...much. I never really thought about it. I know, I know. Stupid. 

The doctor took one look at my sore tongue, said it might be Cancer and told me I needed to see a specialist.

Immediately, I thought about the father of one of our friends. This man beat his Cancer simply by eating a 100% Vegan diet. In 3 months his tumor went from baseball size to golf ball size and was able to be cut out.

My husband and I immediately thought this would be a good switch, because our diet had become terrible. We ate sugary sweets all the time, ate pizza at least once a week and went out to lunch every day!

So, we rushed to the store and bought vegetables. We decided that we needed to make some healthy life changes for the sake of our ongoing health whether I had cancer or not! 

On Thursday (11/19/15),  I headed to my chiropractor and, while there, he suggested I see his father for his opinion. His father is a local dentist.

After the dentist looked at the sore he said he couldn’t do anything there, but that he knew a new oral surgeon in town. He was kind enough to set me up with an appointment which would only cost me $85 to be seen. My insurance is terrible, so I was thankful for this low cost option. 

The appointment was set for the following day, but I was eager to get things going so I went over to the office and asked to fill out the paperwork, thinking this would save me time the next morning. Since I was there already, the doctor agreed to see me that afternoon.... 

  

So there I was sitting in an oral surgeon’s chair having him stare at me like I had the plague. He had his nurse type up notes in my digital file on the computer while he asked for more details about the sore under my tongue. 

When I told the doctor that the sore had been there for such a long time, not getting any larger or any worse on the pain scale, he looked confused. He said that usually Cancer spreads very quickly. He asked me what I had been doing for the past year.

I explained that I have been using Essential Oils since October of 2014. Some I applied directly to the sore, others I took in a capsule and some I applied topically. Frankincense had become a staple for me, as well as Thieves. 

He just nodded his head like doctors do when they don’t know how to respond. The nurse, on the other hand, looked very intrigued (when the doctor left the room, she asked me questions, off the record)!

Of course, the elephant in the room… something had to be done about my sore. The only way to be sure that I had Cancer was to have a biopsy completed.

My husband could barely handle the news. I had no tears or words. I've never smoked, I thought to myself. I didn't really think about anything else causing the cancer.

The doctor did his best to comfort my husband by telling him it could be nothing at all. I was taken to a room, alone, and my husband was left there to gather his thoughts. I got all gassed up, stuck with a needle for numbing purposes and away the doctor went at chopping out pieces of the skin under my tongue.

  

My consolation prize was a lovely stitching job. Get this… the doctor told me to stop using my Essential Oils and prescribed me a “special mouth wash”. I wasn't sure what to think about this...