Decision Time

It is common knowledge that if you get cancer the only way to cure it is with chemotherapy and radiation. This is what we are taught by the medical society here in America. But I was told that, because my cancer is in stage 4, the final stage, even these methods would not cure it in me. All I could hope for was to prolong my life for about 2 years.

My family was very supportive during my stay in the hospital. They made sure that one of them was there 24 hours a day to make sure my needs were met. My sisters and brother, my brother-in-law and my daughters all took turns staying in my hospital room with me. Even my best friend, Diane, took a few turns to relieve my family when it was a struggle for them to stay.

I had always looked at Diane as something of a health nut because she was something of an expert about homeopathy remedies, which I knew little about. She had actually sent me to a man, named Jim Hill, about two years previously who used "iridology" to find out what was wrong with folks. He actually identified what turned out to be my cancer and if I had paid attention we could have caught the cancer in the very early stages. However, I just shrugged it off as someone trying to sell health food supplements and besides all he said was that it was a 'hot spot'. That didn't mean anything to me then and when Diane asked me what he found, I didn't find it important enough to even tell her about it. I just told her about the allergies he found. I regret now that I did not say anything to her about it because, knowing her, she would have bugged me about it 'til I did something.

So now... Diane now began in earnest to indoctrinate me in the ways of alternative medicine. She brought me food that she cooked from organic ingredients and brought me books to read. One book that she brought me was written by a woman who had battled cancer entitled "A Cancer Battle Plan" by Anne E. Frahm. I read this book with a hunger in me to find out how I could be cancer free again. She told of having had chemo therapy and radiation and even a bone marrow transplant. She told of how it made her so sick and robbed her of her energy until, because of the research she was doing, she began to connect the relationship between cancer and nutrition. I was intrigued, but the idea of eating stuff that tasted like roots and grass was not very appealing to me. Roots and grass was the idea I had in my head that organic food tasted like. I have found since then that the word 'organic' is not a mystical word, it simply means that the food was not grown with chemicals and pesticides and laced with human growth hormones and preservitives that gives the food a longer shelf life, but robs our food of its nutritional value. Organic foods can be as tasty as what I have been use to. However, I can tell you, you won't find it in a store with golden arches.

After I left the hospital I realized that I had lost about 80 pounds and my muscles had atrophied to the point that I found it hard to even walk. My sisters became my care givers, although a home health care nurse would come to the house 3 times a week to check on me. I moved into my sister Beth's house with her and my nephew Brandon. Little by little I began to gain strength... at least enough to walk with a cane, but I remained unable to drive myself for a long time yet.

I was still wrestling with the decision about chemo vs homeopathy when I had the opportunity to talk with my uncle Jack, who had been through chemo and radiation. After talking with him about what he went through I asked him if he had it to do over again would he choose the chemo. His response was an adamant 'NO'. That confirmed to me that my leaning toward the homeopathy was the correct one. If I was going to die, it wasn't going to be from being sick because the chemo killed all the good cells along with the bad ones, thus killing my immune system. However, if this was the road I was going to choose, it could not be a half-hearted effort. I had to follow the rules and that meant I had to get Diane to help me know what all those rules were. She was more than happy to help me and I began to get an education from her.

I knelt down and spoke to God, because I knew I wouldn't make it without his help, and told him that I was willing to fight this battle and trusted him to be there to take me though the fire.

What follows are the steps I took to fight this battle.