An Overview of Healing - Part II

The greatest success of my natural healing journey is obviously the reversal of stage IV metastatic breast cancer. The cancer was the result of imbalances within my internal terrain and while I'm ecstatic with how far I've come to correct those imbalances I still have plenty of work to do.

My body is still rebuilding and I'm helping it along with supplements for a variety of deficiencies. Last year I had mercury amalgam fillings removed from my mouth. These fillings were more than 25 years old and I believe the vapors they emitted contributed to my body's toxicity and inability to absorb all the nutrients from my food, resulting in mineral deficiencies. Simple pH testing revealed an acidic environment. This has been corrected & my morning pH test is consistently at 6.8 - 7.0, which indicates an alkaline body.

The supplements I take are NatureThroid for an underactive thyroid; Vitamin D for a severe deficiency; Lugol's solution for an iodine deficiency; B-12 injections twice weekly; MSM to fight inflamation; silica to strengthen my weak nails and ionic trace minerals added to my distilled water. I take these consistently and this may change as my regimen has evolved quite a lot over the past few years. Eventually I intend to get everything I need from my food, once my body has rebuilt to that point.

The most preplexing health issue remains the condition of my eyes. They are still chronically dry, itchy and a bit sunken-in. I wear two pairs of sunglasses on bright days because I simply can't bear the light hitting my eyes. It seems the cause is the small nodules inside my lower lids which have clogged my oil glands. There has been some minor improvement but I still have a ways to go. I've been taking the MSM for about two months or so to help reduce the inflamation.

In this picture you can see the puffiness in my lower lids and how my eyes are sunken-in.

As for my energy and overall sense of well being I have no complaints whatsoever. I feel extremely fortunate to have such health and happiness. Of course there are days when I'm "off" - especially when I'm working too much and sleeping too little, but most days I feel what I would call euphoria - completely content and vibrant. Imagine what I'll be like when my eyes have returned to normal and my deficiencies have been met! Wow, I'm excited just thinking about it! So I'll keep at it and I'll continue to post periodic updates.

An Overview of Healing

This post is in response to a comment left by Amanda who requested that I give a summary of my healing journey, including the ups and downs, over the past two years. It's been quite a trip and it's not over yet, even though I've been cancer-free since January 2008. As I've achieved a greater state of health I've become more in-tune with the needs of my body and I have a better understanding of the connection between my physical and spiritual well-being. This journey is not a temporary phase of my life, as I once thought it would be, but rather a lifetime committment to reach my greatest potential on all levels of body, mind and spirit. This opportunity wouldn't have presented itself had I not been diagnosed with cancer and chosen an alternative natural path to healing.

I've remained faithful to a plant-based diet since early 2006 which I believe is the most important contributor to my healing. It wasn't always easy to stay the course but my desire to reverse the cancer kept me motivated. My exams at three-month intervals showed that the cancer had stabilized and the tumor markers were slowly declining. Despite all my good efforts there were a few times when the markers were unpredictable - up a little, then down a little on the next visit, then up again. That sometimes felt defeating, but I understood that this type of bloodwork isn't always reliable. It's more cause for concern when the tumor marker continuously rises by many points at a time. That didn't happen for me but I still sometimes had doubts, and that's when it was tough to remain patient and faithful to my protocol. Keeping a possitive outlook was at times tricky but it became much easier when my tumor markers started to plumet.

I didn't start to see an uninterrupted downward trend in my tumor markers until I started fasting one day each week and then switched to a high-raw diet. (80-100% raw). I believe this helped my body to detoxify on deeper levels than were possible with mostly cooked food. Fasting once a week wasn't easy but I felt it was important to periodically divert my body's energy from digestive tasks to deeper healing. With habitual practice fasting became easier. I've since gotten out of the habit of regular fasting but I keep trying.

It took a period of several months for me to switch to 100% raw. My first attempt at 30 days raw was a huge struggle. I felt deprived mainly because I missed the grains. I continued to research, learning more about how to prepare raw foods, what to have on hand, etc. and in early 2008, after several months of being high-raw, I transitioned to 100%. It's now my preferred way of eating.

Here's a picture of the residual nodules on my neck that was taken about a year ago.







...and this was just a few weeks ago.


It's hard to tell if there's much change since the lighting is different.
These nodules may be scar tissue, I'm not sure. They were noticeably larger and brighter pink when the cancer was still active and spreading. This is about all that's left and they're stubborn. I've tried therapeutic doses of enzymes, daily infrared sauna sessions, and countless other attempts to dissolve them, but they're not yet ready to budge. They are a reminder to me that my body has other important rebuilding work to do and will get to these later. Stay tuned for my next post when I'll write more about raw foods, my dry eyes and supplements.