It was literally from one day to the next that Mike began developing mysterious and disturbing BODY SPEAK symptoms.
First his appetite trailed off. Mike's appetite has always been robust with nightly dinner plates piled high with food.
When his hunger evaporated - for days - not just 24-hours, like with the onset of a virus or stomach ailment, alarm began to rise like a thermometer on a hot day.
His lips tingled when he ate and his feet began to itch incessantly. We wondered if he was experiencing an outbreak of Shingles, something he had suffered from years before. We looked up the symptoms and figured this had to be it. It wasn't.
Up until this mysterious illness, Mike was strong, healthy and going to the gym three times a week. My good looking husband was sporting some mighty fine, strong and developed muscles. He was doing carpenter work, building and lifting large cabinets, working every day in the garage building my "honey-do" list of a custom desk for my office and cupboards in the garage. He occasionally helped our son Zach install hardwood floors, and let me tell you, this is hard work! So when those gorgeous muscles began to fade and the weight melted off his body, the alarm climbed higher on the scale.
When the whites of his eyes became yellow, the alarm bells skyrocketed because now we knew his liver was in distress. It was time for medical intervention.
Mike called his GP who said, “Get in here now,” when he heard the whites of Mike’s eyes were yellow. That day the GP took X-rays, did some blood work and scheduled an ultrasound. He told Mike when he examined the X-ray that he was most likely facing at best, an infected gallbladder and at worse a liver tumor.
When you hear the words “liver tumor,” fear and denial rise to the surface in equal measure. You want to know instantly what you are facing. The ultrasound was scheduled for the following week and in the meantime Mike’s health continued to decline. We felt helpless waiting for the ultrasound to tell us what was happening.
Mike’s skin began to break out into painful, itchy sores. The sores spread until they encompassed his legs, arms and torso. He was utterly miserable. He would soak in hot baths of Epson salt and baking soda to try to ease the horrendous itching. Nothing helped.
The GP called to tell us the results of the ultrasound and said Mike’s gallbladder needed to be removed. He advised us to get into the emergency room right away and get it out. We did what he told us to do.
When we presented in the emergency room, the physician told us right away he did not believe Mike had a gallbladder issue, but most likely he was suffering from pancreatic cancer.
We were stunned. That day began thinking we were facing a simple gallbladder surgery but escalated into facing the worse possible diagnosis we could imagine, or so I thought. A few people may have limited success overcoming pancreatic cancer – but what the ER doctor discovered that day – was worse than a pancreatic cancer diagnosis.
The ER doctor ordered every test available. A couple hours later he came to find me in the back waiting room and told me Mike was looking at pancreatic cancer. When I asked him how bad it was, he said it was a little too early to say for sure, but we were probably looking at about six months to live.
I was devastated. I think I went into a low level of shock because I became extremely cold and began shivering. I did not share this death sentence with Mike at this point. I called my nearest and dearest faith-filled prayer warriors and got a prayer team activated on our behalf right away.
By the time the doctor got all of Mike's test results back he came to tell us that Mike had a very rare form of cancer of the bile ducts called; Cholangiocarcinoma. Why I said this was worse than pancratic cancer is because this type of cancer is terminal. Period.
When someone has cancer in the area of their pancreas, bile ducts and liver, there is a substance in the blood called carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) this substance is considered a tumor marker. The CA 19-9 blood test measures the level of CEA in the blood and Mike’s CA 19-9 tumor marker came back high and positive for cancer.
Once the ER doctor understood what Mike was facing, he worked hard to get him admitted into the leading cancer research hospital near us for an ERCP - a surgical procedure to insert a stent into the bile ducts that would force them open in order to drain the toxins. This procedure would help Mike feel better and clear the toxins out of his body, temporarily.
A medical transport took Mike to Loma Linda, the leading cancer Research University / Hospital in our region. Mike was treated there with an ERCP - and told to report to the oncology department for follow up care. An ERCP is a life-saving intervention, but it is not a long range treatment. It would only buy him some time. The stent would eventually dissolve in his body, but the procedure would need to be repeated at least one or two more times until the disease ran its course and the ERCP could no longer be used to prolong Mike’s life.
When we got home from Loma Linda the surgeon called and told Mike he wanted to do another ERCP with a camera this time. He cautioned Mike not to wait too long for this second ERCP as this type of cancer spreads aggressively.
We looked up cholangiocarcinoma and read everything we could find. We learned this type of cancer does not readily respond to chemotherapy and radiation and in some cases, it is not even offered. At best, if these conventional cancer treatments are utilized a little extra time may be enjoyed by the patient, but no promises. In the long-run traditional medical treatment only buys maybe 1 or 2 years, at most, for this type of cancer.
We decided that chemotherapy and radiation were not an option for us. These treatments damage the body severely – and in our opinion, a body riddled with cancer does not need poison chemicals, or damaging radiation. It needs some level of radical nutrition, which we had no idea of what, but we had heard of other people overcoming cancer through diet and radical lifestyle choices, so this is what we decided to do. We chose to fight this cancer with every natural means available to us. But the problem was – we knew nothing about nutrition or how to heal from cancer.
Therefore, we turned to our friend Dr. Jan, who is a Naturopathic Doctor living in Israel. She has a long successful career of healing her patients with natural means, including healing her own liver cancer while she was in medical school! We trusted she had lots to share with us and would get us started on the road to natural health, and she did.
Dr. Jan set us up on a healing protocol and we did everything she said – and more. She told us to remove sugar, meat and dairy. She said juice at least twice a day – and eat as much raw fruit and vegetables as possible.
My book – BODY SPEAK! Listen to Your Body… It knows What It’s Talking About! is the chronicle of what we did, in its entirety. It is the book I wish I had the day Mike was diagnosed with deadly cancer. That day, we had NO IDEA of where to start or what to do. After two years of research and education, I’ve written an informative step-by-step guide to help people recover their health naturally (check it out here). When we eliminate toxic food, add good solid nutrition into our diet and detox our body naturally, we give the body a fighting chance to recover and heal.
After the ERCP we did everything we could to nurture Mike’s body with nutrition, bed rest and plenty of love. We prayed together every day for Mike’s healing. We both went Vegan, something we had never even considered before – but desperate times call for desperate measures and in our case it worked! I had to relearn everything I knew about cooking and I am so glad I did because today I am thirty pounds down, strong, healthy, feeling fantastic – and off all of my medications! We do not remain Vegan today – we enjoy occasional wild caught seafood. Some of our favorite recipes are posted here in the recipe section of my website – (check it out).
It took Mike about two months after the ERCP to really start feeling better. The stent acted like a drain and the toxins slowly left Mike’s body. He looked like a big soft-serve ice cream cone of swirling yellow and pink as his body slowly rid itself of toxins and returned to his natural skin tone.
After four months of living our upgraded lifestyle of health and nutrition Mike returned to his GP and the CA 19-9 blood test for CEA pancreatic tumor markers came back normal! The cancer was gone.
Mike’s doctor was amazed and so happy for us. He had feared the worse and was so relieved Mike recovered his health. He asked him what he did and when Mike told him, he just shook his head and said, “It’s amazing what you can do with a gun to your head. Keep it up!”
We will continue to live this new upgraded lifestyle of health and nutrition all the days of our lives! It saved Mike’s life – and honestly I know it has saved mine too. We are so thankful for the lessons we learned through this scary death sentence. It truly was a WAKE UP call in our lives and now we love helping others recover their health too.
I highly encourage you not to wait until you have a gun to your head!
Start today to take control of your health. Don’t wait until cancer comes knocking on your door with a fully loaded gun, by then it may be too late.