I. My Intentions for this Blog. My Cancer Story.

A little over 4 years ago, I was unloading my bike at Sauvie's Island, 15 min. from my Scappoose, Oregon home, when my cell phone rang. The morning air was crisp. After a summer of hot sun, autumn weather encouraged the 12-13 mile ride around the Island. My biking partner, a young woman named April, pumped up a low tire while handling male attention from two other bikers. A Dr. Crimm was on the line, and asked if I was sitting down. This is the Gynecologist who argued that I hadn't really passed tissue when I hemorrhaged after sexual relations, had scraped out a lot of blood and tissue, made several slides to send to a lab, and said she would see me in a few months for a repeat pap smear. I looked at her in leaving her office and said I was falling through the cracks. I didn't think she was a good listener. She seemed caught in her ego, needing to be right, instead of listening to the person who lived with her body on a daily basis. Paternalism, or someone else thinking they know best for me, is a pet peeve of mine. To get my mind off waiting for the results that weekend I went to the Oregon coast, at Astoria.

Monday found me with twice as much energy as people half my age, as usual. Besides some pain and discomfort and bleeding after sex with my partner, I had bouts of profound fatigue for the past 8-10 years. My gynecologist said I was just going through peri-menopause, and with sexual relations, perhaps the uterine lining that may not have fully been shed in the last menstrual cycle may just be causing the bleeding. I'm sure for her it was confusing, as the woman in her office looked so young and vibrant and healthy. I had all the signs of cervical cancer. When someone has these signs, it is usually at a serious stage.

Of course, raising seven children alone could tire anyone, but somehow I knew something was not right. Despite a normal pap smear a year and a half ago, and a normal uterine biopsy, I instinctively knew I had some kind of uterine or pelvic cancer. I'd take vitamins or antioxidants which bought me time, and then I'd stop (a careless and casual attitude. Most of us forget why we are feeling good, and take it for granted we're still young and we eat well enough to give our bodies the tools it needs for immune health and optimal health. Right.) I'd again feel the slide into fatigue, and then repeat the cycle, pushing myself to get my Master's Degree so I could finally earn a decent living someday. Hmm.

I heard the lab results involved two kinds of cells-adenocarcinoma and squamous, and that I needed a radical hysterectomy immediately. Crimm referred me to a Gynecological Oncologist, or pelvic cancer doctor named Dr. Gosewehr......

An attempted pap smear several months earlier at a local doctor's office was unsuccessful. Besides a cold room, a door that kept opening to the office staff area, the wrong equipment, and a breaker that kept going off, it appeared that my cervix was closed. No cooperation for some reason. One evening at my Hospice Volunteer job, with a few minutes of break, I picked up a medical encyclopedia and read that a closed cervix was a sign of uterine cancer. I also looked up polyps, (a small growth) as when I had two of my children, a bleeding cervical polyp was cauterized. I read they are seldom cancerous. My life always seemed to be complex and unusual, and I felt bothered. I was waiting at this time for my appt. with Dr. Crimm.

Even though this information is personal, this blog is meant to be an adult, real, supportive and educational resource. That is what you will get. My main intention is to help others who have cancer (and other health concerns), those who will get such a diagnosis, or know others that do. I did hours of research after my DX (Diagnosis), so much so that I often ate late in the day, which was not good, but I was driven to find answers and make the best decisions. I could not find anyone else who had written about their cancer, especially endocervical, and felt very alone. I was determined to make decisions that were based on as much information as I could possibly gather.

When I called a social worker referred to me later by Dr. Gosewehr to see if there were any cancer groups, the woman immediately told me that Effexor was helpful for the depression of a cancer diagnosis. There was no group offered, but I was immediately disgusted at her pushing drugs when she had never met me, and was not a psychiatrist or a mental health nurse practitioner, or anyone to be even suggesting psychiatric drugs. There was more egregious inappropriate behavior coming down the pike from the doctor. I soon decided he was 'going nowhere' near me. I sought a second doctor.

Just the ignorant, cavalier decision to put dishes of candy out at this oncologist's office really turned me off, when my research showed cancer cells have many more insulin receptors than normal cells, and fed off sugar. There was an ITP? treatment, where a small injection of insulin was given to activate cancer cells, and then a very small injection of chemo followed, targeted at the active cells. When the Italian Oncologist on Dr. Mercola's site (link given on previous posting) said cancer was a fungus, and/or a reaction to fungus in all of his research and practice and treating it, I thought of how the sugar always made the yeast grow so well when I made bread.

One outcome in all of this experience, is that my interest in nutrition and health was finally manifested. When I was young, I wanted to become a medical doctor. I married young, had seven children, divorced at age 30, started college, got a BS in Administration of Justice and then a Masters in Social Work. I wouldn't have fit in the medical field well, as I personally believe drugging to be the last resort, not the 7-11 'convenience' it has become, with Big Pharma contaminating the trust between doctor and patient. The push to diagnose and drug people in Social Service agencies in America is also why I don't fit in there. This week I listened to a radio program in which a Watchdog group of the Psychiatric Profession noted over 8 million of our very young children have been diagnosed as Bipolar, ADD and ADHD and put on serious psychiatric drugs, some as young as 2 years old.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/02/02/the-unholy-alliance-between-psychiatrists-and-psychotropic-drugs-36-000-deaths-a-year.aspx?CommentPosted=true#commentmessage

The Corruption of 'Corrections', the invasion of people's civil and human rights was not something I could do with my degree, even for a nice paycheck. I am more of an investigative reporter, or historian. I always knew I would have to have a private practice. I have been on hiatus with my social work since my cancer surgery, for my best interest. This blog is the beginning of the sharing of my story and my truth. If I can make income from Google Adsense or other links, or help people create healthier lives as their Shaklee Independent Distributor, than I will also be grateful that my helping others is reciprocated, as I do well by doing good.

To be continued....