2019 A Year of Blessings

2019 has been an amazing year! Once again. I have been blessed beyond my comprehension. I have gone from not knowing what direction to choosing to start my Master of Education degree at the U of C and teaching part-time at a local community college.  Someone had enough faith in my abilities to give a one-armed cancer survivor a chance to teach again and I am forever grateful.  I am loving working, loving my university studies, and I also love speaking to groups.  I continue speaking when asked.  Christ is quoted in 2 Cor 12:9 "... My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness".  I still struggle with the aftermath of years of cancer treatments, but God always gives me the strength to do what He wants me to do.  God certainly is not done with me, yet.  I am still very humbled and overwhelmed with gratitude by the fact that I am alive. It is because of God's mercy and grace that I am still here and He has given me purpose.  I can not wait to see where He puts me next.

Even in our darkest moments pray that God will show up and keep us from temptation. Never give up. "Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth." Col 3:2

Our loving heavenly Father has a plan in everything. Sometimes things happen just to get our attention. Trust Him. Walk with Him. Ask Him to be the guide in everything. Praying to be filled daily with the Holy Spirit is the true key to peace and happiness.

Christmas is a wonderful time of year to remember that Jesus came to earth as our Saviour and Redemer because He loves each of us beyond comprehension.

Merry Christmas! May we all be filled with the Peace and Love of heaven this season. Amen.

Basic List of What I Did and Do to be Healthy

This is not medical advice but outlines what I did and still do in my attempts to be as healthy as possible. There is so much information, now.  I recommend anyone told they have cancer to read “Radical Remission” by Dr. Kelly Turner along with finding Chris Beat Cancer on YouTube.  I also quite enjoy Barbara O’Neill from Living Springs (Australia). These sources give boundless amounts of information and inspiration that goes beyond what the medical system provides.  A list is difficult because I want to write a story about everything.  I should not be alive.  There is no medical reason. All glory be to God for my extended life.  God can cure instantly and sometimes He points us in the direction where we can find healing. Very briefly, this is what I have done and do …. Remember ‘baby steps’ and I did not wake up one morning and change my life. It was one step at a time.
 
I have had a very supportive family and a group of friends along with outstanding coaches, including a homeopath who had beat cancer 20 years ago.  She coached me and gave me lots of ideas on things to do to build up my immune system.  Having the ability to talk to someone who had also been given a timeline gave me hope and so was a great support for me. I also went to an alternative medicine clinic in Calgary, called Pure North. They have a cancer specialist (MD/naturopath) who helped me with supplements and alternative therapies. About a year ago, she looked at my blood test results and said. “I think you are embarking in a different direction”.  It is all about supporting your immune system and things are much easier if you have people who help you along the way.
 
 
Mental/Spiritual:
 
Control your thoughts.  Live fearlessly.
 
Get in touch with our Creator/God. Put God in control. Pray and pray some more.
 
I was anointed 3 or 4 times. (James 5)
Focus your energy on being alive. Find things that you can do to support you immune system rather than waste your valuable energy on being fearful.
 
Love my church family (they made me a ‘prayer project’ and I am sure that is a reason that I am alive).
Stay social and do things you enjoy.
 
 
Diet:
 
Hot lemon water first thing every morning
 
No sugar.  I still enjoy berries and fruit (an apple almost every day).
 
No processed foods. No dairy. No wheat. No coffee. No alcohol.
 
Mostly organic everything.
 
Mostly vegetarian (if I do eat meat, I am very picky about where it comes from). I consume no dairy products.
 
Salad every day. Lots and lots of vegetables.
 
Green juice (celery, cucumber, cilantro, parsley, lime etc.).
 
Berry shake with avocado, MCT oil and a green vegan protein powder (usually for lunch).
 
Ground organic flax (1 TBSP freshly ground in a coffee grinder with breakfast).
 
Brazil nuts, walnuts, almonds, pumpkin seeds, etc.
 
Hemp Hearts - not so much anymore but I used to like to put them in my shakes.
 
Apricot Kernels (when I had active cancer)
Organic Homemade Bone Broth Soup (when I was on chemo) and when I want an energy boost.
 
 
Household/personal care:
 
No parabens or chemicals
 
Natural cleaning products and laundry soap
 
Natural (no fluoride) toothpaste
 
Natural shampoo/conditioner
 
Natural moisturizer
 
 
 
Exercise:
 
Trampoline/mini-tramp (2 times a day for 3 minutes). This actually would increase my blood counts during chemo so I still continue to use the tramp when I remember. 
 
Walking 30 minutes per day (recently changed to 10 minutes of walking after each meal).
 
Weight training (squats, lunges, bench press, crunches, etc. 3 times a week).
 
Cardio (warm-up (mobility work)  + 6 x 50-meter sprints, 3 times a week)
 
 
Supplements:
Vitamin C  IVs: I did these for a year after my last surgery. I continue with a vitamin C drink every day. 
 
Entire vitamin protocol suggested by my naturopath (multi, NAC  etc.) including ….
 
Vitamin D3
 
Glutathione
 
Medi-C Plus 2 x day
 
BroccoGen 10
 
CuraMed Breast by Terry Naturally
 
AOR Active Green Tea capsules
 
PQQ-10
 
Magnesium etc.
 
Cancer patients may wish to research  ….
 
Onculyn
 
Beta Glucan
 
Essiac Tea
 
 
More Alternative health:

Chiropractor
 
Acupuncture - I no longer do this 
 
Massage (more recently)
 
Infrared Sauna which I still do but now only about once a week.
 
Hyperbaric Oxygen and lots of other things (during my trip to Sanoviv in 2015)
 
This is the basics of what I did and do.  Each individual needs to pick and choose what works for them.  I did a lot of things. Honestly, I am not sure if one of them or all of them made a difference. I have been through a lot.  I am alive and cancer-free which probably has a lot to do with my faith, outlook on life, resilience, and efforts to be as healthy as I can be. 
 

Overflowing Gratitude

Friday, April 5th marks 2 years cancer-free for me! It is nothing short of a miracle.  For a while, I could barely go six months without another tumour popping up.  Being cancer-free is an amazing thing to celebrate! I cannot help but smile as I write this. 

Two years ago, I made a choice to lose my left arm and part of my left shoulder in order to remove a very aggressive bone cancer.  I have not regretted this choice for one minute because I am alive. Yes, I am alive. In the past 2 years, I have done a couple road trips to California in a Honda Civic with my youngest son and been blessed to watch him play a few basketball games. I have seen my oldest son graduate from university, fall in love, get married, and go off to pursue a doctor of chiropractic degree. I have also really enjoyed a few adventures with my husband including visiting Ottawa for the first time. I personally have received and mastered the use of my shoulder/arm/hand gift from heaven prosthetic. I have started writing my book and also applied and been accepted to the University of Calgary Masters of Education program. I will be going back to school!! Life has been so good to me. I certainly have learned to trust that God has a plan for me and to just go with it. If any worry crosses my mind, I hand it over to God. He loves me and as the Creator of the universe can handle things way better than I can.

My journey was 7 years of 6 reoccurrences, more than 100 chemo treatments, more radiation than any human being should ever have, 8 surgeries including a fourth-quarter dissection, 3 times I have been told, "You are done" and yet to the amazement of my doctors, I am alive. 

I tell the doctors, "God wants me alive". He has a plan for me and so I continue to speak by invitation and write my story. This journey was not just mine. It was a journey that encompasses everyone who knows and loves me. I am so grateful and filled with love for everyone who supported me through this trial.

When people ask me for advice, I will bluntly say ‘Do not listen to anything your doctor tells you when it comes to your timeline’. No one can predict the future except God. And “...What is impossible with man, is possible with God” (Luke 18:27). I put my faith in God.

Later this month, I will be returning to see a young doctor who told me in January, “No one is alive who has been what you have been through. I do not know what to do with you .... there is no protocol ... I need to scan you more .... I need to see you more.” 

At our next appointment, I am going to tell him, "No ... I am 2 years cancer free, I do not need to be scanned more than once a year and after the next one let’s go to one scan every two years". 

I will tell him about the message I had from an angel in November 2016 who distinctly told me, "You will have cancer one more time then you will be ok". I have had cancer one more time and now I can be OK.  If there is a list of who one should believe, I am sure angels are on the list. I am also going to give him a copy of a medical article on hope written by another one of my doctors because he has a responsibility, if he continues in his profession, to instill hope in his patients and not scare the pants off them them with statistics. I certainly am an individual and am very happy to not fit onto their graph.

One important thing that I have learned about cancer survival or even living a good life is that it is all about supporting our immune system so that our bodies can do what they do best. 

How does one support their immune system? 

1. Ask God to daily fill you with the Holy Spirit ... the peace and joy of heaven greatly outweighs anything that is here on earth
2. Control your thoughts ... focus on gratitude and spending your energy on being healthy and stay away from victim mode
3. Stick with your herd ... surround yourself with love and support
4. Find things that work for you to be healthy and be happy. ... diet ... exercise... sleep ... supplements... alternative therapies (infrared sauna, chiropractic, acupuncture, massage, etc.)
5. If you are doing anything that you know damages the immune system ... stop it! 

Life is too short for too many and we all need to embrace each day. I continue to love and live each day ... I am on a gratitude high. Life is good! God is good! May we all find joy on our journey. 

Unscripted

Life is unscripted.  We can have the best thought out plans, only to be faced with changes that we would never expect or want.  I like to have a plan and to know what direction I am going in.  Growing up in Alberta where snowstorms that can keep everyone home actually happen, one could assume that I would have learned early on that plans are meant for changing or adapting to what is happening around us. However, for me, an unexpected punch in the stomach came when my 49-year-old brother passed away on November 2 of 2018. I discovered the pain of losing a family member whom I loved dearly. How does one adapt to such a heartbreak, except to be there for each other?

Now it is three weeks into the New Year and I know that my prayers for his family will never stop.  They are on my mind daily because I know that their pain is much more than mine.  I want things to be ok.

December 2015, I wrote a blog entry called 'Getting OK with Death', which actually covers the biblical interpretation of what happens with a human when they die and the comfort of knowing that it is not a permanent situation.  The bottom line is that the devil will cause as much pain and suffering as he can get away with but through a relationship with Christ we all have hope of a much better future. As long as we know Jesus, no matter our situation we can still have hope because the best is yet to come.

"She is clothed with strength and dignity, and laughs without fear of the future". Proverbs 31:25
(I love this verse. Thank you Joanne for sharing.)

One year into my first year as a young teacher, on my first summer break I found myself standing on the edge of a cliff at South Point, Hawaii.   I had accepted an invitation to travel to Hawaii with a friend who I had met in university. We stayed with her brother who had married a 'local' and so cliff diving with locals was  part of the planned experience.  However, being from the Canadian prairies, I had never actually swum in the ocean before.  With the encouragement and actual cheering from the people on the cliff, I jumped over the 50-foot drop into the unknown and loved it.  This led to many more jumps that day and an adventure to remember.

We all need the support and encouragement of others.  Especially, during those unscripted and troubled times in life.  Thank you to everyone who have inspired and supported me.  May we all do the same for others.  Blessings to all for 2019.