My Brush With Cancer : The Beginning
With those first apologetic and somewhat sympathetic words that the doctor utters when he/she delivers that life changing sentence “I’m sorry, you have cancer” Thor’s hammer comes out of no-where and smacks you in your innermost core, smashing your gut and making your head spin like a roulette wheel. You have no idea where the ball will land. It’s the luck of the draw.
It takes time to re-adjust to this new reality. The first decision to make is whether you are going to offer yourself up to the mainstream cancer/oncology system, putting your faith in whatever solace they have to offer or to choose the other extreme of becoming an expert in warfare in your own personal battle against this new enemy. Actually I’m lying, the first decision you should make is to survive, not only to survive but to do it in good health with minimal damage.
Having been in this position myself not too long ago I consider myself somewhat equipped to have an opinion. An opinion based on my own anecdotal experience and the actual outcome of my efforts.
At this early point in your diagnosis you are not only responsible for yourself, your own fears, feelings and doubts, unfortunately your prognosis will surely also impact those closest to you. They may splatter against a wall like smashed pizzas, they may even need your support and reassurance that you will do whatever you need to survive or alternatively if you are lucky and you emanate a sense of optimism and confidence they may enlist into your “army”. I found this to be an unexpected scenario that I would have never expected. People love a winner and they surely want to be on the winning team.
What I discovered was that at the very beginning you will be making decisions based on gut feelings, emotions and possibly fear. It’s OK to make a wrong decision or two at this juncture as long as you are willing to remain fluid and change direction at the drop of a hat. I found that locking in on “one direction” was initially all I could seem to do because I didn’t have any other options.
At the outset I found the mainstream to be proficient, efficient and highly technological with their big scanning machines and operations to find the primary, relatively impersonal and unfortunately for me, ineffective. This observation is only based on my own experience. I had to trust somebody. At this stage I looked on these guys as my lifeline and I hung on every word they said to me. I had been thrust into a brand new reality in which I knew none of the basic principles, terminology or protocols.
All I knew was that cancer killed people. Apparently 600,000 people die each year in America from cancer! In 2017 it is estimated that 9.6 million people died of cancer worldwide. That’s one in every six deaths! And we thought coronavirus was a problem!! Words have power and the word cancer is up there with some of the scariest words in the language.
I was looking for a rope to grab onto. Something that could become a foundation to build on. I won’t say anymore about my experiences with the mainstream hospital/oncology system. All I will say is that new ideas seem to take a long time to integrate into the medical system and that the people who are involved really do seem to want to save peoples lives, it is the system that lags behind. It didn’t seem too safe to be talking about or asking questions about what is still new research and seemingly experimental alternative treatments of cancer.
I still wonder what the outcome might have been if I had put my faith in the mainstream. I’ll never know because after about one month of diagnostic operations, hospital stays, appointments with oncology teams … many from which I left confused and dismayed, lots of scans and testing, I opted out in favour of what I viewed as a more holistic approach in which I was the one taking responsibility for the information and protocols that I applied to my cancer.
That might sound egotistical. Here I was at 68 years of age embarking on what I viewed as a battle to save my life. My knowledge of cancer, cells, metabolism and such was pretty much at the “John and Betty” (a prep reader from the 50s) level. These were my cells, it was my body and more importantly to me I had made a decision somewhere along the way that I was going to survive and beat the cancer that was trying to overwhelm the healthy cells of my body.
By now it was early 2021. Luckily for me I had decided at the beginning of 2019 to turn my health around. At this stage of my life I really wasn’t in great shape. I suppose I had resigned myself to being overweight, having high blood pressure and a liver that left a lot to be desired amongst other physiological shortcomings. I have always had an addictive personality and whether I am going in a positive or negative direction I always hit it with an intensity and single mindedness that can be scary at times. That’s a whole story in itself which I might address a bit later.
What happened back then was that I realized how precious and magical life is. Whether we are reincarnated or some other mystical continuum happens or even if there is nothing at all I became intensely aware that the present moment and my interaction with it is something to treasure and to really appreciate. I also realized that if I was going to continue to live a life in this body that I needed to repair it so that I had a vehicle which would serve me well for the coming years.
The point of change came on New Years Eve 2018. The first 6 weeks were bumpy but I had at least made a decision to do a 360 degree turn and get honest and straight with myself. In mid February 2019 I kicked alcohol cold turkey. I’ll go into that in detail a bit later because it was a very significant moment. I’ve got some pictures of myself at this time which I look at from time to time to remember how far I have come. Let me assure you that they are not a pretty sight. I really wasn’t in great shape.
From past experience I was very aware that I couldn’t rely on anyone else as a crutch. Whatever I was going to do from this point on had to be done on my own steam. The first tool I needed was knowledge. If I could piece together the knowledge that I needed then I could start taking more and more responsibility for my own condition. Sifting through new sources of information can be tricky when you begin and this wasn’t an exception to the rule. Bit by bit I was able to discard the incorrect opinionated data and slowly discover information that worked for me and helped me attain positive results.
By the time that I was diagnosed with Cancer I had spend almost 2 years working on my knowledge, health and fitness. By November 2020 I had well and truly turned the corner and had lost 20 kgs on top of completely normalising my blood pressure, handling my insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome, dumping any and all medications, reversing my pre-diabetes condition and becoming quite fit. It came as a huge shock to be told that I had cancer at the same time that I was celebrating my hard earned wellness. But who knows maybe things would have been far worse if I hadn’t done the ground work.
The diagnosis came after a few “almost” fainting incidents. I thought that I should see my GP and get some tests done due to light-headedness. She was amazing and pursued the symptoms like a dog with a bone. I really felt for her having to deliver the news about my cancer to me.
The pathology report stated that I had a squamous cell carcinoma which was located in the lymph node on the left side of my neck. The tumour was quite small which was slightly comforting but it had come from somewhere and the doctors performed two operations to try to discover the source of the cancer which is called “the primary”. Like I said, this was a very surreal and strange time. Fear mingled with a new found appreciation of life, organising grand funerals in my head and then crashing the plans down like kicking a castle made of sand when I realized that what I really wanted was a long, happy and healthy life. I became very philosophical and pondered how I would go confronting death, surprisingly I didn’t panic.
The initial stages of this new reality were akin to being stuck in a vortex.
Then just before Christmas in 2020, almost one month into my journey my daughter suggested that I find out about hyperbaric oxygen therapy. This was the beginning of my own journey, taking control of my condition and also my recovery.
Over the coming weeks I did painstaking research on the internet and bit by bit I found researchers and doctors who made sense to me. In some ways this journey into learning about my body was one of my most powerful tools as it helped me understand and to decide on the protocols that I would follow.
I’m going to break down what these protocols were later. For now I’ll just skim over the basics. Like any learning process that I have experienced the first thing you need is a reliable data source plus the awareness that you “don’t already know”, you cannot learn new knowledge if you think you know already. I wasn’t interested in opinions or miracles, what I was looking for was information on what cancer was, how it adversely affected my body and it’s relationship to my own cellular structure, my immune system and anything else that might enlighten me
It was like beginning to put together a huge jigsaw puzzle for the very first time. My first reaction was being overwhelmed by all the pieces of the jigsaw but ever so slowly I was able to start finding pieces that fit together and before too long I could start to see the bigger picture forming.
I began writing about my experiences, my new knowledge, the application, observations and results. The first thing I do each and every morning is to start writing or journaling as it is called these days. This has given me a certain objectivity that I now value. I also embarked upon using hyperbaric oxygen therapy, IVs and re-purposed drugs … some natural and some pharmaceutical, I used my infrared sauna and used my pool as a cold plunge in winter, I walked for up to 2 hours a day and piggy backed by listening to podcasts while I walked, sauna’ed and even while I was going to sleep. I learned about the importance of a good nights sleep and invested in an oura ring, I modified my ketogenic diet to apply it more to cancer, I recorded everything that I ate and drank in an app called Cronometer. I even meddled with Pranic healing, float tanks and massage then I did daily blood tests for glucose and ketones, blood pressure, weight, sleep, general blood tests etc as I figured that if I knew this information I could tweak what I was doing to get better results.
Bit by bit I strengthened what seemed to get results and “gently” dumped the activities that I wasn’t certain about. I felt like a general strategizing against an enemy that I was beginning to understand.
To finish off this advice I will say 2 things. Firstly don’t kick yourself if you don’t fully understand all of the information you come across. It is hard, especially for those of us who don’t have a background in biology, metabolism, chemistry et al. A lot of the data is highly technical and while it would be great to understand exactly what angiogenesis is or COX or immune blockers what really matters is having enough understanding to start to apply positive actions to your condition and to have a greater understanding of what is happening. The other one is in regard to money. We each have whatever resources we have. Some are rich and some are poor while others have a small nest egg. All you need to know is that you are worth every cent you spend on your recovery. Always remember that the goal is to defeat the cancer and live a long and healthy life. There are many things that you can do to fight your cancer that won’t cost you a cent. For example, a healthy organic, free range ketogenic diet will cost you less than an expensive SAD (standard Australian diet) because you will be eating less crap and processed food. Walking is free. Journalling just needs a pen and paper. Fasting before and after treatment saves you money while protecting your healthy cells and making the treatment more effective. What I’m saying is that you don’t need to be a rich person to defeat cancer, although money does help. The health insurance and medicare sectors do not look kindly on alternative medical treatments so this is just something you have to accept.
I have lived a fantastic life full of creativity, adventure, music and art, communication and interaction with wonderful people. I arrived in my mid 60s without a nest egg which I admit wasn’t all that smart but that’s just me. The eternal optimist. I had a small amount of superannuation and the support of my wife and family. We decided that my life was a decent sort of investment and threw everything we had at handling the cancer. Along the way some miracles happened and more money appeared from nowhere. Who knows how the magic of the universe works! What I am saying here is that you owe it to yourself to invest in your recovery. You can’t take your money with you when you die and I’m sure your family would rather have you alive than dead.
I plan on expanding on this introduction to my cancer journey as time goes by. I have to admit that I’ve tried writing about it countless times but not been happy with what ended up on the page. I have millions of raw words from my journalling and a great and burning desire to help.
I have tried helping individual people. The time and effort that this takes is prohibitive. The best way I can help is to write about my own experiences as well as to let you know the sources and references of the information and knowledge that I found along the way.
My plan is to set up a “Go Fund Me” page to support my efforts. If I was rich I wouldn’t need to do this but alas, this isn’t the case. If you feel that what I am doing deserves support please donate. Either once or regularly, a lot or a little. I will be putting hours of my time into this project.
Comments
Gary, your story is so compelling to read, it is brilliantly worded, and keeps the readers attention all the way through. Your photos are convincing too, what a difference in 12 months, congratulations on the incredible change .
Would love to share this with Annie W. and another friend. Let me know if that is OK.
It will give a lot of people inspiration.