I AM Alive and Well 6 Months After Diagnosis

Posted by karinconway on December 26, 2020 · Leave a Comment

This good news was posted in my facebook group “KC’s Kickin Cancer’s @$$”, but I realize that many people are no longer on facebook for various reasons. I decided to also share my news here.

Someone just reached out to say I have not given an update recently. Sorry about that, I honestly thought I had posted something personal. Well, here it is. I feel great!! I AM overwhelmed by the generosity of friends and some people I have never met who have contributed to the Go Fund Me campaign. https://gf.me/u/zamrk8 I haven’t had this warm of a Christmassy feeling in …well, ever. It was 6 months ago (6/26/20) they finally “diagnosed” what was going on in my body. I expect to hear back soon from my doc to say its all clear. Had a CT scan this week. I know my body is functioning well because even the small amount of toxic crap they had to shoot into me to do the scan, triggered me to almost heave in the tube.

I do not have any pain. My skin is completely healed and now I’m working on diminishing the scars. I have some great recommendations if anyone has sensitive skin and some serious crap to heal up. Just ask. I will post some pics of the progress.

This whole ordeal started out as what looked like a couple of small bug bites I noticed 3-16-20. I held out until May before I couldn’t take the pain and itching and went to Urgent Care. They said this was the worst case of shingles they had ever seen. Very strange for an otherwise healthy 47 yr old female who just finished another health coaching certification. Hospitalized June 8-12^th when the shingles infection got worse and I developed a staph infection on top of that. None of my docs couldn’t seem to figure out what was going on. I had a primary care guy, an infectious disease doc, and a guy just to administer more pain meds. When the infectious disease guy finally had a lightbulb go off in his head of what this could be, he sent me down the hall for a consultation with a breast health surgeon. By the time they came back with the diagnosis of “Stage 4, Triple Negative, inflammatory breast cancer” I was relieved they finally got a clue and now we could start working on fixing it.

I listened to what the Drs had to say and took it all into consideration. When they said that for this particular form of cancer there was only one protocol and it was 6 months of chemo with a very specific drug. I said “I’m not into chemo, so what else you got?” The response was that’s it. I said I wanted to go to Mayo clinic and get a second opinion. They told me there was no time and that we need to get you in the chair and start chemo ASAP. Now at this point in time, my body was a total train wreck. My lymph nodes completely wigged out on the left side and I couldn’t use my arm for much of anything. The huge blisters that formed on my arm, breast and flank were excruciating and the bleeding all over the place was getting old. I asked if I start chemo, would the poisons help kill off some of the shingles BS and get my lymph nodes to behave and the swelling to go down? They said almost definitely yes. OK fine, lets do this then. After a few more scans and visits to confirm details they administered the first “treatment” Friday July 10^th. I scheduled for Friday so I wouldn’t miss any work. I was pretty exhausted Saturday and Sunday, still a lil tired on Monday, but Tuesday I was ready to rock n roll. I didn’t lose any hair until after the second dose a week later. They told me it would be within the first week most likely. Also, it didn’t all fall out, so I at least had a lil bit to work with and had a friend give me nice short pixie cut. I had a total of 3 treatments and the last was on July 24^th. Since then, my hair has started to really fill in nicely. It is still short n fuzzy, but at least I have something to keep my head warm. 😊

I should tell you how I decided to quit chemo. I listened to my body. After the 3^rd treatment, the protocol called for a week off of chemo to let the body rest and build your immunity back up. I felt so good being off it. I was still taking hands full of pills everyday. One day in particular during my off-chemo week, I woke up and popped the usual handful of pain meds and vitamins. I proceeded to heave them all out immediately. I was a lil distraught because I couldn’t be sure which was which in the mess so I didn’t know which stayed down and which ones I should re-take. I decided the best idea was to just skip the morning dose and see how I felt. Best day ever!! I was prescribed higher and higher doses of Morphine, Hydrocodone, Acetaminophen with Codeine, Celebrex, Gabapentin. That doesn’t count the antibiotics, antivirals, antinausea, and N-SAIDs. Geez Louise they had me on a lot of drugs! After the morning regurgitation, I decided to try taking zero pain meds and see how that worked. I only had a lil pain and I can handle it. My body was telling me it was time to quit all the poisons and go back to what I know intuitively and from past training with natural health. I decided to trust my intuition and I was not feeling good at all about my upcoming surgical appt to put in a port to make the chemo administration easier. I had to call and give all kinds of excuses for why I was canceling. Then I canceled my next chemo appointment. This triggered the docs to call and plead with me telling me I was going to die if I did not continue. My response was that I had their number and would call if I changed my mind, but I got this. I told them I would try the natural route and thanks for getting me to this point.

I called in all my special forces. Reiki, massage, acupuncture, chiropractic, energy clearing, and essential oils were all on my list of things to do right away. I also focused on plant-based foods and whole-food supplements in addition to large amounts of raw smoothies.

I AM happy to say that I have no pain and feel happy, healthy, and more open-minded than I ever have. Apparently, I needed a swift kick in the @$$ to get me back on track.

Since I have been working a lot lately and tend to ramble on, it took me a few days to finish writing this update. Finally got the call back to say all clear today 12-23-20. Yay!! Good thing I don’t do “worry” 😉