Last November I received a phone call at the office, the lady’s name was Kristie. She was given my name by Robin Jones at the Living Temple. Kristie had a lump and wanted to talk to someone about alternative exams. We talked for quite a while, nice lady. The second time she called she gave me her phone number and we discussed books and alternative m
edicine and even a little bit about her lump which was growing fast. Our calls were few and far between but we did stay in touch. Each time we talked we said how we’d been thinking of each other often but just never found the time to call. Kristie was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome so she is not able to function like the rest of us. She is also on disability due to the disease.
I was exhibiting in January at Mother’s Market in Orange talking to everyone as they walked in the door, when I heard someone say “Janice?”, I looked up at this women standing behind the crowd and I just got this feeling. She said, “Hi, it’s me Kristie”. I just about flew over the exhibit table to give her a hug. She immediately reminded me not to squeeze her to hard because the lump had grown to the size of her breast and she didn’t want it to rupture. Goodness, it was really her. Very thin, my guess 90 pounds, great face and so very soft spoken. I saw her a few hours later leave Mother’s, she did not say goodbye. I called and left a message the next day saying how nice it was to finally meet her.
The holidays were here and I thought of Kristie often, she was always on my to-do list but I wanted to have time to talk to her not just rush through a five minute conversation. I left a few messages and then she called me back. She went to the doctor! Finally, but as soon as the first doctor saw her they said she had breast cancer and sent her immediately, same day, to a surgeon at St Joseph’s. The surgeon didn’t spend any time with her but ordered every test under the sun. She said she went back the next day for testing. She was talked into having a mammogram, she was told it was required by the doctor. Are they crazy the tumor is the size of her breast and they are going to smash it in a mammogram? The biopsy (5 vacuum needle tissue samples of the breast and 3 samples from under the arm) determined she had stage 3 breast cancer. When she called her breast and back were blue from the procedure, the surgeon would not talk to her……..she was not going back to St. Josephs! And she didn’t.
Months went by and we left messages but didn’t talk. On May 2nd she called crying. She was sure she was in Stage 4, she was having pain in her body where in the past, she had no pain anywhere. I persuaded her to come in to the office. Before she panicked let’s take a look at how everything looks on a thermogram and Suretouch. I also invited her to the Standup for the Cure event on May 4th. I knew she would meet qualified doctors, staff from Ultimate Healthcare and other women who had gone through the same trauma.
She came to the Standup for the Cure Event on the beach at Newport Dunes and stayed most of the day, met with a nurse practicioner at Ultimate Healthcare, a couple surgeons and Jae Son the inventor of SureTouch. She is such a nice lady; we could not imagine what the standard of health care was going to do to an 88lb lady, with no immune system, kill her we joked.
Monday she came to the office and we examined her and talked for hours. Kristie is very smart and is reviewing as much information as she can to make the right choice.
On Mother’s day I called Kristie. It’s been all this time and I have no idea if she is a mother or where her family lives. I learnt that she has never been married, has no children, her sister and mother were killed by hospital medical mistakes, no wonder she hasn’t gone to the doctor. She talked about The City of Hope and I offered to drive her to Duarte once she got an appointment. The trip was eye opening!! Not only did I learn a lot about her and her past but the medical system is downright cruel. She had called The City of Hope in January but was told to go back to the St. Josephs surgeon. She had to go above the call takers head and contact a supervisor, finally over 3 1/2 months (another long story) later she gets this appointment.
The oncologist said “we can’t cure you” after she examined her blue breast and swollen lymph nodes. But they did suggest Kristie have a bone scan and a CT scan to see how far the cancer had spread before they start treatment with 3 different chemo drugs.
I could not drive her the next day for the scans so she went alone. It was an all-day affair. Results were that the cancer had spread to the skin, bones in her spine, hip and upper leg area but no “vital organs”. So what are her options? Remember Kristie has had chronic fatigue syndrome for 10 years, she is 88 lbs. and her white blood cell count is on the low side (I read her blood report), how in the world is she going to survive 3 different chemo medicines, to just “keep her alive”? And for how long? When Kristie asked that question to the oncologist, she did not have an answer.
So here’s our suggestion, during this time of decision OC Breast Wellness wants to support her with nutritional products and alternative treatments and will be fundraising. Our fundraising efforts will include breast exams and a non-profit donation site; www.premamogram.org.
Kristie has been doing what she can alternatively. My husband is making her liposomal vitamin C (wow does that taste bad), she is juicing vegetables from my garden and the farmer’s market, she is taking Vitamin D and IP6 (http://www.naturalnews.com/024635_IP6_cancer_research.html). We’ve ordered Flor Essence, Aloe Arborescens plants, Graviola Liquid Extract and other natural nutrients because Cancer Can Be Cured.
To help assist in these plus other alternatives and for organic vegetables (which as you know are so much more expensive than the “other”); we are having a fund-raiser at OC Breast Wellness on June 17th. All proceeds will go to Kristie’s pre and post food sources……we are hoping to collect $1500.00
May 25, 2013 – Update
As you might have guessed the folks at the City of Hope did not make Kristie comfortable in continuing care. She was asked to be in a clinical study which had heart issue side-effects, she flat out refused. So we headed up to City of Hope and picked up all the test results. When reading the oncologists comments about Kristie they were just “off the wall”. I sat in that 45 minute patient exam and evaluation so where they got some of the comments in her file is beyond me.
During Kristie’s visit at the Standup for the Cure event on May 4th she met a surgeon that she felt good about at UCI. So now off she goes to another new doctor’s evaluation with all her test results from City of Hope and St Joseph’s. I hope someone here cares.
She is getting weaker by the day. The bone and CT scan showed it moved to the bones and now she is feeling lots of pain. Let’s hope that UCI has better results. Kristie is now taking Aleve first time in her life.
June 17, 2013 – Update
It has been awhile since I wrote but so much has happened. Pain is now the big issue with Kristie, especially her upper right back where the tumors are all over the skin and her hip bones where the cancer has spread. This weekend she called UCI but the oncologist assigned to her is on vacation so she spoke with someone on call and was told to call the Pain Management Center. Guess what, they are only open on Thursday and Friday’s! Guess you can’t be in pain over the weekend! She has an appointment this Friday, in the meantime she is living on Tylenol and Advil. The pain is a 7 on a 10 point scale. She could go to emergency.
She is filing for her birth certificate from Utah in case the Mexico options open up and she is drinking the juice that we are making her from the Gerson diet list of approved vegetables. She even got a prescription for raw cannabis to help with the pain plus there is evidence it might help with the cancer. BTW cannabis that is unheated doesn’t have psychoactive effects. Mother’s Market and the local farmer’s market are donating vegetables for us to prepare, what great organizations.
This is a busy week fundraising for Kristie. All breast exams are discounted and the profits are going toward Kristie for whatever she needs at this point.
Stay tuned!