My Cancer Survival Story (The Short Version)
In the summer of 1994 I was diagnosed with terminal tongue cancer. I was living in Bremerton, WA and commuted via ferry to Seattle where I worked as a TV repair technician in a large electronics repair shop. The main Squamous cell carcinoma tumor was located in the base of my tongue and its diameter was nearly the entire width of my tongue. The cancer had spread through my lymph system to both sides of my neck and upper shoulders. The cancer was deemed inoperable by my doctors at Virginia Mason Hospital and I was expected to live no more than 2 years. I underwent radiation and cisplatinum chemotherapy for a 6 week period. The doctors only expected this to extend my life and make me more comfortable.
Two weeks into my treatment the side effects from the treatments hit me hard. I could no longer swallow normally and my saliva glands were damaged to the point that I no longer had useful saliva. (Now that I don’t have it – I really appreciate what a wonderful thing spit is!) I had to have a feeding tube installed into my stomach so that I could “eat” a liquid diet and hydrate myself. By the end of my treatments I was so weak that I could hardly walk. A month later I had a full MRI that revealed what the doctors expected – I still had cancer but the tumor had shrunk slightly.
After this I moved to Tucson Arizona to live with my parents. After a few weeks I had a full battery of tests at the University of Arizona Medical center. The doctor told me to investigate a hospice and expected that I only had about 6 months to live. By this time I was in a deep depression and expected to die from the cancer. I never had the feeling that my death was imminent but I didn’t expect to survive. About 5 months later my dad took me with him to a clinic just north of Tijuana, Mexico where I received intravenous solutions for two weeks – one of vitamins (and whatever?) and a solution of hydrogen peroxide and DMSO.
My Cancer Cure – the back story
All during this time I know that I had many people praying for my eventual healing and that God would receive the Glory (credit for the good in my life). All during the diagnosis and treatments I prayed that God’s will would be accomplished. I had the faith to believe that God could heal me (in theory) but I didn’t expect that he would. At some point during my depression, I felt very distant from God and I stopped praying because I felt that my prayers were simply bouncing off the ceiling. I also stopped reading my bible because every time that I read about God’s judgment of the unrighteous – I just knew that it was talking about me.
At some point I began taking daily walks in an effort to get back some of my strength. When I began, it was a big deal to get to the end of my parents driveway and back. I gradually took longer and longer walks and started to regain some of my strength.
About a year after the end of my treatments I returned to Bremerton, WA; in hopes to get back some of my life. I went back to Virginia Mason medical center to get checked out because I experienced a sudden loss of feeling in my left hand and arm and feared that the cancer had spread. I was totally unprepared for what a new MRI and battery of tests revealed – I was 100% cancer free! (The loss of feeling was due to nerve damage caused by the radiation.) God threw me a curve and I didn’t know what to do about it. Because of my depression I was actually disappointed that I wasn’t going to die. Now I had the responsibilities that come with living – living with good purpose and not selfishness. I was ready to die and be with Jesus, but not excited to live for him.
Eventually, about a year later, and according to God’s timing I came out of the depression. I had been very slowly increasing my activity level and then in only one evening, like flipping a light on, God enabled me to exit the dark cloud I had been living in when I had an encounter with Jesus. I realized that not only my strength to live life but my life as well, was all about who Jesus was in me. The amount of faith that you have is far less important than its object. That’s why Jesus could say that it only takes a small faith (mustard seed faith) to see great things accomplished when he is the object.
My Cancer Cure – The Science
So, was there a “scientific” reason for my cure? – Maybe?
I believe that my cure did have some “natural” scientific reasons. One must admit that all “natural” healing comes from God as well as the mysterious miracle healings because God designed the mechanisms that allow the body to heal. Remember the saying, “God is in the details”, I don’t know all of the details that God orchestrated to accomplish my healing, but I believe I know two of them.
A couple of years ago I had a scare that my cancer had returned when I began experiencing some of the same symptoms that I had originally. I went back to Virginia Mason to get checked out. One of the tests that they performed was a PET scan (this was new to me). I went on a two day fast (no food) and then was injected with radioactive sugar. The PET scan looked to see what was eating the sugar. Cancer loves sugar! The liquid diet that I was forced on effectively reduced my blood sugar levels to the minimum. The cancer was literally being starved. This was the first reason.
Because of the scare, which turned out to be negative, I went online to research about cancer. I discovered another interesting thing about cancer, it hates oxygen! When I had the intravenous injections of hydrogen peroxide and DMSO my blood oxygen saturation level was increased much higher than is normally possible. This was the second reason, the “one – two punch”.
The Cure for Cancer – My advice (I’m not a doctor so don’t consider this medical advice)
First, Know Jesus!!! – For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? – (Jesus Christ) Matthew 16:25, 26
God’s mission is not to make us happy and comfortable, but to accomplish redemption through Jesus, and redemption is not a painless process. Skating through life without problems is of no benefit if the lack of problems leads us to believe that we can have lasting life without God. Problems reveal who we really are and that we are not sufficient by ourselves to find lasting meaning and life. God doesn’t make evil – evil is the absence of God. It’s what we find ourselves doing when we search for meaning or pleasure apart from God. God allows evil to exist (and we who do evil) as a demonstration of the consequences of life without him. Just as God’s goodness touches all men, so does evil. When trouble touches our life, whether as a consequence of our own evil or not, we have the opportunity to trust God to use it to accomplish redemption in our lives.
Second, find people to pray for you. God uses prayer to unleash his power in our lives and to show (us) that our faith is in him. Prayer might not change our circumstances but it may change our outlook and attitude. In Jesus our destiny is secure, whether or not we survive our circumstances.
Finally, do everything you can to help your body fight the cancer. Go on a low Glycemic Index diet. The Glycemic Index (GI) is a measurement of how fast carbohydrates are converted into blood sugar (glucose). A low carbohydrate diet would also be a low GI diet. There are however many “good” carbs that have a low GI.
After being on a low GI diet for a couple of months you should seek to radically increase your blood oxygen level. I did this with hydrogen peroxide and DMSO. The clinic that I went to now uses Hyperbaric Oxygen instead of hydrogen peroxide. There are many hyperbaric chambers located throughout the country, many are not in hospitals. You can shop around since I doubt that many insurance companies will cover this treatment. Buyer Beware!! There are dangers involved with this treatment if inadequately trained operators are involved.
If I had known then what I know now, I would have opted-out of the radiation and chemotherapy. I have some permanent problems caused by the radiation and chemo and I don’t believe they had any direct effect on my healing. After all, no doctor thought these treatments would do anything more than prolong the time before my inevitable death. But I have no way to know this for certain.
Low blood sugar can make you cranky and the body’s natural response to a prolonged illness is depression. So don’t beat yourself up for feeling lousy. Surrounding yourself with loving, patient and positive people couldn’t hurt either.
Choose Life – Choose Jesus! Don’t let fear or desperation make your decisions. Guided with prayer, do the best you can and trust God with the results.
It is now November 2009 and I am still cancer free. The “scars” that I have from my cancer experience, which include trouble swallowing, major dental issues because of the loss of salvia, a minor speech impediment and a few other things, are really minor irritations in the big picture. All they really do is to remind me how much Jesus really loves me and to live with purpose looking towards my secure destiny with him.
Follow-up Links:
www.WayoftheMaster.com
www.ALFC.us