Rachelle's Story, The Journey from Cancer to Hope and Health

In 2007 I was “diagnosed” with Thyroid Cancer.  There was a period of time following my diagnosis that I felt embarrassed and full of fear. I mean here I was in health care, taking care of others while promoting health; I wondered how did this happen to me?  I was getting adjusted on a regular basis, I was running and training for marathons and triathlons, and “thought” I was eating healthy.  I was doing all the things that most people think are healthy actions, and yet I developed Cancer?

I must warn you. These thoughts and questions led me down a certain road. The road of introspection, thought, and self-evaluation. I learned that my thoughts, feelings and actions were not supporting the same beliefs, and I also learned that if this continued it would lead to a life filled with unhappiness. There were 2 options ahead of me 1) turn off my brain and ignore what was happening, or 2) scrutinize every thought, feeling, and emotion. Ask myself why I was having that thought or emotion, correct the improper ones, and start acting in accordance with my beliefs. I choose option number 2.

I want people to learn from my story in the hopes that we can question conventional wisdom and not become victimized by a diagnosis whatever it may be.  This is not intended to tell you what to do or give you any medical advice. I do not want to tell you how to live your life. This is just my story. 

I’ll take you back to 2007.  I found a mass on my neck that initiated the whole process.  Blood work, x-rays, ultrasound, biopsy.  Results came back positive for Cancer.  Like I said I was confused (beliefs and actions were not on the same page) and started down the route of conventional medicine. 

To be perfectly honest cancer treatment has always seemed odd to me. I understand the idea of trying to destroy “cancerous cells” with radiation and chemicals (chemotherapy); but what never made any sense was how that was a good thing, especially since far too many healthy cells were sacrificed in order to destroy a comparatively few cancerous ones. I also wondered about the cause of cancer, and why people who were given “a clean bill of health” often found themselves struggling with a new cancer diagnosis some months or years later. But I started on that route because like I said at the beginning I felt fear. 

I was immediately put on medication, scheduled in for my first round of radiation, and had my appointment booked to see the surgeon. 

The medication did amazing things.  Insert sarcasm here.  I was so tired, I had no desire for life, and was constantly sweating during the cold temperatures in the winter.  I had practice members complaining about how cold the office was while I was sweating in a t-shirt and VERY uncomfortable. 

My first round of radiation was an awful experience.  I remember driving myself to Hamilton for the appointment.  The nurses sat me in a back examination room all by myself, told me to drink a radioactive isotopic drink and sit for 30 min.  They came back and told me to drink more.  I was strapped into a CT scanner which had my hands tied to my side and the next thing I remember is getting so violently ill that I let it all out all over myself and the floor.  Imagine the feeling, the CT scanner literally 2 inches away from my nose, my hands tied to my side, and slow gurgling of radiation working its way through your digestive and circulatory system. To top it all off the nurses were irritated with me for not letting them know that I was going to vomit. Now they had a mess to clean up.

I felt awful. I was terrified, I felt disjointed from my loved ones, and from my body, and worst of all I felt guilty. Not the type of guilt that is associated with doing something incorrectly, but the type of guilt that one gets from feeling insignificant.

The drive home is when it all changed.

 I had enough clarity to realize that if the rest of my life was going to spent experiencing what I just went through, I did not want that life.

When I got home I called my doctor and told her to cancel all my following radiation treatments, to cancel my surgical consult and I stopped with the medication.   Dr. Rice’s advice to me was to “not get all chiropractic” on her, that it would be best to follow her advice that it was dangerous for me to stop with the medication and radiation and that surgery was the only answer.  

I started on my journey.  I went back to the basics and read anything I could get my hands on. 

Dr. Joseph Strauss, Chiropractic Philosophy and Enhance Your Life Experience

Dr. Kevin Donka, various Chiro Thots and audio recordings

Dr. Arno Burnier, audio recordings

The Bible

Dr. James Chestnut, Eat Well, Think Well, Move Well paradigm, The Truth about Genes and The Science of Wellness

Deepak Chopra M.D, higher self-CD series

(I read so much during this time but these are the most profound for me, if anyone wants to borrow any of them I am more than happy to share)

I also had three great mentors who I went to with a million questions Dr. Jamie Richards, Dr. Joel Richards and Dr. Kreso Jug who listened, guided, and supported my decisions.

Here is where I grounded myself with chiropractic philosophy.  It was with this chiropractic philosophy that I knew what to do in regards to my health and will always know what to do with my health.  Philosophy is so important, trust me, because it gives you a guiding set of values and principles with which you can make all decisions.  I also discovered that these were my beliefs all along. What started happening was that for the first time ever my actions and beliefs were travelling in the same direction.

HERE IS WHAT I LEARNED:

Health (not sickness) is our natural state. Every single living entity in nature will never do anything to purposely harm itself. It always wants to live and be healthy. The only exception to this rule is the human being.  Our bodies know exactly how to heal and to take care of themselves, if we can supply them with the proper raw materials with which to do so; and we are not victims of our genetic make up. I know he probably will not read this but I would like to personally thank Bruce Lipton Ph.D for giving us the ground-breaking science to prove this last point. It cost him his job.

Cancer by definition is a process where an abnormal cell grows in an uncontrolled way.  So in reality, each and every one of us has this process going on in our body quite frequently.  It is up to our body to stop this process from happening through apoptosis, which the immune system performs successfully.  Some researchers are beginning to look at cancer as an adaptation caused by the body for a reason, not necessarily the body making a mistake.

The body is a self- healing and self-regulating organism.  The body is designed to be healthy, it’s not a matter of luck. Our choices that we make each and everyday that influence how our body is going to function.  If we look at the latest research done by the medical community they state that 5-10% of Cancers are genetic, so out of 100 cases of cancer 90 of them are lifestyle induced.  Repeat that, 90 of them are lifestyle induced. We have recently experienced the unfortunate diagnosis of a close family member with a type of cancer that actually has a strong genetic link. This person is active and has taken decent care of themselves through out their life. What was comforting to witness was how little radiation and chemotherapy has negatively affected them. Because they have taken care of themselves they have set themselves up for a long future with their family and loved ones. The right choices always make a positive difference.  Read more here >>>(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2515569/)

With this information and the knowledge that the cells in our body are continuously replacing themselves the logical solution for me was to replace the cancerous and dying cells with healthy cells. 

How do we do this? Live a life By Design

Give the body what it needs and remove what it doesn’t need!

What it needs is proper nutrients, proper movement, proper focus, and a clear neurological connection. By doing these things for a period of time it will give your body the best possible chance of actively building health, not just preventing disease.  Surgery doesn’t build health, chemotherapy and radiation do not build health, and drugs do not build health.  Don’t get me wrong drugs may take your symptoms away, surgery may remove dysfunctioning body parts, and chemotherapy can destroy cells but they DO NOT get to the root of the problem and they DO NOT create health.  This is a completely different paradigm for most. 

It’s a moment of liberation when you can take control and be responsible for your own health and not be a victim to a diagnosis.  It’s liberating to not live in fear and to know that you can actively choose health with the decisions that you make each and every day. 

Where does this leave me now?  Is the Cancer still there? I’m not sure and I’m not concerned.  I actively choose health each and every day and know with certainty that my body is doing what it needs to do.  I work hard with the 80/20 rule to Move By Design, Eat By Design, Think By Design, and get my nerve system checked.  I have too many things that I want to accomplish with the time I have on this planet. I can either spend that time living, or spend it dying. For me that choice was obvious.

 

 

Comments

[Lee Chaisson]

Hi Rachelle I am so glad you put this on your blog. As I hadn't known this had happened to you. I am glad you found the perfect solution for you. I was wondering if you could tell me more or where i can or if i can buy books or something to read on your life by design to maybe help me. You certainly look a picture of health and i hope it stays that way for a very long time.
Love Aunt Lee

[Rachelle]

Thanks Aunt Lee for the kind words. My point of the post was to really let people know my story and what worked for me. If you take a look through some of the previous posts you can grasp some of the concepts behind Life By Design. We are currently in the process of writing a book, it may take a while for that project to be done :) I guess in a nutshell though treating your body the way it was designed, real food, exercise, positive thought and keeping your nervous system clear are the general concepts. I'd love to discuss any of the points in more detail at any time, send them through facebook and I can answer you faster!
Great to hear from you
Rachelle

[Shelley Steeper]

I never would have known what you have gone through. This was very interesting to me because of a health concern in this last year. My Action Plan to start with is too pull up my socks and list to people trying to help, you are one of these people. See you soon and thank you for your generous knowledge you have passed on.

[Dougles]

Greatings,
Claro sois derechos. En esto algo es yo pienso que es el pensamiento excelente.
Dougles