Incurable cancer and cannabis

"Right now, if you read my last post you are probably wondering how I went from almost dying to well on the road to recovery.   If you didn't read about how I came close to death last fall, click here...

When I found out in 2012 that I had colon cancer I was shocked! I  never thought that I would have to worry about getting cancer.  As I said before I'm a so called, "health nut",  some say I'm extreme when it comes to my diet and lifestyle.

I work for the Gerson Institute, and back in the 70's I'd heard Charlotte Gerson lecture about her father's diet therapy.  At that time we watched our nine year daughter recover from asthma by just changing her diet.  Our family followed Dr. Gerson's philosophy and teaching for years, later I was hired at Gerson and part of my daily work was to coach cancer patients who chose to do this alternative therapy.  Dr. Gerson was curing advanced cancer on hopeless patients with his diet therapy in the 1930's. You can read about it in his book, "A cancer Therapy". (which can be purchased on the
The Gerson website or you can view the documentary here: http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/the_beautiful_truth (BTW I'm in it. :)

One morning I discovered a hard lump while getting ready for work and didn't know what to think.  Since I had not had an annual check up in several years I made an appointment with a gynecologist. 

I felt numb, when I read the medical reports that confirmed that I had squamous cell colon cancer,  I was in shock. 
I decided to go from eating a very healthy organic diet to the full Gerson protocol.  I had been on this therapy in 2001 and it dissolved, what the doctors called a "suspicious tumor" on my liver.
There are other things that I have added to my daily routine, things such as a grounding mat, aloe aboresence, wheat grass packs and more which I will go into in future posts.

Never the less, All of the above was still not enough to shrink the tumor, in fact it grew to be 10 centimeters.  In the beginning I continued to work and try to do all that the Gerson Therapy required, a glass of juice every hour, enemas and more but it was not dissolving the tumor.  It did keep the cancer from spreading and that I am told is remarkable.  Before my first pet scan the surgeon looked at me sternly and said, "I'll be amazed if this has not spread to your liver or lymph glands".  When the Pet/CT scan results were read she said twice, "well  I am very surprised!"

I followed the Gerson protocol strictly for two years and I never gave up hope in what I was doing but the tumor was still growing and pain became constant. The tumor was draining fluid and had an offensive odor which was hard to bear. My friends and family urged me to stop working and stay home, they felt I needed surgery and if necessary chemotherapy.  My body had formed a fistula and the enemas became impossible to hold.  Because of the size and location of the tumor, I could no longer sit without pain, which of course made working at my desk very difficult.
One of my doctors told me there was, "too much traffic going past the tumor and I needed to close the road".  I knew he was talking about a colostomy and I finally decided to consider it even though I dreaded the thought,  but perhaps a "bag" was better than my current condition.

I made an appointment with a surgeon, only because she told me that she was willing to do the surgery without using chemo.  Then after the appointment she gave me the news, " Carol, the tumor is too big and surgery would be extensive and very risky, I don't want to do surgery on you." to top it all off she pointed to the X-ray and showed me that the tumor was attached to my bladder.  "Carol you could very well end up with an ostomy for both the bladder and the colon if I attempt to remove the tumor which is quite large now!" She was a very stern woman, abrupt and to the point, "I want you to see the oncologist. Her words hit me hard, now even just discussing the possibility of chemotherapy was a bigger challenge for me than the cancer itself.  My life's work has been advocating alternative therapy's  and to me chemo and radiation is like a death sentence.  I couldn't believe it had come to this but I felt I had run out of options and life at that point was filled with constant pain, so I made an appointment. The protocol that they prescribed for the type of cancer was a combination of radiation and chemo administered simultaneously.  What! Now, besides chemo they were planning on adding radiation!

I was all too familiar with the horrifying side effects of chemo/radiation and the 2.3% success rate.    In the last 10 years I've seen many suffer, some recover and some die. I knew exactly what I was in for, still I never gave up even though I knew that many of those who tried to add chemotherapy had failed. I   personally knew of only three cases where chemo combined with Gerson had succeeded and the patients survived both the chemo and the cancer.

When my oldest daughter heard that I was considering conventional treatment she frantically tried to find something else that I could either add or do instead.  She spent hours reading about Cannabis oil and searching videos on youtube. Here's just one of the many videos that stood out. https://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=utf-8&fr=aaplw&p=simpson+run+from+the+cure
I knew very little about cannabis oil. The medicinal oil is legal in California.  I considered it in the same category as marijuana and I couldn't believe on top of everything else I was also going to start taking weed!  I was raised in a strict baptist home, I don't drink or smoke, I don't even drink coffee.  However the videos Debi kept texting to me were pretty convincing so I agreed and started taking small amounts of a concentrated essential oil made from marijuana that was very high in THC.

     The doctors constantly remarked that even though I had done "nothing" for the last two years they were hopeful that they could help me  "Nothing" I thought, oh I guess getting up every morning at 4:30 to make 6 glasses of organic juice and cooking all my meals from scratch, eating no sugar, salt, dairy or meat and basically living off of potatoes and veggies for two years, while working full time equals doing nothing! but I held my tongue.  So when the scans came back and showed that the liver and lymph glands were clear both the surgeon and the radiologist gave me surprised looks.  They felt with their toxic treatment that I had a good chance at killing the cancer cells.

The radiation would be given every day - Monday through Friday - for 6 weeks . The chemo administered for the first 5 days of the first week.  The chemo needle and bag would be attached through a port and go directly into my main arteries for the entire 5 days.   The bag that held the chemo was strapped over my shoulder and that is where it stayed 24/7.  The chemo was scheduled again for the fifth week but I never made it that far.  A couple weeks before the conventional treatment I also added small amounts cannabis oil, along with a few more immune building components/supplements.   The oil helped reduce the pain, eliminate the constant nausea and I never  had to take any of the prescribed pain killers that the doctor suggested like oxycontin, but the side effects from the chemicals were horrific.  Water tasked like gasoline and I had no appetite. I had blisters all over my bottom lip and it was very hard to chew food.  if I managed to get something in my stomach it was a fight to keep it down and one morning I got on the scales and weighed 95 pounds! I hadn't eaten dinner the night before and now at breakfast I still could care less about food.

Even after going though all this, it wasn't until after I ended up in ER and almost died that I decided I had enough of conventional treatment.  The doctors sent me home saying that I was too weak for more chemo and that I should consider hospice. The oncologist argued that they could build my immune with IV's and then start the chemo again.  One of the doctors at the hospital said that is what usually happens - more chemo and then the patient ends up back in the hospital.  When I told the nurse I was not going to finish the chemo her remark was, "good!" and then she asked me what I was going to do.  I knew that my daughter had already informed the hospital that I was taking cannabis so I just answered, "I am taking cannabis oil".  She gave me a big smile and once again, said "good!".  I went home and began to dramatically increase the amount cannabis oil I was taking.

 Increasing cannabis too fast can be difficult.  They caution you to start with half of a rice kernel size and gradually increase the amount in order to take what is needed to fight cancer. There's a specific amount of THC in the oil.  Evidently the effects can be different for each person.  If I took too much too fast it effected my ability to think clearly and made me very sleepy.  I call it feeling loopy, feeling loopy is a little like how you feel when you have had too much to drink and your head is spinning, it is difficult to walk straight and laying down increased that crazy spinning feeling.
 I also recommend that you search Youtube for Ty Bollinger's talks.  Ty lost seven members of his family to cancer in a very short time and made it his quest to search for an answer.  I believe that the cannabis is a significant part of my recovery.

It's been five months since the crisis that put me in the ER last fall. I look back with a heart full of gratitude because I consider myself a miracle and it's hard to take in how much has changed.  Just this past week I got a doctors report. He said that he had never seen a tumor shrink this much! My blood work and records indicate that the cancer is in remission!  I couldn't stop thinking about the prospect of conquering this cancer diagnosis.  Excited by this news l didn't fall asleep that night until 1:30 in the morning.
I realize that it is not over yet.  I believe I have a long road ahead and have a lot more to say so stay tuned and please leave your questions as it will help me in the next post.

Chemo almost killed me, hope for cancer recovery when you're out of options

Hello, my name is Carol. Some of my friends call me California Carol because I'm passionate about health and juicing and I live in southern California.  In spite of my so called "extreme healthy lifestyle" I almost died last fall from advanced colon cancer, I was diagnosed in March 2012.  I tried everything that I knew but was unable to stop the growth of the tumor.   It's a miracle that I'm here today.  After three years of a very organic diet, juicing and coffee enemas, and a few other alternative things, I was persuaded reluctantly to add radiation and chemo to my treatment for the type of cancer that I had.  Three weeks into radiation and five days of Chemo I ended up in the hospital in a catatonic-like state,  I have very little memory of this but my family tells me I almost died, after five days in the hospital the doctors sent me home and told me if I continued chemotherapy I could end up back in the hospital with the same or worse condition and my other choice would be to consider hospice. What happened after that was quite a surprise, I want share my experience with you.

But first a little background information on how and why I chose a more natural treatment.

In 1975 my 9 year old daughter Debi was suffering from severe asthma attacks. This had been on going since she was a baby.  The Doctor put her on immunization shots and medication when she was three years old. The asthma typically lasted seven days and came every two months. It was frightening to watch her infant body struggle for air, her chest would heave and cave with each effort to breathe.  A cold, fever or even just being exposed to sick school kids could bring on an attack, so if Debi  showed any signs of getting sick, we kept her home from school and hoped for the best! One day Debi woke up with puffiness under her eyes and complaining that she didn’t feel well.  I thought she might be catching something so I kept her out of school and took her to the bowling alley with me as it was our league day.  While I was there an older woman, whom I didn't know heard me talking about my daughter and how difficult it was to keep her well.  The woman looked me straight in the eye, shook her finger at me and said," you can do something to help your daughter " Me? I said, what can I do?  The doctors haven't helped her. Then she said, " do you give her milk, white bread, and sugar?" Well yes of course I told her. Doesn’t everyone? Isn’t it good for you? She glared at me and said "No, you need to go to the health food store and read everything you can on the subject of nutrition and asthma" I never saw that woman again but she changed my life,  I went that afternoon.  I bought two books, one about Asthma and another called “Sugar Blues”.   The information I learned  and the fact that Debi never had another asthma attack is what got me interested in nutrition.
I spent the next 20 years shopping exclusively at the health food store and juicing, I threw out anything in my kitchen that had sugar or artificial ingredients.

 While I sat in the waiting room of the radiologist office watching the other people sign in and then disappear through the door at the rear of the building,  I silently asked God, is this really what you want for me?  As I laid on the cold hard radiation table trying not to move as the elements penetrated through my body, burning the tissue, I asked myself what happened, how did I get to this place?

The radiation appointments usually lasted 15-20 minutes they were scheduled Monday through Friday.  It was Tuesday, the second day into the 4th week. After each visit I was always so wiped out that all I could do afterward was go home and collapse in bed.   I could barely walk and was so weak that I had to use a wheel chair to get back in forth to the car and then Danny my husband had to help me get into our SUV.   What happened next is a bit unclear in my mind but after I got home,  I got a phone call from a good friend.  I was always so happy to talk to my friends, Karen and Bob.  They called to check on me.  Later my daughter told me that I was talking gibberish to Bob.  My husband took the phone and Bob urged Danny to call 911 or take me to the ER immediately.  My daughter was at the house  and she thought I could be having a stroke and both her and my husband were frantic about what to do.  I got another call minutes later from my boss and the same thing happened.   I remember trying really hard to pronounce a word and speak clearly but I was not aware of my "new language". I couldn't complete a sentence.
  There are only two things about the next 24 hours that stayed in my mind.  First is my daughter insisting that I get back into the car and go back to the doctor.   She was waiting for a chance to get me to the car and would not let me go back to my room.  I argued with her and said, "Why do you want to take me to the doctor they will just give me more drugs? I looked directly into her eyes and told her that she did not understand!  I felt like I was begging her to let go of me, but she would not.  I did not want to go to the hospital and remember putting up a fight!   Debi says that her and Dad had to practically drag me to the car because I didn't want to go.

 I have some recollection of ER, sitting, slumped over in the wheel chair waiting for them to call my name and trying to hide my appearance with my hooded jacket over my head.   From that point on I did not talk or respond to their questions.   When the doctor asked, who was president and what year was it? I couldn't answer correctly.  I told them it was 1975.  The doctors and my daughter told me the next day what happened.


I asked my daughter to give you an account of the next 24 hours in her own words.


First let me say that my mom raised me on healthy food, and I've seen for myself the power of eating organic foods and juicing, when my mom decided to start chemo, I was very worried for her, as I am over educated about the harmful side effects that come with chemotherapy and radiation.

In my heart I didn't want my mom to receive this treatment, but I kept my opinions to myself, she had tried everything else and the tumor was still growing inside her. I was praying for the best and frantically searching for other alternative methods to try.

I watched my mom drop in weight from 130 pounds to 95 pounds.  Everyday I was begging her to eat, and forcing her to drink fluids, her electro-lights would drop and this would make her cranky and defiant. I began to feel like I was all of a sudden the parent forcing a stubborn child to eat and behave. I was desperate to keep her weight from dropping any further and everyday I would scout the grocery store for food that my mom might eat. I walked into my moms bedroom that Tuesday morning with a bag of groceries, my dad was kneeling at the side of her bed looking distraught, "whats wrong dad?" I asked, he replied "she won't talk to me".

I sat down the the floor next to my moms bedside and tried to have a conversation, her words were scrambled and I thought she was having a stroke, then the phone rang, it was a friend of my moms checking in on her, I listened as my mom attempted to speak on the phone, it sounded like she was speaking in tongues, her speech were nonsensical.

At that point my dad and I tried to get her back to the hospital, my mom put up a fight and argued with us and said she didn't want any more treatment, she begged us to just let her rest, while I wished that all she needed was rest, I knew in my heart that that this was an emergency. I helped my mom get up to use the bathroom, she needed me to help her walk at this point, knowing that once I got her standing, my dad and I could get her into the car, I told my dad to get her things and get ready to go. After my mom came out of the bathroom she tried to head back to her bedroom.  I had my hands around her waist supporting her and started to direct her towards the front door, she planted her feet on the hard wood floor and said "no! you don't understand! I just need to rest" then my dad and I basically dragged her to the car while she tried to pull my hair. My mom glared at me as my dad drove away.
As tears rolled down my face  I quickly gathered my things an headed out the door to meet my parents at the ER.
When I arrived, I found my mom in a cold room lying on a cot, waiting for test results, she was catatonic looking, stiff and very distressed, my mom is generally peaceful and happy, she wouldn't speak, and had a desperate look in her eyes,  her breathing was heavy and rapid, her arms were flailing and it seemed as though she was trying to tell us something but couldn't. The next 24 hours were a series of tests, blood transfusions and  repeated speeches from every doctor and nurse about the 'do not resuscitate waiver'.  I wanted to scream every time I was asked what my moms wishes were. I wanted to say, "stop talking like my mom is going to die and help her get better! we will ask her what her wishes are when she is responsive again, but do we have to go through this with every nurse and every doc on every shift? I prayed by my moms hospital bed all night long and in the morning she did wake up, I was so happy to see her open her eyes and ask me, "what happened?"her breathing was normal again and she was smiling! I hated the though of more poison being put into her frail body, I was relived when the doctors told us she was too weak to withstand any more treatment, all I wanted to do was get her home and try a new therapy that I had read about online.  I prayed that this one would make a difference.

It has been four months since I got back from the hospital. I have not had any more chemo or radiation since that day and There have been some major changes in my health. The doctors have a hard time understanding that I'm not dead, they keep saying "I'm so surprised"   As I type this, the sun is streaming through my bedroom window.  I have gained 16 pounds, I'm eating  three meals a day,  and my blood work shows that all of my levels are almost entirely in with in normal range.   I had a CT/Pet scan in January of this year and the report said, "significant improvement,  residual remains." I have gained  back most of my strength and now I'm cooking my own meals and even driving the car again.


Right now you are probably wondering how I went from almost dying to where I am today,
That is another story that I will go into in more detail in the next blog.  I will say this, the faith and prayers of many compassionate friends carried me through the last three years and sustained me while I fought to save my life.