In Sydney, after many tests, I was diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer, with metastases to the uterus, cervix, bowel and both lungs. AND as they found high sugars in my blood they added type 2 diabetes.
The surgeon didn't want to operate because he thought given my condition, that I would not survive the surgery. He told me that if I had had the operation I was urged to have in Cairns that I would not have survived. The Cairns doctor had even missed the diabetes. I had complained of needing to drink lots of water and urinating frequently but he said that in hot weather one has to expect that.
The verdict of the doctors was "nothing we can do for you". They said I had six months to live and if I was lucky maybe a year. I told them that I had seen symptoms wane and even disappear on my way to Sydney but they only looked back at me with glassy eyes. They only told me to book into a hospice because I would need it soon.
I wasn't about to give up on my life so I went to a Chinese herbalist that I knew in Sydney's China town. He had treated me before for minor problems compared to this and very successfully. When I went to see him he really impressed me. He took the pulse on both hands and then proclaimed "don't worry, you get well" in his broken English. I pointed to a chart that he had on the wall of the female and male figures. On the female figure I pointed to one of the ovaries and said "bad cells here". He stretched his arm and pointed to many areas, the uterus, bowel and lungs and said "all bad". I was amazed that he could tell me all this from the pulse on both hands that he pondered for about 10 minutes, whereas the doctors took more than a month of testing. And he was adamant that I would recover my health.
He gave me herbs each time for a week and each week he adjusted them, taking some out and adding others. Then one day he saw me smoking in the waiting room. He was not happy. He told me that if I continued to smoke he wouldn't treat me any more. It was a shock. So I gave up the smoking habit.
By October I was certainly feeling very well, so I told him that I would go have have more tests done. He said "not all gone yet". I decided that I would have at least a pap smear, out of curiosity. I went to a new doctor this time. The pap smear came back abnormal but the doctor said that it was only a very small amount of dysplasia and that we should wait six months and when it got bigger it would be easier to remove. This made me realize that the cancer was surely disappearing.
In about February of 1994 the herbalist gave me the okay and said it was all gone. I ten went had had the tests again and sure enough they found no evidence of disease.
I believed at the time that the herbs made me well, even though I had seen symptoms abate on my way to Sydney. However some 10 years later after another episode of cancer, much less, but which again disappeared, I began to realize that the herbs were not the reason I got well. I had had a spontaneous remission of the cancer. I think the herbs did help my health overall though. And I believe the herbalists positive attitude must have come from seeing somehow in his diagnosis of me that my body was moving into spontaneous remission. He may not have realized it for what it was but only saw positive signs.
