Hi Everyone,
I am writing this blog on behalf of my wife Judy M who is the inspiration of never giving up. And I suppose this also applies to those who are family members, carers, husbands, wives and everyone close to the person that is journeying through this terrible illness.
My wife's journey into the world of cancer started in 2013 with a diagnosis of breast cancer. The treatment? Radical mastectomy, removal of axillary lymph nodes, chemotherapy, and radio therapy.
Apart from a few interruptions for infections everything was going along swimmingly, or so we thought! In 2017 Judy was diagnosed with bowel cancer, and following the normal round of examinations, endoscopy, biopsy, a diagnosis of rectal cancer was made. Rectal surgery was carried out removing her rectum which went extremely well. Then she commenced the rounds of chemotherapy of a oxyliplatin and 5 FU combination.
She continued with this regime until round 4 of chemotherapy when she suffered an anaphylactic shock. It was at this stage that she decided to discontinue the treatment and after much soul searching she decided that 'quality of life' should supersede 'quantity'!
This decision was not taken lightly but it was the best for her.
Then subsequent to this decision, in April 2018 she was diagnosed with lung cancer, with 8 tumours scattered between both lungs, and because of its make up, the only treatment available was the same for her bowel cancer as it appeared to be a secondary from that rectal site!
This reinforced her decision to go it alone and try and achieve a quality of life without the need for the debilitating regime of chemotherapy that was the only thing on offer. It was at this time that she came across a book written by Professor Robert Thomas, who was the oncologist at Bedford General Hospital.
Professor Thomas's book(s) concentrates complementing any cancer treatment with a selective diet.
And so, since 2018 Judy has followed this dietary regime religiously and it is 'so far so good'! Save for a bout of covid at the beginning of this year which, due to the nature of the disease and continuous coughing, she suffered a severe bleed when the 8cm tumour erupted. This, thank goodness, has been corrected by selective medication through her palliative care team, and she is currently doing extremely well and keeping to her diet, and most important of all, keeping a positive mental attitude!
Finally and to all those of you who are going through the same thing as my wife has been going through since 2013, our advice is "Never give up". Enjoy every day as it comes and laugh in the face of cancer; Mr Cancer doesn't like laughter!
Cheers to you all
Terry M
