I AM HealingStrong
Discover how to transform the most challenging chapter of your life with Jim Mann's inspiring podcast. As a stage 4 cancer survivor, and a HealingStrong Group Leader, Jim interviews famous musical artists like Tasha Layton, Ellie Holcomb, Katy Nichole, and Tim Timmons, as well as health influencers who beat incurable diseases like depression and addiction. Through humor and a renewed sense of purpose, guests courageously share their stories of overcoming the toughest times and learning to trust God. Tune in to Jim's powerful podcast to find hope and inspiration.
I AM HealingStrong
113: Acute Myeloid Leukemia and Holistic Healing | Marlice Alves
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Marlies Alves shares her journey from being a registered nurse to becoming a cancer patient, highlighting the importance of nutrition in overall health. She candidly discusses her experiences with acute myeloid leukemia, conventional cancer treatment, and how she found healing through holistic practices.
• Growing up in Rhode Island after losing her father
• Becoming a nurse and her early experiences in healthcare
• Mother’s colon cancer diagnosis sparks a passion for nutrition
• Navigating her own cancer diagnosis and treatment
• Advocating for nutrition in the hospital setting
• Transitioning from conventional treatments to holistic health coaching
• Launching Healing Strong group to support others in their journeys
• Reinforcing the importance of taking charge of one’s health
• Finding purpose in sharing her story with others
Contact Marlice:
magoosrn@gmail.com
RI Group Leader
HealingStrong's mission is to educate, equip and empower our group leaders and group participants through their journey with cancer or other chronic illnesses, and know there is HOPE. We bring this hope through educational materials, webinars, guest speakers, conferences, community small group support and more.
Please take advantage of our FREE resources below to help you along your health and healing journey:
Holistic Curriculum - Participant Guide
Website: healingstrong.org
Holistic Cancer Support and Nutrition
Speaker 1One of the things I liked about the facility where I was at in Boston. I had my own little refrigerator so I had my own stash of stuff in there. My husband would cook for me because I tried to stay away from the hospital foods and I did the best I could. You can only do so much while you're in the hospital and my husband would cook for me. He would cook organic. I could not have raw vegetables, raw fruits, anything raw, they wouldn't allow. But he cooked for me the best that he could and so I ate everything that he brought in. And I stayed away from the snack carts that came around in the morning and in the afternoon and it broke my heart when I saw the other patients people, the visits they would have in their rooms. They would come out and just stock up and know nothing but sugar.
Speaker 3You're listening to the I Am Healing Strong podcast, a part of the Healing Strong organization, the number one network of holistic cancer support groups in the world. Each week we bring you stories of hope, real stories that will encourage you as you navigate your way on your own journey to health. Now here's your host stage four cancer thriver, jim Mann.
Speaker 2So happy to be talking to Marlies Alves today on our episode. How are you?
Speaker 1I'm doing well, thank you. How are you doing, Jim?
Speaker 2I'm doing great. You're up there in the smallest state in the whole country.
Speaker 1Yes, beautiful small state of Rhode Island.
Speaker 2Yeah, were you raised there, were you born there.
Speaker 1Actually, I was born in Cape Verde Islands. I came to the United States when I was 10 years old.
Speaker 2Okay.
Speaker 1And I've been in Rhode Island ever since. Wow, that was 56 years ago, jim.
Speaker 2No way, you're in your 40s.
Speaker 1Yeah, that's it. I like your math.
Speaker 2Yeah, I saw your website and I said, oh, that's got to be a typo. She's saying she's 66. Nah, it's got to be 46. So maybe you can correct that. Yeah, you're still younger than me 66 and going strong. Yeah, you are. I was looking at that state because I've never been there before and I love that area of the country, connecticut and Massachusetts and all that but I've never been in that little place. Do you have like three neighborhoods in the state? I mean, is it so small?
Speaker 1It doesn't take long to get out of Rhode Island. We can quickly be in Massachusetts and quickly be in Connecticut.
Speaker 2My drive that I used to have going to the station that I worked at. I would have to go out of state if I was in Rhode Island. Just the distance I drove.
Speaker 1I thought wow, yes, you would. It's beautiful in the summer. The fall is gorgeous. It's beautiful right now. Yeah, the winters it's another story.
Speaker 2Well, as long as you're inside, you can look out by the fireplace and, yeah, I would like that. Wouldn't like to work in it, but I would like to live where it's snowing on the outside. Yeah, thought I'd throw that out there. You have a great story. I know a little bit about it. Sadly, you lost your dad when you were just four, right?
Speaker 1Yeah, my dad passed away when I was four years old, so I grew up with just my mom, yeah.
Speaker 2Okay.
Speaker 1So obviously you probably don't remember a lot about him. No, what did he pass away of? He had cirrhosis of the liver. Oh, but he was much older than my mother too. Okay, see, we were back in Cape Verde Islands and he lived here in the United States, retired early and went there and married my mom, so I never really knew my dad.
Speaker 2Okay, do you have any siblings?
Speaker 1No, I'm the only child.
Speaker 2Wow.
Speaker 1Yeah. So growing up I always wanted to wish I had especially a sister. But no, I was the only child.
Speaker 2Okay, now.
Speaker 1I have a daughter and a son, and my daughter and I and my son we're very close, so God provide it.
Speaker 2And they're all still in Rhode Island.
Speaker 1My son presently in Florida. Oh okay, he went there because of the weather. He's been there about three or four years but they're planning he and his wife are planning to come back next year. I'm hoping they do.
Speaker 2Yeah, and.
Speaker 1I'm planning to have children, so they want to be closer to the family, and I think that's a great idea. So my daughter's here in Rhode Island. She and her husband and three granddaughters.
Speaker 2Yes, florida's too hot. It's nice in the winter.
Speaker 1Yes, summer's hot.
Speaker 2Yes, I lived there for a short 22 years.
Speaker 1Oh, you lived there 22 years.
Speaker 2Yes, and I ran out of sweat so I moved back up. I have two daughters in college down there still Okay, they're enjoying it, but they both said they're moving up north.
Speaker 1You're in the Carolinas right.
Speaker 2Yes, ma'am, south South Carolina. It's still too warm for me here. I'm probably better off where you guys are.
Speaker 1Yeah, I've never been, but it's beautiful weather there.
Speaker 2You became a nurse, right.
Speaker 1Yeah, I'm a registered nurse.
Speaker 2What made you go in that direction? You were just always interested in that.
Speaker 1I didn't think you were going to ask me this. It's funny story because when I was about 11, 12 years old, I was in a hospital. I had a minor surgery and at that time I fell in love with the hospital. I said I want to be a nurse when I grow up. And then in my late nursing wasn't a cool thing to do? I was thinking as a teenager.
Speaker 1So, I went another direction. So later on God just had replaced that in my heart. I went back and changed career and became a nurse. So when my kids were little, I went back to school Wow. And I worked for 24 years in a neonatal ICU.
Speaker 2Okay.
Speaker 1Yeah, but now I'm a retired nurse, retired registered nurse, and I'm a health coach.
Speaker 2Retired at 40-something. Right yeah, my youngest daughter in college. She's going to be a nurse Pediatric nurse is what she's going to be?
Speaker 1Oh yeah, I love my profession.
Speaker 2Yeah, she's perfect for it, so I hope it goes well for her. Yeah, I'll just have her give you a call, get some advice anytime, I believe I remember correctly. Then. Then, uh, your mom got a diagnosis, is that right?
Speaker 1yes, my mom got diagnosed in 2007 of colon cancer and that's when I actually started my research and looking deeper into this whole cancer. I was already a nurse, but a lot of the things I started learning I never learned from a nursing school, Right. But if someone was to ask me growing up in my 20s 30s, do I consider myself healthy? I would always say yes, because I always watch my weight, I always counted calories, I was always low-fathers and sugar-feeders and I always did my exercises. You know Jane Fonda days.
Speaker 2Oh yeah.
Speaker 1You know, I did Jane Fonda, I did my step aerobic, I did Thai bows. I was always exercising and the weight would go on. Weight would come off, but I was healthy. I didn't care about what I ate, as long as it was about the calories. So it wasn't until 2007 when my mom did get that diagnosis of colon cancer and somebody gave me a VA justice back then of Dr Lorraine Day. I don't know if you ever heard of her.
Speaker 2I don't know much about her, but I've heard of her, yeah.
Speaker 1Yeah, dr Lorraine Day, she was a chief surgeon, orthopedic surgeon and I believe was San Francisco. So I started watching a lot of things where she was doing because she declined to have chemo or radiation. She did have surgery. And what I was learning from her it was something that was blowing my mind because something I never heard of the power of nutrition right with cancer or any health disease.
Speaker 1You know we always have a prescription for this, prescription for that. So as I was taking my mom to the local hospital where she was getting her chemotherapy, I was very aware now of what they were serving her for lunch, for snacks. I was like this is totally the opposite of what I'm learning from these VHSs. So that's when it started my interest a little bit. I don't want to keep talking unless you want to ask me a question Once I start telling my story. I just want to keep going.
Speaker 2No, that's fine, that's fine. So, yeah, that messes with the mind. It messes with everybody's mind once they figure out that nutrition has a lot to do with it. But especially someone in the medical field who's been trained. And I know I've always heard I don't know anything I've always heard that you don't get a lot of teaching on nutrition in any kind of medical school, whether it's nursing or for a doctor. So you probably didn't have any either, did you?
Speaker 1No, not in the level that I was learning yeah you know, you learn about the micro, the, the fat content, but nothing as far as helping your body. No, not at all, not at all. So I wish I knew then what I know now with my mom.
Navigating Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1So what I did? I did make some changes. I wasn't so focused on calories. I continued my exercise. I tried keto diet because I knew about the sugar, but I didn't make a big change. I just made some changes and I went on with my life. It wasn't until 2015 when I saw the Truth About Cancer documentary Right, they did a nice job, ty and Charlene Belanger and the Global Quest. I learned so much and this is when I really started making changes and I became very aware and knowledgeable of how we take care of our bodies and how the industry even though I'm in the medical field but how there was really no connection with the Western medicine and nutrition. So that's when I made a big changes and I started doing more research myself.
Speaker 2Right.
Speaker 1And it got to the point that now I'm taking, I'm making big changes with diet, with everything and everything I was learning I became that person that everybody would call what can I do for this? What can I do for that? And I had such a passion to help people, to help them. Once you realize your eyes are open to something, you want to help others. So it became a passion of mine and I was trying to advocate for myself and help others go through things and start a sharing. But I had this the passion. The passion was really there.
Speaker 1So, fast forward a little bit in 2018, it was September 2018. My church that I was attending asked me if I would do a teaching to the Christian school that we had at the church very small staff. I was like, yes, I would love to teach, just basic. I titled it eat to live, don't live to eat. Teach people the basics of how to read ingredients, about oil change. Everybody needs an oil change, what kind of oils we use, matters, additives in the food, just the basic things. I was teaching them and my pastor came in during that class and asked if I would do that for the congregation. It's like, whoa, okay, I'll take a step of faith, because I want to educate people, because it's not my strong point, so I did. It wasn't a Sunday morning service, it was a Wednesday night service, so at least it was a smaller group and I did that to the congregation and the feedback was so great.
Speaker 1People asked me different things, they want to know more, they want to go deep, go deeper. And we started doing a small group of where I would just teach. The church is very big, so we would have small groups or different things, so this was a small group teaching them how to eat, how to eat, how to live a healthy lifestyle. So, jim, I was on the spiritual high, like God is using me to help others to see, beyond the conventional medicine, how to live a holistic lifestyle, and myself, like I said, I was really applying all the things that I had been learning. So it was 2018, end of 2018, holidays was coming on, so put it on hold, let's start the small group in January. Well, december I started not feeling good, just generalized flu-like symptoms.
Speaker 2Right.
Speaker 1And I was supposed to work that Christmas and it was Christmas Eve. Usually whenever I get sick, if I have a cold, a couple of days it's gone and this just kept lingering and I wasn't feeling better. But I was supposed to work Christmas day at the hospital. So you can't call out on Christmas day, you have to have a doctor's note. So Christmas Eve I call my PCP. There's no way I could work because I would go down the stairs from the hospital, walking across the parking lot and I was getting tired. I'm full of energy and at this time I was doing step anymore, but I was doing cycling, I was doing spin classes and I was running out of energy. So I went to see my doctor Christmas Eve. The lab has all been, have all been closed. He looked at my throat. He said you look like you have strep throat, put me on antibiotics and steroids Not my favorite thing, but I had to do something. I wasn't feeling good, right, got the note for the hospital and I was out of work for two weeks and I started feeling a little better.
Speaker 1And then I went back to work beginning of January, like second week of January, and I started feeling lousy again. The same symptoms again. So I call my PCP. I said something is wrong. I think I must have mono. I mean, I never had it, but this kind of symptoms you know. So can you send me for a test with my uh for Epstein virus? And how about just the CBC chemistry? Can let's see what's going on? So I got a call later on that day, after getting the lab work, to come into the office.
Speaker 1So when I went in I was positive for mono and I found out later that Epstein virus now is actually something that could trigger cancer. And so anyway, he says to me, he looks at me, he says we need to get you to see hematology, hematologist, oncologist. So that right, there tells me okay, you're thinking cancer, blood cancer, right, that's scary. So come to find out. I went that same afternoon I went to see the hematology. I asked them to repeat the blood work again. I wanted to make sure, just in case it was a fluke. But no, full-blown AML, acute myeloid leukemia.
Speaker 1Wow, now, up to that point, from what I had learned, I always told my husband if I have a tumor, a breast cancer, if I have a tumor anywhere, I am not jumping into the conventional medicine. I'm going to do as much as I can, naturally, because I know the tumor doesn't grow overnight, over a week. It takes a long time. But this took me for a loop, jim. It came out of nowhere. Aml is aggressive, aggressive, it's fast, it's. It's a cancer that I wasn't that familiar with and I remember leaving that doctor's office and I, my my husband, came with me for that appointment.
Speaker 1He wasn't with me with the first one because there was no need to. I was just going to get results of my blood work. So for the hemat oncology, that one, he was with me and we left the office. The oncologist wanted me it was four third in the afternoon. He squeezed me the last appointment. He wanted me to leave there and go straight to the hospital, get admitted to the hospital. I couldn't do that. I wanted to come home. So we left.
Speaker 1I got on the elevator and my husband said just take a deep breath. And, jim, you know, the Bible tells us God has not given us a spirit of fear, which is true. The Bible is true, right, but fear comes. Fear comes. And I remember telling this like I just want to choke up, because I remember looking up and just saying God, help me keep my eyes on you, jesus. Help me, keep my eyes on you, because I know you're my healer and I know you're the one that walked me through this.
Speaker 1Because I was scared I was. I felt so powerless and defeated and because I came from this high that God is using me to help others. And here I am, feeling so defeated. There goes my credibility. Now, right, don't know what to do. I was one that did not never want a chemo and here I am not knowing what to do. I was one that did not never want a chemo and here I am not knowing what to do. But I cried out to God and he heard me, so came home, spoke with my children, my two adult children, and I ended up that morning going to a local hospital and get admitted. So now I'm dealing with I can't believe I'm going to put this toxic chemotherapy into my body. But I did. I went.
Speaker 1I started off in a hospital in Rhode Island, then I transferred myself to a fine institution in Boston. And I say that because everybody says to me even now people say but you did the right thing, you went to the best hospital you could get. I said you know, I used to tell my oncologist at Boston. I had a great relationship with him until I stopped my chemo. I said to him it's a cookie cutter mentality. So I tell people yeah, I went to Boston, the care was a little different, there were some things with the hospital that I liked better, but as far as the treatment it's a cookie-cutter mentality. So whether I'm in Rhode Island, boston, florida, north Carolina, california, it's the same.
Speaker 1There are two phases for my AML, the way they're going to treat it. So I went in. I ended up being in the hospital for 40 days. I said 40 days in the wilderness. Wow, yeah. So phase one of chemo, I was for a whole month. I did it. I was praying the whole time. But God is so graceful he started showing me. Hadn't I taken care of my body, hadn't I support my body through this, I don't think I would be here. You know, the doctors, the oncologists, would you know, used to tell me not everybody goes into remission after the first round, the first phase. They call it the induction phase. Right, I did, I went right into remission. They did another test, called the minimal residual test, that showed if there's any residual cancer cells.
Speaker 1And that was gone after the first one. So now I'm praying like do I stop this? Because I was living through the nightmare that I had been seeing and hearing, like I'm actually living this out. I'm having conversations with my oncologist that, oh my gosh, this is the answer they give you. For example, one of the things I liked about the facility where I was at in Boston I had my own little refrigerator, so I had my own stash of stuff in there.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1My husband would cook for me, because I tried to stay away from the hospital foods and I did the best I could you can only do so much while you're in the hospital and my husband would cook for me. He would cook organic. I could not have raw vegetables, raw fruits, anything raw. They weren't allowed. But he cooked for me the best that he could and so I ate everything that he brought in. And I stayed away from the snack carts that came around in the morning and in the afternoon.
Speaker 1And it broke my heart when I saw the other patients, people, the visitors they would have in their rooms. They would come out and just stock up and nothing but sugar. You know, one time my doctor said to me because after I went to the phase one now the phase two of the treatment they call it consolidation, which is maintenance, and I was allowed to come home after 40 days and then I would go back in for five days, get the treatment and then came back again. So one of my visits he said to me you're losing so much weight. They were very concerned about the weight. You're losing so much weight. We need you to put some weight on. He leaned over on his desk and he says to me I need you to eat some ice cream, some milkshake. I leaned back to him and I said absolutely not. I said what you're telling me is you're putting out the fire. Now you're saying let's throw some kerosthenic back in there. I said we're not doing that.
Speaker 2Experience cancer healing like you never have before at Hope for Cancer. Through their patient-centered, integrative and alternative cancer treatments in Mexico At Hope for Cancer, they offer a holistic approach treatments that address the root causes of cancer and provide a personalized healing protocol. Hope for Cancer Treatment Centers empowers all cancer patients that address the root causes of cancer and provide a personalized healing protocol. Hope for Cancer Treatment Centers empowers all cancer patients to overcome the odds of their diagnosis, guided by their four core values of faith, love, hope and generosity. To learn more, go to hopeforcancercom. That's hope, the number four cancercom.
Speaker 1So I continued to do the best I could while in the hospital and I would because of what I've known, what I knew. At that point I was my own advocate. I asked them, with all the blood work you're doing, can you do a vitamin D3 check on me? Why, molly? I was asked. Everybody's vitamin D3 is low. It's the middle of the winter. I said, well, hopefully mine isn't, because that was one of the things I had in my little refrigerator and um, and also probiotic. I said uh, I, I was on probiotic, my own. Why you on probiotic? I said because I had uh antibiotic infused intravenously for 30 days straight. I'm trying to protect my gut, you know. When I asked them is this going to destroy the stem cells? No, that it doesn't do. So I had to take control as much as I could while in the hospital.
Speaker 2Right.
Speaker 1So then, after the consolidation, they wanted me to do four more rounds of that. So I did one, praying, just praying god, like when do I stop? When do I stop? I know I need to stop and but I didn't have that peace. I was waiting for that peace of god that surpasses all understanding, to just not be at peace, to know this is it. So I did round two and then gym.
Speaker 1I started really getting sick. You know, I started getting the cumulative effect now of this toxic stuff that I'm putting into my body and I one day, my temperature was so high it went to 104. I developed rash all over my body. Not only was itchy, it was painful at the same time. But I realized, okay, one, I got to stop. This is time to stop.
Speaker 1My body is trying to fight in my behalf this temperature. Is my body trying to fight in my behalf the rash that I was having. I know I'm detoxifying, my body's doing what it's supposed to do. That's when I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, I'm choosing to stop this. So I called my oncologist and told him that I would stop, and of course he thought I was crazy, but I knew nobody was going to convince me otherwise that I knew I got to the point that I've had enough, so I stopped the chemo and he asked me if I would like to continue being monitored by them and I said, yeah, I would do that. And somebody was supposed to call me to set up an appointment. I'm still waiting.
Speaker 2Oh, really that was in 2019.
Speaker 1No one ever called. So I continued to be followed from that point on with my PCP, continuing my blood work, and so I ended the chemo. But some of the things I kept doing at the same time, in addition to vitamin D3 and the probiotic, I continued probiotic for a whole year. I also was doing Esiak tea. My husband started making Esiak tea and took it to the hospital. I was doing Esiak tea. My husband started making Esiak tea and took it to the hospital. I was taking Esiak tea. I was taking quercetin, I was doing a multi.
Speaker 1I was doing vitamin C again and trying to control as much as I could with food. Once I was able to come home, I had more control of the food. That's when I went into juicing, I went into raw food and I learned about bcancerorg. They were very helpful. From that point on I went to whole food, plant-based. I changed the water in the house to reverse osmosis. We fine-tuned the chemical environment around the house from what we put into our bodies. I started doing castor oil pack coffee enemas. I started doing that because I knew I had to do some serious detoxifying.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1A longer probiotic for a year and I started in a supplement called blood building supplement, and so I did as much as I could, and that was 2019. I took a total of seven months out of work to rebuild my body Right and I went ahead in 2022 and got certified now as a health coach to go back helping others. This was not the path I wanted, no, but God saw me through that, answered my prayer when I asked him to keep his eyes on him, keep my eyes on him and he built me up. So I went through a time was mentally, physically challenging and spiritually, but God was there, took me through it. I know my journey is different from others, but so I did chemo part of it and then in 2022, in 2023, I 2022, 2023, 2022, that's when I learned about Chris B Cancer. I wish I knew about Chris.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1I learned about Chris B Cancer and incorporated square one, which is a lot what I was already doing Right, but I started doing a lot of his also um entire cancer revolution. I learned a lot from them to the dead documentary, and that's how I heard about healing strong. And in 2023, I called one the zoom meetings from Massachusetts, nancy, and 2023, I called one of the Zoom meetings from Massachusetts, nancy, and I joined her Zoom meeting a couple of times and now God is really tugging at my heart. These people are awesome Spending time on Healing Strong's website.
Speaker 1It's like, oh my gosh, and we share the same faith and these people are awesome. So God is tugging at my heart. You should become a leader. You should become a leader. So God started getting in my heart. You should become a leader. You should become a leader. So I did so. Beginning of 2024, I started a group in Rhode Island with a church that I now attend Awakening Church in Smithfield, rhode Island, little Rhode Island and I am doing it's Awakening. We call it crew, but a small group the way I was when I first got sick. So we just finished the first year of Healing Strong crew meetings and it's just been awesome. I feel God has took me around back a full circle to where?
Speaker 2I was. Yeah, I can imagine, especially with your background, being a nurse and then doing all that research and then all of a sudden being sick. That must have been very confusing for you, like, oh, hey, what is going on here? And then the chemo. I totally understand that because you know that's probably not the best route to go. But then when all of a sudden you're sick and you're sick with an aggressive cancer, right Like, wow, what direction do I go? Which is an excellent thing that makes us rely on God. When we're like totally confused and we're like, oh, I don't know what to do, even though I have all this knowledge. But sometimes God has to take us to those points to help us to realize, wow, maybe I should rely on him and get some direction.
Speaker 1Exactly 100%, 100%.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1You know, in the script that says lean out into your own understanding and all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your path. That's what I did, because I really thought I would never do chemo. I would never do that, but I was in a situation. I was very confused.
Speaker 2I didn't know what else to do yeah, you can relate to other people that are in that same situation oh, for sure, for sure yeah, you don't have to say you're crazy doing that chemo. You totally understand why they do that and for sure, yeah, that that's incredible. And now you've been doing the healing strong since the first part of this year.
Speaker 1Yes, started in February.
Speaker 2Wow, with a state that small, you can probably get people from all corners of that state.
Speaker 1Even Massachusetts. Right yeah, Connecticut.
Speaker 2That's incredible. You also have a website for your what's it called Wellnesswithmarlisecom. Yeah, wellnesswithmararlisecom.
Speaker 1Yeah, wellnesswithmarlisecom. Yeah.
Speaker 2And you do coaching and that kind of thing.
Speaker 1I do health coaching? Yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 2Wow. Is that going well for you.
Speaker 1It is. It is that and Healing Strong. I get so much enjoyment out of it.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1It's so rewarding and that's something I always liked as a nurse, and now I continue to do it in a different approach, in a holistic approach.
Speaker 2That sounds great and you physically are fine. Now right?
Speaker 1Oh yeah. So first I was being followed by my PCP. He retired so I said, well, let me get him an oncologist here in Rhode Island. And I've been seeing him for two years. March of this year he says to me he's looking at the chart, he says all my records. He goes, I can look at you and tell you you are cured. Wow, it's like that's not a word you usually hear in a cancer oncologist. I knew that, but it's very good to hear.
Speaker 2Yes.
Speaker 1But you know you keep your guards up. I will never go back the lifestyle I had, just counting calories and look, you're forever changed.
Speaker 2Right, right, and you have to.
Speaker 1And still, you know, sometimes you get. If you get a pain here there, it's like uh-oh, what is that? Oh yeah, you know, sometimes you get. If you get a pain here there, it's like uh-oh, what is that? Oh yeah, you know that still comes. But I got to keep my guards up and take care of my body, because it's all about building the terrain.
Speaker 2Right.
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 2Yeah, Whatever you were doing before, something was out of balance Correct, and so, yeah, you got to change. A balance Correct and so, yeah, you got to change. That's a big part about people who do do chemo, who think you know well, whatever the doctor says I have to do, but they don't change their lifestyle and that's why, you know, it usually comes back with a vengeance because it doesn't change anything else and just beyond me.
Speaker 2And I have no medical background, I'm really bad in the medical field, but you know, I even have the logic to realize. You know you have to change something. You can't eat garbage and expect your body to be healthy.
Speaker 1Exactly. I like to use the analogy Like when I asked my oncologist is this going to destroy the stem cell? No, I like to use analogies Like if you have a plant and the plant's not healthy and it's dying, so you just cut off the plant, but if you leave that root in there, you know there's a chance that that plant is going to come back up oh yeah right.
Speaker 1So you gotta, you know, it's all about the terrain in our bodies. You can't, I can't totally, you know, say that's because chemo put me into remission, I'm good, I'm going back lifestyle. That would be foolish of me.
Speaker 2Yes, yes indeed.
Speaker 1Prevention is the best medicine. We have a lot of people in our group that we have some that has active cancer, but a lot of people just want to learn how to preventively walk this walk of health and wellness.
Speaker 2Yeah, and you've kept your reputation on knowing what you're talking about.
Speaker 1Yeah, so I'm so grateful to God that I made this complete circle and God is back using me. So, even when I get invited to the podcast. I got to tell you this is out of my comfort zone. But it's like I'm going to tell my story because if you can help one person, yes. It's so worth it.
Speaker 2That's right.
Speaker 1It's so worth it.
Speaker 2Anybody listening? If you ever travel through Rhode Island, you'll probably see her, because it's not that big right. Well, Marlies, I appreciate taking the time to do this, and is there anything else you want to throw out there before we go?
Speaker 1No, I just want to say thank you for the opportunity to do this Sure, because my heart I have such a passion for health and wellness and my heart is for people. It's to help others, and they're not alone. God is always there, that's right. And there's hope.
Speaker 2That's right, indeed. And don't forget, go to wellnesswithmarlisecom for more information or to get a hold of you. I'm sure people will have some questions perhaps, especially knowing that you have the knowledge being a nurse, and you know, a certified holistic cancer coach. Right, right, all right. Well, thank you so much.
Speaker 1Oh, thank you.
Healing Strong Support and Resources
Speaker 3Thank you. You've been listening to the I Am Healing Strong podcast, a part of the Healing Strong organization. We hope you found encouragement in this episode, as well as the confidence to take control of your healing journey, knowing that God will guide you on this path. Healing Strong is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to connect, support and educate individuals facing cancer and other diseases through strategies that help to rebuild the body, renew the soul and refresh the spirit.
Speaker 3It costs nothing to be a part of a local or online group. You can do that by going to our website at healingstrongorg and finding a group near you or an online group, or start your own, your choice. While you're there, take a look around at all the free resources. Though the resources and groups are free, we encourage you to join our membership program at $25 or $75 a month. This helps us to be able to reach more people with hope and encouragement, and that also comes with some extra perks as well. So check it out. If you enjoyed this podcast, please give us a five-star rating, leave an encouraging comment and help us spread the word. We'll see you next week with another story on the I Am Healing Strong podcast.
