Special Guest : A Healing Journey with My Mom

A special guest episode. I discuss with my mother her healing journey and the profound insights she learned from being given only 2 months to live, and beating that by over 32 years. 

Transcript

Natalie & Marla: 0:40

Welcome back to Design Your Well Life. I'm so excited for today's episode because I have a very special guest, my mother. As many of you know, a big part of this podcast is about sharing healing journeys, and my mom's story is one that has deeply influenced my own path towards wellness. She has overcome so much and today we're going to talk about her personal journey. What led her to focus on healing, the obstacles that she faced, and what ultimately helped her regain her health. Mom, welcome to the podcast. I am so excited to be here with you today and to share how my life has been with my healing journey. Well, we're excited to have you. So to start, let's go back to the beginning. What was your lifestyle like before you got sick? Were you focused on health at all or was it something that wasn't on your radar? Well, kind of a little bit of both. Um, being a nurse, I did have some nutritional classes in school and did have a background of wanting to be healthy. Also, I had a mother with, type 1 diabetes my whole life and she tried to be as healthy as she could be. So we always grew our own garden, had fresh vegetables, bottled the ones that we couldn't use right away, always had fruits and we, we were raised pretty healthy. But the things that were different was I, I didn't ever, worry about labels and what was in packaged foods and things that I just figured they were okay to eat and good for you. So at what point did you start realizing that something was wrong? What were the first signs and how did you go about finding out what was happening? Yeah, this was a really, um, Extremely learning experience for me. I started out with extreme fatigue, abdominal pain, and weight loss and a low grade fever. Being a nurse, I I knew just by the way I felt and by those symptoms that it was more serious than just a cold or a virus or anything that might be going on. So I, I spent six months, going to different doctors and having different yeah having different tests ran while they were saying they couldn't find anything and nothing was wrong and I just remember being so frustrated and so just sick and knowing that something was wrong. I would go pick my young children up. You were 11 My son was four and my youngest daughter was two at the time that all this was happening and I went to pick them up after work, to my parents house, and I would need to lay down for a half an hour before I could even drive home because I was that fatigued. I just couldn't hardly function. I remember going to one of the doctors, just trying to find out what was wrong. I started out with my general practitioner, and labs and everything were still coming back normal. And then because I had abdominal pain, I went to my gynecologist to see if there was something there and they thought, maybe I had some kind of Pelvic inflammatory disease. So they actually did a laparoscopy on me. And they found fluid in there thinking it was what they thought it was. But they didn't do a histology on it. They didn't take that fluid and run lab tests or they would have found right there that I had this Non Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Instead, I searched again. I went to a gastroenterologist thinking, okay, what is wrong with me? And when he came in, I was literally so exhausted. I was laying on his exam table because I just couldn't stand to sit in a chair and wait for him. And I told him I just knew something was serious and that I felt like I was going to die if people didn't find out what was wrong with me. And, he said, well, you're not going to die today. And that just made me feel so terrible. He ran some tests, still nothing. So, finally, I went back to my general practitioner and just said, You've really got to help me. I worked at the hospital on the medical surgical floor and because I was running a low grade fever, I couldn't even work. They wouldn't let me work and I couldn't, I was so exhausted and fatigued, I couldn't have any way. So here they're telling you there's nothing wrong with you, but then they're saying you can't come to work because there's something wrong with you. Exactly. Anyway, they finally ran a CT scan and the radiologist said that my lymph nodes lit up like a Christmas tree all through my body. And I said, well, I can't get anyone, any of the doctors to help me. And he said, well, they're going to listen now. And he called and discussed what was going on. And he told me he thought I had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. So they sent me to a oncologist up in Salt Lake. And when I went up there, he told me he thought that I did have non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, but that we needed to do surgery and he would have a full team and that they would take all kinds of lab tests. And so at that point, up at LDS hospital, I had a exploratory laparotomy which they went in and found out that I had definitely non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. They staged me at a three because it wasn't in my bone marrow yet, but it was everywhere in my body. And so my oncologist told me he didn't expect me to live more than two months. Wow. And so, he said to just prepare myself and go home and get my life in order and that was the beginning of, a serious journey for me. It sounds like it, definitely. So, let's go back a little bit to when you actually got this diagnosis. First, from the radiologist where you started having someone actually listen to you and be on your side and then getting that confirmation with horrible news that you only had a couple of months. How did you feel when they finally found out what was going on, but then when you heard how severe it was. Well, for me, it was a moment of validation because I knew I had something wrong with me. My, my spirit was telling me I had something wrong with me. And then, it was also a moment of being so overwhelmed because I knew what this was going to involve to heal from this and because they told me I only had a couple of months, I was so worried because I was a mother with young children and I wanted to stay, for them. And I think that that is probably one of the biggest things that I had decided right then and there when they gave me that diagnosis that I was going to do everything I possibly could do because I had, to live. There was, there was no choice. I was planning on living and so I was just like, let's get after it. That's amazing. So it sounds like it was pretty overwhelming but at that same moment you just had a determination that you were going to do whatever it took. Yes, I, you have mentioned earlier in your podcast that you had a competitive spirit. And I think that you get that from me. I do. My competitive spirit has always been there. When I was younger, I always thought, man, this isn't very good. It would get me in trouble sometimes when I just had to be better than everybody else. But I'm so glad I had it for this cancer. Absolutely. So after you got your diagnosis, It sounds like you had a turning point there in the office, but what was the big turning point that made you decide that it was going to be your health and, and how you approached, like, eating and food and the rest of your health? Was there a specific moment or a piece of advice that changed your perspective on starting to look at labels and foods and what was in them and, and how did you get to the place where you knew what you were doing was starting to help? Well, there was several things. First of all, being a nurse. It's just very western medicine only. I knew with as advanced as the cancer was that I would need to do chemotherapy. And they did tell me that they did not want me to have fresh fruits and vegetables during this time they, they felt like because of the bacterias and things that can be on them, that my immune system would be really low and wiped out and that would cause me to have infections and things that could cause me to, to not live, to die. But I felt so impressed that I needed them, that they were going to be the healthy part to help my body fight this, um, that I did not want to go without them. Many people pray over their food before you eat. That prayer became so important for me to bless the food that I was about to eat. And it also became very important to me to pray to know what my body needed. And any thought that came into my mind, I would do that. So I tried to pack in as many fruits and vegetables in a day that I could eat and because the chemotherapy was so rough on my system Didn't eat a lot of meat at that time because it was really hard to digest that and the chemotherapy caused me to have constipation as well as sores in my mouth and sores going down my throat. So it, it was really hard in that respect. Another thing that made a big difference to me was, I had a dear friend, Becky, that, was into wellness in a different way. She dealt with a lot of herbs and she did a kind of a magnetic balancing your body. And at first I just thought it was crazy, but because she was so sincere, I let her come and test my body and she would give me herbs and things that she thought would help. And The first night that I took them, I couldn't even take all the things that she wanted me to take because my body couldn't even handle it, but the first night that I took some of them was the first night that I slept. I hadn't slept at all. And so I realized that whatever she was doing was actually helping me. It's so interesting that you say that because I think there's so many things that because it's not mainstream or because we haven't seen it happen all the time that our minds just reject. You know going back to Christopher Columbus and science the earth was flat and then all of a sudden they're professing It's round. And I think as I've been sick and been learning different things and it sounds like you as well that there's things that kind of open your eyes to a lot of healing modalities that you have to be open to because there's so much about the body that we just don't know yet. Exactly. And I was learning that. I was finding that out. And I was just so, Overwhelmed with that as far as thinking, Oh my gosh, this is really helping me that I decided to look further into other things. And that's what caused me to, read things like nutritional healing. It was a Prescription for Nutritional Healing by James E. Balch. And he was a doctor, um, but he went into more of the herbs and the different things that you could do. And then I also read Quantum Healing by Deepak Chopra, and I don't even know if I'm pronouncing that right, but I got so much out of just reading that book. Opening my mind to what else could be out there. And one of the reasons was, you know, if you're given a diagnosis of two months to live, you're going to try everything. Absolutely. You're not going to just say, okay, well I'll just, you know, do what you tell me. You really are going to want everything. And that's where I was. That's really incredible and, and backing up a little bit, one of the other things that you said that caught my attention was that you would listen to your body for the things that you needed to eat and you would eat them. And I think so often we need to just get in tune with ourselves. And if there's something particular that comes to mind or that you're craving, there might be a reason for that. Um, as a little girl, I remember you would do stuff like that, that you would think, okay, I need to eat this food, but then you would want to know why. And, and I remember you going to books and opening them up to find out a little bit more more about that food. So tell me about that experience a little bit. Yes. Um, you know back then there wasn't cell phones and there wasn't Well, we had the internet, but it was so brand new that you couldn't just go online and look up whatever you wanted to about all these different things and, and you couldn't learn that way. So I had to dive in into different directions. And I remember just feeling one day that the margarine that I was eating could not be good. At that time, there were things on labels, but they didn't have to be very disclosing as they do now. But I just remember turning that over, the package of margarine, and reading the label and thinking, this is not good for me. And so at that moment, I was like, we were going to have butter, but not margarine ever. Or we just wouldn't have anything, you know? So it was an eye opening experience for me to start looking at everything, and realizing I needed to make some major changes for my body. Absolutely. And it's interesting because some of those foods, Crisco being one of them has, been around for a long time and, and it's funny they realized, oh, well, if we make this look good and, and work. We can use it inexpensively for actually frying, you know, foods and different stuff like that and, and use it in baked goods. And it'd be interesting to find out how many things were created and packaged that they're now realizing humans should not ingest and and what it's been doing to our health. So Question that I have for you is now that you made this decision and you started looking into this health journey, What was the first big steps that you took to heal, what were the things that you decided to change that? You decided to put into your diet and things you decided to take out As I said before, as a nurse, I did have some nutritional background and a mother who made sure that we were always eating fresh fruits and vegetables. But as you grow up and you get married and you have children, and I was working 12 hour shifts, we didn't always eat the fruits and vegetables, especially the amounts that we should have. You know, we went for fast food sometimes because it was easier, and I was tired, and we were just trying to get through a day, just like the rest of the world is right now. Um, that was the first change that I knew I had to make is I knew that I had to put all of the healthy foods back into my diet and not just think, okay, well, I had a piece of an apple today, or I had part of a banana and, I'll get a salad at work or like that just wasn't good enough anymore. I knew that I had to like really pack my body with nutrition. And, it was at that time that I learned that, food is medicine and that that is the best medicine that we can put into our bodies. Another thing that I did was, I was on that herb journey with my friend. And so I continued to let her test me and see what things I needed to add that way. Herbs are so healthy. Just so many ways they can, they can be not healthy if you get too much or the wrong things. So you have to be careful too. Um, I also did Redmond clay clear back then I, actually ingested it. I would take a teaspoon in my water every morning, especially going through the chemotherapy. Because it was supposed to help detoxify and so I wanted to make sure I was getting that out of my system too. And so, I would do that every morning. It's so interesting that you say that. In a previous episode we actually talked about the clay a little bit. And because of the different positive and negative charges, the clay has been found to grab onto chemicals and toxins and all of those things and pull them out of your system. Yeah, I started doing that years and years ago. Okay, so how did you actually get to the point that you could down the clay? I use it all over my body, but I have not been able to get myself to ingest it yet. But was that difficult? How did you decide you were going to drink this? It wasn't as difficult as I thought because I just, in a spoon, mixed it really fast and then just drank it down. And the reason I did that was I just figured it was going to be healthy for me and I was going to do whatever I had to do, but it was like a chalky grittiness after I drank it and I'd have to drink another thing of water and rinse my mouth and, but I did and I did it because of that very reason of pulling toxins out. That's amazing. So, besides food I remember as a little girl that, You didn't use toothpaste or deodorant like the rest of us do. So I want to ask you a little bit about why did you choose to not buy, toothpaste and things like that off the shelf? Like what clued you into that there was something else you needed to change to put on your body, along with what you were doing in your body? Well, the first thing about the toothpaste was that actually came from my doctors. They told me while I was doing chemotherapy that they wanted me to use hydrogen peroxide and baking soda and mix it into a paste and brush my teeth with it because that would be a healthier choice for my mouth while I was going through all of this chemotherapy and sores and everything. That was incredible. That was something that I continued to do through the years because it was so healing and It's just healthy. Yeah, and then deodorant I, I knew that many women were getting cancer, breast cancer specifically from deodorants. And so that was one of the things that even though I didn't have breast cancer that I chose to not do. And so I would use other things to make it so that, I was healthy. Yeah, that's really great because, you're probably very well aware of this because of the lymphoma, but there's a lot of lymph nodes in your armpits. Absolutely. That those things directly absorb into, so. That is one of the areas that they always check when I go for checkups. They always check under my arms. Another thing that I did a lot of meditation at that time, and I wanted to keep my body as strong as possible, so I did exercise. And I cannot go without saying, probably the most important thing I did during that time was pray. I believe that we have a Heavenly Father who loves us and who wants to help us. And He wants to help us in any way He can. And praying every day to know what I needed to do for my body was super important. Absolutely. I agree with you on that one for sure. Thank you for sharing that. So during all of these things that you were doing, do you feel like there was one thing that made the biggest impact or what multiple things do you feel that made the biggest impact as you were trying to heal? I think the biggest impact was, definitely food, definitely feeding my body the medicine that it needed to heal because otherwise it wasn't going to heal. But I think all the rest of it in turn helped play a big role in my healing as well. That's what I found too, is it's not just one dimensional. No. There's multiple things that your body needs between mind, body, spirit, environment, your social friendships and relationships. All of that plays a really big impact on health. Absolutely. So tell me was it all easy the whole way along? Did you have any setbacks along the way or what was the experience like? How long did it actually take you from when you got this diagnosis and only two months to live to feeling like there was some progress being made and, and you might have longer than two months. It took a while because I did choose to do the chemotherapy as well. That was a huge setback too. Even though it was helping me because it was in there killing cancer cells. Because of the chemotherapy, my white counts would go way down and, I would need to take prednisone. I would need to take large doses of that while I was doing the chemotherapy for 10 days. And then I would cold turkey off of it because I had to do the chemotherapy just three weeks later, but that is really hard to do. Most people who are on prednisone. When they're going off of it, you have to start with a dose and then drop down slightly and then again slightly until you can stop it completely. So I had a real rough period of time not sleep for 10 days because the prednisone made me just nuts. And then just going crazy. I felt like I could go out and plant the garden at midnight and do things like that. And then I, when I went off of it, it would just be like, I had no energy at all. I had sores in my mouth and in my throat because of the chemotherapy and the white counts going down, which was really hard. Sometimes I couldn't even swallow water very well. And I remember one time having to go into the hospital and get IV therapy, just because I wasn't drinking enough. And I was put in reverse isolation in the hospital during that time because I started running a fever. whatever infection I had, they needed to get on top of it and so they put me in the hospital in reverse isolation, giving me IV antibiotics and things to get my body back to being able to live and, and be healthy again. So, this sounds like it was a really tough journey the whole way through. The whole time that I was doing chemotherapy, which was about nine months, and then after that is when I really felt like, you know, I'd made it nine months. So in my mind, I was thinking, okay, I'm still here. But it was after I stopped the chemotherapy and felt stronger and stronger and stronger every single day and felt alive. For a while there, I felt more dead than alive. Wow. Seriously, going through it. It was really, really hard. The hardest thing I've ever done in my life. So it was, yeah, it was after I finished all those treatments that I began to really feel like I was healthy and that I was doing all the things that I needed to do. So with all the difficult moments along, these nine months and trying to study and learn and, and be impressed about what it was you were supposed to do. How did you push through those difficult moments? How did you decide to keep going that you just said, sometimes you felt more dead than alive. So what made it still worth it for you to keep trying to do this? The first and number one thing was my family. You know, mothers just don't want to leave children, and, I knew that I was making progress because I was still here, and I knew, even though I was going through really a difficult time, that, I was getting answers from My Heavenly Father and he was directing me and guiding me and helping me keep my body going and healthy and strong as much as possible. Absolutely. So at what point did you really know that the things your were doing were really working? Did you have any experiences with medical doctors or personnel or lab work? I mean, obviously you've been here a lot longer than two months. How, how long has it been since you were diagnosed? It's been 30, almost 32 years ago. Wow. Two months to 32 years. Yeah. And, um, and you know, I've had setbacks along the way through the years, but for the most part I decided way back then, I should have said this earlier, I decided way back then when I first started this health journey was I wasn't going to eat any sugar. And so I went off sugar and I stayed off of it for seven years. Wow. I didn't have one bit of sugar in my body. And then, um, after that, I'm going to admit, I still have sugar. There are occasions when I will have sugar, and I do try and make a healthier choice if I can. But I always, always try and eat as healthy as possible every single day. And, I just know that getting water and not drinking soda and things like that have helped my body. I never was a very big soda drinker, but I did drink more juice than I do now. I just think water is extremely healthy for us. And to really lay off sugar if you can. Absolutely. It's a huge inflammatory factor. And, you know, as I've been studying too, that's a lot of times what cancer cells will feed off of, right. Is sugar in your body. Right. I know that I was impressed way back then to not eat sugar. And I remember, um, going to the store and, your dad making sure that one of the kids went with me so that they could put junk food into the cart because I wouldn't buy it otherwise. We were eating too healthy all of a sudden. So, at what point did you know that what you were doing was working? As I continued to go to the doctor and even during my chemotherapy, my doctors were like, what are you doing? Because I was still here and I was still managing it and I was actually doing really well. I had beat so much and my body was, was healthier than, than what they normally see. And, so I told them that I, I was eating fresh fruits and vegetables even though they told me not to. And I was, you know, taking some herbs and doing some things, meditation and, I let them know that I, didn't stick strictly to the Western medicine. Um, but as I continued to progress so well, they were really amazed at how quickly and how fast I was able to heal and go back to work. So that probably had to be a boost of confidence for you as well, that when you would go in and they would say, wow, we don't expect you to be this healthy. Yeah. You, you kind of had that little boost of inkling of, okay, this is working, let's keep going. Absolutely. Yep. That's great. So, looking at where you are now, how has your life changed because of this healing journey? If you were to look at your health, before you got cancer versus where you are today, what are things that you've learned along the way? Well, my health is so different than back then, because even before I got sick, I was not as healthy as I am now. I, I was fatigued and I think your body just kind of goes along and you don't realize that you're not as healthy as you should be because it's just a day to day living your life. And so I, it's just so different. I feel like I have so much more energy. I feel like I, sleep better. I feel, for the most part, there are some nights when we don't sleep, it's just part of life. But, for the most part, I sleep really well, I exercise, I just love life. I love spending time with my grandchildren when I never thought I would ever even have any grandchildren. And, um, You know, I just love being outside and doing yard work and going on walks and hikes and like I'm just truly enjoying life and I really feel like that is the key. You can have all the wealth in the world. But if you don't have your health. It doesn't matter. Well said. Now I'm going to always end my guest episodes with this question. What was the most profound thing that you learned on your healing journey? Probably the most profound thing that I learned on my healing journey was that our Heavenly Father must always be part of the choices that we make because He knows all, and He will help you, and He will help you do it the right way. And because of that, I was able to make food my medicine. I was able to make those choices that really mattered, um, and because of that, continuing to make those choices in the food I eat now, it's organic foods that are first and foremost that I put in my diet. It's reading labels when I didn't used to do that before. It's making sure that I'm being careful with everything that goes in. Well mom, thank you so much for sharing your story today. I know it's going to resonate with so many people listening who may be going through their own healing journeys, whether it's cancer or a chronic disease or something like that. It's all tied together. Your strength and your wisdom have shaped so much of my perspective on wellness, and I'm so grateful for you. To everyone who's listening, I hope this episode gave you inspiration and encouragement. And if you enjoyed today's conversation, please share it with someone who needs to hear it. Don't forget to subscribe and we'll see you next time on Design Your Well Life.

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