Stage one: Getting to know the enemy> Cancer

In the summer of 1999 my family's life changed forever.

My wife was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Most people think it will never happen to them.
Until the doctor approached me after the initial operation, I was in denial. It hits you like a ton of bricks. Some of the initial thoughts are; We are not going to have any more children, I must be dreaming, this can't be happening, why us? How am I going to raise a two year old by myself? (the scariest thought of all)

The hardest part of the whole thing was the first post-op meeting with the Doctor to discuss chemo. My wife's Dr. considers ovarian cancer a chronic condition. On the way home we start crying. We realize death is a possibility. You start thinking about all the horror stories you have heard about chemo. This can't be happening.

The next Saturday is the beginning of my favorite sporting event. The Tour De France.
I had known about Lance Armstrong's struggle with cancer. I have a brother in Austin Texas who I use to ask how Lance was doing. He would tell me not so good. We all know how that story turned out. I'm downstairs watching the opening prologue of the Tour and am given my first positive hope for beating cancer. If Lance can do it, so can my wife. The next question is how?

My wife tells me that she feels I am the key to her survival. We get Lance's book, It's not About the Bike. The part that sticks out in my mind is the advice he receives about nutrition. He is told to eat broccoli and free range chicken. I ask myself why?

I am a research junky. The Internet is going to become a wonderful tool use to gain the knowledge we need. To this day I still read as many different articles and newsletters about health that I can. Why do we get cancer? How does cancer grow?

The more I read, the more I become convinced that diet is the biggest key to beating cancer. We also realize that our diets need a major overhaul. We had been eating a lot of processed foods. I find out later that more changes are going to be needed.
A few of my favorite sources of information are; The Weston A. Price Foundation, Dr. Mercola, Dr. Jonathan Wright.

Stage 2: It's back

Ovarian Cancer is monitored with blood test measuring what is called the ca-125 level.
In the fall of 2001 my wife's ca-125 level begins to increase for the first time since her first bout with cancer. Why? A MRI shows an enlarged lymph node in her abdomen. During the initial surgery in 1999, two cancerous lymph nodes had been removed. In March 2003, the lymph node is finally big enough to biopsy. Sure enough it's cancer. She has the lymph node removed, fortunately no other tissue in her abdomen shows any sign of cancer. During the first post-op meeting we are told she must go through more chemo. Some of my thoughts at this time are;
This cancer is tougher that we thought, What other changes to we need to make?

Stage 3: Brain tumor

She finishes round two of chemo by August, 2003. Are we finally done with this? We get the answer to that in September 2003. One night my wife is reading a bed time story to our daughter. She is having trouble. My daughter ask her, mommy why can't you read the story?
the next day my wife call her internist. He tells us it is probably nothing but stress, but decides to schedule an MRI of her brain for the next Friday evening.

The next Monday morning one of my wife's co-workers calls me with some more bad news. The MRI shows a brain tumor. I have to take my wife back to Barnes Hospital asap. I am so upset I almost miss the exit on the highway. I pull up outside the office building where she works and she is outside shaking. The co-worker helps her into our car, we go to Barnes.

The neurosurgeons come into her room and are very concerned. They can't believe that her sight hasn't been effected yet. They keep testing her sight by having her follow their fingers as they move them from side to side in front of her face. This is some scary stuff.
That Wednesday brain surgery is scheduled. When we have to say goodbye, we're more scared than we have ever been in our lives. We realize my wife may never be the same person again. What if the brain is damaged during surgery?

A few hours later and I feel like the luckiest man alive when the surgeons tell me everything went great. It gets even better when I go to see her in the recovery room. She is wide awake and doesn't seem any different than she did before this episode began.

What's next? Getting to know Radiation. We find out the next week that she is going to undergo three weeks of radiation. Afterwards she tells me radiation is harder to go through than chemo.

Next: Stage 4: Becoming more aggressive against this enemy.