Неизв. - Climbing Higher: Surviving and Thriving after Cancer

DEDICATIONDedicated to my son, Stephen Dobbin, for his love, help and support through this whole process.INTRODUCTION

In October 2016, at the end of my first book ( Still Going Strong), I wrote, What lies ahead for me as I enter my 70s? I have no plans to slow down. I want to keep backpacking and traveling for as long as I can. I think the longer I backpack, the longer I will be able to backpack, if you follow my logic. Little did I know that just seven months later, I would be in a hospital bed with a broken femur! I actually spent my seventy-first birthday in the hospital. Bummer! Looks like those no plans to slow down came to a screeching halt!

When my femur broke and the doctors told me I had cancer, I felt like it was a death sentence. My fear level went off the charts! Most of us have had relatives or people we know who have died from cancer. My maternal grandmother died of leukemia, and one of my brothers died from lung cancer. I was shocked! How could this happen to me?

I have always been a healthy eater. I had an organic garden in the 1970s when I was raising my kids in North Carolina. I canned and froze a lot of what I raised so we could eat it year-round. Since then I have always gravitated to organics when I could get them. I never did eat much in the way of fast foods and tried to cook healthy meals. I was never a big sugar eater, even though I did enjoy beer and ice cream.

So how could I get cancer?

Well, worrying about how I got it wasnt going to get me anywhere. I now had to figure out how to get rid of it! Is that possible? If it was going to be possible for me, I had to believe in what I was doing. And by the time I started figuring it out, I didnt have any choice in the matter. I already had cancer, but I decided I was not going to let it defeat me!

This book is my story. I am not a doctor or a medical researcher. I am just a person who does her own research and if it feels right, I try it. All my life I have been able to control my body through diet and exercise. This would be a challenge. Is it a surmountable challenge?

I had heard of people who have overcome cancer, could I do that? It would take a lot of research. I feel that I have tons of information at my fingertips with the internet and web sites. The biggest problem though is that it is TONS of information. There is a lot of sifting and sorting and deciding what will work or what wont work. And there isnt a lot of wiggle room when you already have a cancer diagnosis.

My journey from the hospital bed back to health took several routes. As I look at it, I dont want to discount any of them. I think each thing that I did made up part of the whole program. I had to experience part of Western Medicines approach to cancer (when I was sitting on the floor with my femur almost poking through my thigh, I definitely didnt think, Maybe Ill meditate, and this will go away! ). So yes, we called 911, and I was in the hospital for almost two weeks. What a wake-up call that was for me! On the other front: I used diet, supplements, meditation, positive thinking, exercise, and support from my family and friends to get well. I think all these things helped me to cure my body and get me back on the trail.

If you are reading this because you have been told you have cancer, please realize that I have NO medical training. I put together my healing process with my own research and through trial and error, using myself as a guinea pig. I didnt have a natural doctor or health care professional to advise me (other than a wonderful chiropractor in San Diego). I dont have any statistics to show what worked better than something else. This is my journey. I cant tell you how to put together your own program, but maybe you can learn and gather some information from mine. I wish you many years of good health as I plan on having many years myself. Eating healthy and staying healthy is a life-long process for me and for all of us. As Hippocrates said, Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.

If I were to just tell my cancer story, I think that would be pretty boring. Maybe not for you but for sure for me! So, I am also including more of my adventure stories interspersed at the end of each chapter. If you have read my first book, Still Going Strong, Backpacking and Adventures during my 60s , you will have read many of my stories already. These are a few that didnt make it in the first book (and believe me, I still have more stories). I guess I would call those stories comic relief. But some of them may give you a feeling for who I am. What gave me the strength to figure this out on my own? How did I decide which way to go? Why could I make the decisions I made and follow through on the plan I set for myself? How strong do you need to be to make a plan and stick to it? I will admit that it hasnt always been easy, but it sure has been worth it! I have been cancer-free since April of 2018. And I am planning on staying that way.

CHAPTER ONETHE BREAKMAY 27, 2017

I was walking down the carpeted stairs in my friends house. On the last step I turned to go toward the kitchen. I suddenly sat down on that bottom step and when I looked down at my left leg, it looked like the bone was going to poke right out through the skin.

Holy Shit! What has happened??? I have BROKEN my femur! How could that happen? I shouted, CALL 911! And get my cell phone and take photos! Ouch! (Now, that was an understatement!).

EVENTS LEADING UP TO THAT INSTANT

In the fall of 2016 (just after I self-published my book: STLL GOING STRONG) I took off on my usual winter trip to New Zealand. I have been going down there during our winter (their summer) for the last couple of years. I have actually been to New Zealand thirteen times now! After I had finished a wonderful five months in New Zealand hiking and backpacking, my Kiwi friend, Dianne, talked me into a three-week trip touring China which included walking part of the Great Wall. What a fun trip! And we did lots of walking and exploring. My left knee was bothering me a bit, but not enough to stop me.

The year before, my right knee had been bothering me. It would get a bump on the inside of the knee, and it would hurt when I was lying down or sleeping. When I took it easy, it went away. I asked a pharmacist in New Zealand, but she didnt have a clue to what it was. When I was back in the US, I got a chance to ask an orthopedic surgical assistant and, without hesitation, he said, Arthritis. He said his father, who was 70 (as I was), had the same thing show up even though he was very active and in shape. Exactly like me. My thoughts were, Oh well, I knew things would start getting harder as I got older. But I also knew that wouldnt be enough to keep me from being active.

So, when during the first few months of 2017, my left knee started bothering me (by now the right one had stopped hurting, go figure!). My first thought was Arthritis . I went to three different chiropractors during my time in New Zealand; all of them said, Its not your knee. They had differing ideas what it was: hips, ankles, back alignment, etc. Each adjustment helped a little but not a lot.

When I got back to the USA in April of 2017, I went to see my favorite chiropractor in San Diego, and he said (you guessed it), Its not your knee. He thought it was my IT Band and he did some work on that. Now let me tell you I have been Rolfed, had deep massage, and lots of body work, but nothing was as PAINFUL as that work on my IT Band! Whew! Again, a little help but not a lot.

So, now my thoughts are, Time for Western Medicine . On my way home from San Diego to Crested Butte, I made an appointment in Gunnison to have an orthopedic surgeon take an x-ray. Now you need a little backup on my lifestyle: I have been living a very freedom lifestyle since 2002. How that looks is that I live, by choice remember, in my truck. Thus, traveling is just what I do. I planned my travels to accommodate a dentist appointment in Grand Junction (three hours from Crested Butte) and the orthopedic surgeon in Gunnison (thirty miles from Crested Butte). All on my way home to Crested Butte from New Zealand!

Next page