End-stage carcinoma
Last Updated Aug 2007
Dear Dr. Sears,
I became ill in January of this year. My symptoms included shortness of breath,
pain in my chest and crackles in my lungs. I thought that I had pneumonia so I
went to my doctor, and he sent me to a lung specialist. The lung specialist
ordered a catscan and a bronchoscopy. On Jan. 27, 2003, I went to the lung
specialist for the results of the tests that he had ordered. He told me that I had
end-stage bronchialalveolar carcinoma, and that there was nothing that could be
done for me medically speaking. I was too far gone, the cancer had spread
throughout my lungs and that I would die in six to 12 months. Needless to say I
was shocked. I am 41 years old and the mother of two beautiful daughters. I made
up my mind to save my own life because nobody else was going to save me. The
doctor told me to spend the rest of my days with my family and make the best of my
remaining time.
I did make the best of my time. I went on the Zone, specifically following the
recommendations in the chapter entitled "Cancer and the Zone" (in "The OmegaRx
Zone"). For the next few months I got sicker and sicker. The cancer in my lungs
was spreading quickly. I was hospitalized in March and everyone, my family,
friends and my doctors thought that I was going to die -- very soon. I never gave
up hope, and I stuck to the Zone Diet for people with cancer, an almost impossible
thing to do if you are in the hospital where the food is notoriously bad. I had
friends and family bring me in Zone food, and although I wasn't particularly
hungry, I ate to keep my strength up. On March 17, 2003, I qualified to be in the
experimental trial for the drug called Iressa. That is the day I started getting
better, but I did not start actually taking the drug until March 20, 2003, the same
day that the doctor released me from the hospital so that I could die at home.
Boy, did I surprise them. On March 21 I got up and made my own breakfast. Before
that I couldn't even walk from my hospital bed to the bathroom, six feet away
without gasping for air and feeling faint. On March 22 I started doing Pilates
exercises again. On March 23 I wanted to go into the city and eat in my favorite
restaurant (Zone food, of course). By the end of the week I was off oxygen, and my
blood oxygen saturation levels had risen from a low of 80 percent on 10 litres of
oxygen the week before to 92 percent without oxygen. The next week my blood O2
saturation level was up to 98 percent -- normal. I had a chest X-ray done in late
May, and the cancer is 90 percent gone. I am training to be in a triathlon in
August. I bike 25 km. a day, run 5 kms. a day, and swim.