My Healing Odyssey - The Beginning

This Blog entry should have started April 1, 2008. However, on that day, I wasn't in the mood for writing. At the cancer clinic, I was told I had Stage IV breast cancer with metastasis in the liver. SHOCK. After 12 years in remission, I had hoped I was "cured".
To give you a bit of a backgrounder, we have to go back to 1996: In June of that year I found a lump in my right breast. After several tests (mammogram, biopsy)on July 4, I was told I had breast cancer. In medical lingo: Grade III, receptor positive (ER 2+, PR 2+), infiltrating ductal carcinoma of the right breast, T2 (3 cm), N1 (8/9), etc. etc.
I couldn't believe it. I thought I was healthy. There was hardly a weekend my boyfriend Jacob and I didn't go hiking, skiing, or scrambling in the Canadian Rockies. As avid cross-country skiers, we had participated in numerous ski races. Cancer doesn't happen to fit and active outdoors people, so I thought. Now I know that health is much more than fitness.
Five days after the diagnosis, I started on the medical roller coaster ride, with Jacob on my side: surgery (mastectomy), then, a month later, several rounds of "standard" chemotherapy, then, in November, five days of continuous high-dose chemotherapy, followed by an autologous stem cell transplant, and last but not least, by five weeks of radiation therapy. In plain English: stem cells in my bone marrow were "harvested" and stored in frozen nitrogen, then my body was blasted with high dose chemotherapy with the goal to kill every cancer cell. However, the chemotherapy also killed my immune system, and, after my stem cells had been returned to my body, they took about a week to rebuild my immune system. During that time, I was hovering between life and death, was given multiple antibiotics and fed intravenously.
If you're interested in getting the juicy details about this type of treatment, check out Alan Hobson's book Climb Back From Cancer (www.climbback.com).
In the spring of 1997, after I finished the last radiation treatment, I vowed that if I ever returned to the cancer clinic, it would only be as a "visitor". Jacob and I started to rebuild our lives, by getting married, building a house and moving to Canmore, at the eastern edge of the Canadian Rockies. However, I struggled for years to regain confidence in my body, and to come to terms with the side effects from the treatment, namely menopause, infertility, and bone density loss. I now wish someone had given me tools and resources to deal with this and to prevent a possible reoccurrence.
Over the years, I tried many different vitamin regimens, supplements, and natural hormone balancing with progesterone cream, never knowing whether these measures would actually help me heal. By establishing a home-based business, and later, working for Jacob's business (also in our home office), I thought I had a fairly stress-free and healthy life. We resumed our outdoor activities, especially now that the mountains and trails were at our doorstep. To read about some of our more exotic trips, go to www.stratalink.com/stratavarious
Since the second diagnosis, I've realized that I need to make major changes in my life, addressing all levels of my being -- physical, emotional, and spiritual -- in order to move towards healing. I am hoping that my experiences and insights will be helpful for others dealing with cancer.