John Minn…a little help please

Good morning! We sure hope all are fine today, and we’re hoping you all have had a great weekend. They don’t get here quick enough sometimes do they?

I’d like to visit with you guys today on Deb’s fight with terminal cancer. Briefly, we found out on April 28th that she was diagnosed with breast cancer, which had moved to another spot in her body, which is below her tracheal tube. Stage 4…no cure, and this part is very important…no cure. We like to address this as “in God’s hands,” which in reality it is, don’t you think?

I’m appealing to letter writer John Minn this morning because right after Deb’s diagnosis he dropped us a comment. In his comment he mentioned he and his brother had both beaten cancer. In doing this, they neither one had gone through chemo treatments.

John, if I’m misquoting, I apologize as I’m going off memory here buddy, and to be quite frank, the ole noggin’ ain’t what it used to be!

I did respond to your comment John and asked for more information in regards to the procedures used by you and your brother, but I never heard back. This I know was not your intention, but my e-mail may have gotten kicked into your spam, and this I feel to be the case.

This is why this morning I’ve put this out there hoping you will see this and get back in touch…it’d be greatly appreciated!
You were talking food and nutrition, and stated if we’d like to learn more, just ask. Well John, I’d like to hear anything you feel appropriate on this topic. Again, I feel my first e-mail to you probably was misdirected. Anyway…this is by no means “calling you out” John, only humbly asking for any knowledge you may, would like to share. That’s all.

The reasoning behind today’s discussion is simply we’ve hit upon a stumbling point in Deb’s battle with the cancer. Any input from anyone is appreciated and this is why I’m throwing this out there today…confusion in the direction we’re going in her fight. In reality though, I’m sure it’s confusion on the part of many, many others who have this dreaded disease as well.

Most of our confusion, and thoughts on this, or thoughts on that, have got to be experienced by many others, if not most, who are faced with decisions Deb and I are having to make daily. Are two heads not better than one, shoot, that’s what I’ve always heard. Well, as many as there are out there who are dealing with this as well, couldn’t, or shouldn’t we share among ourselves? I seem to think maybe we should.

Briefly, we got Deb’s diagnosis. The first group wanted to do a mastectomy. Deb decides on a second opinion, and this was happily condoned by all. The next group, who we have confidence in, states NO MASECTOMY, get treatment started…we say okay.

Still though, I felt this very concerning, scary actually, that we’d seen two separate groups, whose decisions on this same condition, varied so drastically??

We heard 6-8 treatments, every three weeks, then Deb goes to a pill. Now we find out, no pill, more treatments after chemo is done, every three weeks just as if we were doing chemo. This we’d not heard before, but now we are.

Okay, this kinda’ brings us to the present…
Prior to treatment, or even before treatment started, but the diagnosis in, Deb was a working Trojan! She was constantly involved in some type of regime daily. She has a GO button that once you push it, it’s very hard to find the dern stop button that tells her to “shut it down” for a while! Very self-motivated, very strong-willed, very tough, and very positive, she’s all these things. I attribute many of these fine traits to simply…living with me all these years!

After diagnosis, she went into an exercise routine, that honestly was killin’ my big ole rear-rend, but honestly she was so very inspiring just watching her, and her will to fight! She went immediately to eating right, juicing heavily, great appetite and an energy level right off the charts…until chemo.

BOOM, just like she’d ran into a brick wall. The first 8 days or so, absolutely no change in anything. About day nine and ten though, it was kicking her butt! It is amazing the difference, but we kinda’ expected this, just not to such an extreme.

We’d never been around cancer, hardly at all, and were, and still are newbies in this regard, BUT, since realizing our situation back in late April, we’ve turned over a ton of rocks looking for any type of cure, advice, or treatment that is out there. This I feel confident in saying that I’m sure most do the same as we have…trying to leave no stone unturned!

Now, the fork in the road we’ve hit is that Deb may no longer go the chemo route, and her decision comes this coming week, prior to her next appointment. I’m pretty sure she is going to refuse this type of treatment any more.

A couple things in this regard. First, she is no whiner by any means, and tough as nails, I know this. So, I know without a doubt she’s not making her decision from the standpoint of not being tough enough.

To the contrary, I believe she’s basing her decision on the chemo NOT ALLOWING her to be tough enough. In other words, I feel that she’s seen such a mental change in her attitude that she knows, she can’t keep up her end of this fight through, positivity, mental toughness, exercise, right down to making coherent decisions in regards to her situation. The chemo doesn’t allow her this, and if this is the case, she’s asking herself what’s the best decision I can make.

She’s saying that basically, now I’m involved in the game, but what do I feel the best opportunity for me to compete well, and the end result, being the winning of the game!

As you know, Thursday before last, we spent from 4 in the afternoon, until 10 at night in the emergency room at the hospital here in Haines City. Her Doctor scheduled a cat scan and follow up x-rays to be done immediately. This was on account of chest and back pains Deb was experiencing.

So we take off to the hospital, and once arriving there, she gets to visit with the doctors. The whole scare behind these pains from the doctor’s perspective? Blood clots in the lungs…from chemotherapy. Not from the cancer…but from the chemo! That was an eye opener, too! Is it possible the treatment to help you is actually killing you? It makes you stop and think things over again.

The Doctor on duty that night did tell Deb, that blood clots forming from chemo therapy are not uncommon. We both thought…isn’t that nice?

So what is the right thing for you to do? I guess it depends on the person, how you feel in regards to what is best for you. The problem we are having now, is nowhere, and I mean nowhere, can you find anything good in regards to chemo.

Is it the best treatment out there? Well, according to the medical profession…it is. Is it good for you? Again, according to the medical profession, no it isn’t. This stuff just destroys the immune system. Kids, or grandkids sick? Don’t get around them, may create problems…serious problems.

Temperature of 101? Get to the Doctor…immediately.

So basically, once more, to Deb I believe, it boils down to…quality of life. She loves us all, as we do her in return, so, after talking with the kids as well, we have told her, that whatever decision she makes, is fine with us all, and it is.

We realize what the end result may be, but this is in God’s hands, but we will not ask her to do one thing that SHE doesn’t want to do…bottom line. We are here to support her in HER decisions, not make her decisions for her.

Honestly, I have to say that after seeing her change from pre-chemo, to after chemo, the difference is dramatic…and this was ONE treatment, though they did tell her that during her initial treatment they’d “rock her.” But, we’ve also been told as more of this is introduced into her body through further treatments, it’d, the treatments, would probably get worse, as more of the chemo was introduced into her body…

Now, my point to this is simply, we’ll not stop doing all in our power we can do! That’s why I’m asking John Minn for any info he might be willing to share with us in regards to him and his brother winning their fight against cancer.

Any other help or suggestions would be appreciated by anyone out there as well.

Again, I’m not trying to confuse anyone out there with cancer at all. These are just questions, doubts, thoughts, and idea’s that go through Deb and my minds since finding out she has cancer.

We want to make good coherent decisions in regards to this, but what are they? We’ll have to wait and see.

We believe exercise, nutrition, juicing, keeping the positive attitude, and knowing in your heart and mind we can whip this, are all very, very important factors in this fight, and if we go down…we’re going down swinging…with the Good Lord’s help!!

To all you out there with this terrible disease, please understand you all are in our thoughts and prayers, as we’re in so many of yours. Our heart goes out to you and your families, and we wish the very best to you and yours!

Thank you all for your concerns and prayers for Deb, and once more, you have no idea how much they mean
to us both!
In closing we wish good health, good family and good friends to each and every one of you. God Bless!
As Deb says, “Keep a smile on your face, and one in your hearts!”

Dub and Deb

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6 Responses to John Minn…a little help please

  1. jwlrymkr says:

    It doesn’t get any better my friend. The forth round my wife had last week was just terrible. She is lucky if she gets to feel better for just a few days before the next round.
    I too would love to hear how John and his brother beat this nasty disease. Keeping you and Deb in my prayers my friend

  2. bob says:

    Dear Dub & Deb,
    First, Deb, starting today you’re on my prayer list. Second, cancerdefeated.com has all kinds of material. Third, food grade hydrogen peroxide plus DISTILLED water. You start off with 6 drops/glass, increasing it a drop per day until you hit 25, then ramp down to the maintenance dose of 6 drops. I do this personally as a preventative (No, I’ve never had cancer, praise God, and I hope to keep it that way.) Fourth, drink as much puree of canned asparagus as you can. I have no experience with this, and I hate asparagus to boot, but the evidence of the efficacy of this strange procedure seems to be legitimate.

    cancerdefeated.com markets information on both of the methods I’ve outlined and much, much more.

    Last, and most important, if you haven’t already, turn it over to Jesus Christ, for with his stripes are we healed.

    Isaiah 53:4* Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5* But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

    Please feel free to contact me if you have difficulty finding the information I’ve suggested. In that case, I’ll get more drastic and step through my archives to provide the explicit information.

    In Christ Jesus,

    Bob Anderson

  3. susan elaine says:

    I’m so sorry you two are facing such a huge challenge. I lost my 25 year old son to leukemia in 2008 so I also HATE cancer!!! I want to share this video with you of a very promising protocol having great success in Texas by Dr. Burzynski. I was unaware of this when my son was sick. We had all our hopes tied up in traditional treatment and bone marrow transplant. Of course, we lost the battle. When I saw this film – I felt very happy to know that there are people out there with a “death sentence” diagnosis who are beating the odds. And quite a few of them! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0ibsoqjPac&feature=related

  4. susan elaine says:

    Oh – there is no fee to watch the video, Dub. You just have to wait about 10-15 seconds at the start and then it will proceed. Well worth watching, in my opinion. Best to you and Deb!!

  5. Kunoichi says:

    First off, great big hugs to both of you. May God keep you both wrapped in his arms in this difficult time.

    There is just so much confusion about cancer! Of course, with all the different types of cancer, all of which behave differently, it’s even more confusing. What works for one type, won’t for another. What works for one person many not work for another with the same type. What to do?

    I completely understand your comments of quality of life. I’ve never had cancer, though I’ve had a recent “cancer scare” (I get the impression I was the only one not scared by it). I have family members who have fought different types of cancer. A year ago I lost a cousin who’s lukemia had been in remission. He decided against doing chemo again when it came back. He just couldn’t go through that a second time.

    It’s such a hard decision to make! Personally, when the possibility that I had cancer came up, I already knew I didn’t want to do chemo. Of course, who knows what would have happened if George turned out not to be a giant cyst. Perhaps I would have been convinced otherwise.

    I don’t see refusing chemo as giving up or quitting. There is a tendancy for the medical community in both Canada and the US to view chemo as the *only* way to treat cancer. This is not true in other countries, which tend to be more accepting of a broader range of treatments. It sounds like Deb prefers to take an active role in her own treatment, and the chemo is forcing her to take a passive role. At what point is the cure worse than the disease? How does one make an informed decision, when there is so much contradictory advice out there?

    There’s nothing I can really say to help, other than to let you all know I’m still keeping you in my thoughts and prayers, and wish you both the best. Thank you for keeping us informed in these difficult times.

  6. Kathy says:

    As a cancer survivor myself, and the daughter of one who succombed to this awful disease in 1990 at age 69, I highly recommend you purchase Bernie Siegel’s first two books, Love. Medicine & Miracles and Peace, Love & Healing. My mother found them helpful as have many people to whom I have lent them over the years. He has written others since but I have not read them so cannot comment on them.

    If there is a chapter of the American Cancer Society near you, please attend their meetings. Dub, Deb might benefit from being with those who are going through the same thing she is. This was the case for my mother. That is not to say you are not doing everything you can, by any means, but I do know my very loving husband didn’t understand fully how I felt and I sometimes felt alone and frustrated.

    My mother had had breast cancer when she was 45 and had a radical mastectomy. All was well for many years until she contracted lung cancer, which was treated successfully with chemo and radiation. I remember celebrating Mother’s Day thinking my mom was going to be OK. Unfortunately, the cancer was a very aggressive type and it had spread to her liver. Her oncologist prescribed chemo again but did not tell us my mother’s condition was terminal and that the chemo was an experimental new formulation. I don’t know if he told her.

    What this drug did to my mother, both physically and to her usually calm persona, made the last few months of her life hell for her and her family. As many lovely memories I have of my mother, the memories of the last few months seem to always intrude. She never complained but I think the quality of the end of her life would have been much better if not for that experimental drug.

    You are in my prayers. Feel free to contact me if you think I can be of any help.

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