Thursday, October 15, 2009

Story of Maribel C. Lim Manila, Philippines (Updated: February 2009)

Living with any serious disease can be difficult and challenging. I know how each one of you who has a serious ailment feels...I have also fellt that way...more than two years ago.

After reading the MRI result in July of 2001, my husband and I went from one doctor to another to find out the best way to extend my life, to be cured of my cancer. Three, four, five... seven... I can no longer co count how many oncologists we've been to... all specialist in paancreatic cancer, a kind of cancer in which the patient has little chance of getting cured. This is the most aggressive form of cancer. Too little time is given to you to think... if you are still able to think straight ggiven your serious condition.

When I had the courage to ask the doctor how long I will live if I would not undergo operation, his response stunned me...6 months only, one yyear at the most.

When I heard those words...I felt the world standing still. Everythhing the doctor was saying was incomprehensible. I felt like a prisoner handed a death sentence. During those moments I felt numbness all over my body. What I could only feel at that time were tears running down my cheeks.

Like any other person with serious ailment, I wanted a speedy cure. At that time, the fastest solution...and the only solution we know of is surgery...nothing else. I braced myself for a 12-24 hour opeeration...my gallbladder will be removed, part of my liver, stomach annd duodenum will be taken away. But if during surgery it is discovered that the tumor which was then 2 inches round was too intimate or too close to the pancreas, they will not remove it, and instead terminate the surgery by closing the incision. Of course, the other parts of my body will have already been destroyed.

I consented to surgery even if it would be very difficult on my part rather than waiting defenseless... because at that time...again...it was the only solution we knew...until...the ishe issue of blood came up. You have not asked me, but I am one of Jehovah's Witnesses and as such we adhere strictly to a Bible-based standard to avoid the use of blood, including the blood transfusion.

My doctors would be indignant each time my refusal to accept blood transfusion would be brought up...threat...pressure...intimidatmidation...These, they resorted to, just so I would agree to a surgery usiing blood.

Every consultation would just result in depression, since it was impossible for me to be operated on without the use of blood...and I would neever compromise the firm foundation of the Bible teaching to abstain from blood...even if this would man losing my life.This is the main reason why I was not operated on...thanks to beingg a Jehovah's Witnesss...and my strict compliance with Bible sstandard of abstaining from blood...otherwise, I would have gone underr the knife...must have been through chemotherapy, or cobalt...o€¦or would not have been here before you alive beacuase I would have been 6 feet under the ground.

So, what would we do? My husband and I started researching...we reaad numerous books...until we discovered a different kind of treatment,, which is called 'Alternative Treatment'. We tried this approach...we learned that to treat a disease, the whole body is involveed. In my case, it is not enough to focus on my diseased pancreas but to include my whole body as well. We learned holistic treatment...a form off treatment that includes the whole body not just he affected part.

Each night we read a different book. We stayed late just to learn more about alternative treatment. Each research confirmed our conviction that surgery was not the only solution...in fact, it was not even required. Wee only has to change our lifestyle, what we have been used to. Alternative treatment is not easy, one has to be patient...self-discipline is impoortant...you just have to believe in what you are doing.

In my case, we started from nothing, zero knowledge with respect to alternative treatment. Added to this was the fact that we were running against time, very short...just six months. Each moment must not be wasted every move must be precise...each decision, crucial. Each wrongg move meant one big step backward...only to start all over again.

One very difficult aspect of having cancer is having many 'well-meaning' people around you, who just want to be sympathetic and offer any help or suggestion the best way they know. Each one of them has an opinion to give, a little pressure here and there for
you to try this or that or just plain counsel on what to do given my situation. Of course, you get confused...but I have learned not to be carried away by pressure. Thhe most important thing to consider the moment you know that you have cancer is to stay focused and not to be swayed by mere talk.

While we were researching, making the first move seemed difficult. Especially since we were not sure if we were doing the right thing. We rested our hope on what we learned from our readings. We were not sure if things would be easy for us, nor were we convinced that it was the right track towards recovery.

I admit, many times I lost confidence in what my husband and I were doing. Many nights in bed, the thought of not seeing the dawn of a new day gripped me. Once I had the painful attacks, I had this desire to undergo operation...but again thinking about the blood issue, this firmed up my deciision to go ahead with the alternative treatment.

I took so many food supplements...a variety of them...whateveever it is that I read, I would buy...whoever would give me, I would acccept. But I realized that it was not enough. Until one evening...I hadd a severe attack. I felt as if there was a fresh deep wound stomach being gnawed by a rat. I woke up my husband and told him that perhaps it was already my end. I was hoping that we could find a treatment for me, hopefully herbal medicine. We prayed fervently to Jehovah God to help us find a medicine that would directly address my ailment.

The following day, a Chinese sister in faith, visited me and made an appointed with a cancer researcher who introduced the medicine TIAN XIAN or commonly called CHINA NO. 1. I had heard of a fellow Jehovah's Witness who was then into this kind of medication. When we arrived at the Green & Gold International Exports Office in Dapitan cor. Banaue, we were welcomed by a kind and very knowledgeable specialist in alternative treatment, Mr. Manuel Kiok. He showed us the China 1 packet and explained to us its effect to the body of a cancer patient like me.

For the first time after I was diagnosed with cancer, my heart was overflowing with joy. Now, I have hope. Through Mr. Kiok, China 1 will help extend my life, much better than the 6 months to one year lease on life if I would not undergo surgery.On the first weeks of taking China 1, combined with China number 6 capsules, I remember emitting black wastes from my body. At the start it seemed that my disease was counteracting the medicine. There was some kind of wrestling going on inside my body every time I took China 1. I knew then that the medicine was proving to be effective. So I continued the medicine hoping that one day I would be pronounced fully cured.

Six months has passed, I am still alive. Still weak, still uncertain and the only test I was doing to measure the degree of malignancy of my cancer is thru HCG-Human Chorionic Gonadotropin. The test is based on a theory proposed by Dr. Howard Beard and other researchers who contend that cancer is related to a misplaced trophoblast cell that become malignant in a manner similar to pregnancy in that they both secrete HCG. As a consequence, a measure of the amount of HCG found in the urine is also a measure of the degree of malignancy. The higher the number, the greater the severity of the cancer.

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