In February, 1975, I was diagnosed with malignant cervical cancer. I
had no pain or other symptoms, and would not have had any idea I was sick if the cancer
had not shown up on my annual Pap test, which had come back from the lab marked
"Class Five: conclusive for malignancy." I received the news from a concerned
receptionist at my gynecologist’s office, who said I should come in and have another
test taken so they could double-check the results. I did, and spent the next few days
wondering whether I would die, or ever be able to have children. And then the same results
came back.
It’s funny. There I was, young and seemingly healthy, listening to my doctor
describe something hidden within my own body that had the power to kill me - or at the
very least to substantially change me. He described all the options at my disposal,
invasive procedures every one, starting with what’s called a conization, in which a
cone-shaped section of my cervix would be cut out, hopefully taking all the cancerous
tissue along with it. But that might not be enough, he told me. I might still need a
hysterectomy - the removal of my cervix and uterus, and perhaps my ovaries as well.
As I thought about what my doctor said, I became convinced that the line of treatment
he outlined was all wrong for me. It seemed painful, complicated, and disharmonious with
nature.
I started feeling that I am not my body - that ultimately, my life was in God’s
hands. There was a part of me that said, "Thank you, God, for giving me this
experience. My body is a channel through which I experience this life." But there was
another part of me that had a keen desire to live a long and healthy life. I was not going
to let anything take away my potential for motherhood.
At that time in my life, I learned
how to meditate. Through meditation, I’d developed a very strong center, and there weren’t
many things that could shake me up. Two years earlier, I had spent a few months in India
with my Master. After that I’d moved into an ashram. I was a committed vegetarian,
dabbled in Hatha Yoga, and was curious about Eastern philosophy and medicine. I had come
to believe that with any disease, just treating the symptom isn’t enough. The
imbalance that created it will just find new territory to invade and destroy. Thus, I
believed that the Pap test was telling me something: I felt that there was a stagnation
and a depression within my reproductive system. Cleansing and rejuvenating the area
through natural means made unqualified sense to me. Before I tried anything invasive, like
surgery, I had to give my body a chance to respond to non-invasive, natural methods.
This was many years ago, but I still remember with remarkable clarity how I felt
when I was trying to explain this to my doctor. My heart was beating a mile a minute as I
asked him whether I could give natural methods a try for a month and be retested then. He
just looked at me and said, "Jill, I don’t think we can work with you anymore.
We really want you in the hospital this week."
I left the gynecologist’s office shaken. I felt like a child who had defied the
school principal and gotten expelled. I’d never challenged an authority figure
before; I’d always been a basically obedient, law-abiding person. I was disheartened,
but I had to do what I believed was right.
At the time, I was taking a course called "The Theory of Oriental Medicine"
with Ralph Alan Dale, Ph.D., an acupuncturist and author of Acupuncture With Your
Fingers: An 18-point Healing System (Dialectic Press, 1989). I told Dr. Dale about my
diagnosis, and on his advice I telephoned Michio Kushi, a nationally-known authority on
macrobiotics and founder of the Kushi Institute in Massachusetts. Macrobiotics is a
natural diet and lifestyle system based on the oriental principles of yin and yang and
their presence in whole, organic foods. It is aimed at restoring an energetic balance and
wellness through diet and lifestyle changes.
Over the years, thousands of people have
tried the macrobiotic approach to cure
themselves of cancer and other diseases; diets typically are customized to suit an
individual’s unique needs. Kushi suggested I immediately start on an extreme
macrobiotic diet that required me to eat nothing but cooked brown rice for ten days.
Chewed many times in a relaxed and meditative atmosphere, the rice became a liquid that I
visualized would bring loving, life-giving and healing energy to my body and mind. After
ten days, I gradually added other grains, vegetables, seaweeds, seeds, beans, miso soup,
and a small amount of fruit to my meals. I steamed the vegetables or sautéed them in
small amounts of cold-pressed oil. I eliminated all spices and flavorings except for
tamari. At every meal, I meditated on how the food I was eating had been created just for
me, to heal my body , and cooked with love. I taught myself to think of the food as my
healing tonic, my medicine.
Dr. Dale, also referred me to a local acupuncturist and herbalist, who I’d visit
twice a week. After my acupuncture treatments, he’d take me into a little kitchen
area and offer me sweet potatoes and herbal tea, and then give me a hard little ball of
herbs - about a half-inch in diameter - that I would chew on. I never asked him what they
were ( he spoke very little English), but I’ve since learned that Chinese medicine
uses many different herbs to treat cervical cancer. My sessions usually lasted about an
hour.
Thinking back, it seems really odd to me that I never thought to ask this acupuncturist
what he was giving me. But I have to remind myself that this was in the mid 1970’s,
when patients didn’t question their doctors - even the non-traditional ones. Back
then, I was enough of a rebel to see an acupuncturist in the first place!
On my own, to augment the macrobiotics and Chinese medicine, I placed heated
castor oil
packs on my abdomen for about twenty minutes a day. I had read that Edgar Cayce, the
psychic healer, had used this method to treat cervical cancer. Cayce used to go into a
psychic trance, from which he could determine specific treatments for each patient. His
prescriptions were later cross-referenced and compiled into books so that people like me
could use them as well.
After a month, I made an appointment with my mother’s gynecologist ( I had decided
not to return to my own original doctor). He was not a lot happier with my decision to
forgo standard treatment than my first doctor had been, and wanted to perform cryosurgery
which would mean freezing my cervix to slow the growth of the abnormal cells. I refused.
He finally agreed to give me a Pap test. This time, the results were better, showing some
pre-cancerous lesions on my cervix. Still not normal, he said, but remarkably improved. It
was enough for me, though: I was convinced my cancer was in remission and that I was on
the right path.
It has always amazed me how many people can learn that there is something seriously
wrong with their bodies and then go on living the same sort of lives, thinking that just
because they are taking some drug (or getting acupuncture or using some herbs) everything
is going to be better. I believed then - and still believe today - that we also must do
something to change the environment from which our diseases form. In my case, I felt an
incredible pull to travel. So off I went.
With a few good friends, I visited Peru and Venezuela. We had no itinerary; we just
knew we wanted to hike in the Andes and spend some time among the descendants of the
Incas. I felt that leaving the cities of North America would be an essential part of
my healing process. On the trip, I kept up the simple "rice and beans"
macrobiotic diet I had begun. I carried my
own cooking utensils and brown rice in my backpack, and I supplemented my diet with
organic vegetables grown by the indigenous people whose villages we visited.
Walking through ancient ruins and sleeping in primitive dwellings, I began to feel a
sense of clarity about my life. Out of my familiar urban environment, I was at peace with
myself and the world. I believe it was a major component in my healing to break away from
the routines and unhealthy energy of my life back home at that time.
I felt so much better when I got back home in June. I was certain that my cancer was on
its way out of my body. I went to my new doctor for another Pap test. This time the result
was normal. The doctor warned me that this test result was no guarantee that the cancer
was gone - it could be just a temporary improvement, he said. But I knew better. And
I’ve had a Pap test every year since then, and each one has been normal.
Two and a half years after I returned from South America, I gave birth to my son Aaron,
who is now twenty -six and works in the corporate banking field. I’ve never had a
recurrence of cervical cancer. Since my cure, I moved to Texas, where I lived as a
vegetarian and relied on natural healing methods on those rare occasions when I fall ill.
Cancer swept me into a reality of how temporary and precious it is to have a human body.
It was one of the wake-up calls of my life.
Thank you all for reading my article.
For the past twenty-nine years, since this challenge of cancer, I have
researched first hand a variety of modalities for keeping me balanced and
healthy. I have been very attracted to raw foods, juices, juice fasting
for detoxification, enemas and colonic
irrigation, and have become a therapist
helping others to rejuvenate and heal themselves of disease. I guide many
people through the process of detoxification just using organic juices, ocean
setting, massage, energy healing, enemas and colonics and lots of
TLC. I am just
completing a book and
musical CD of songs
for healing called Romancing Life. E-mail
and ask to be placed on mailing list.
Call me at (561) 638-8873 or e-mail
Resources:
Hysterectomy Information: http://www.hersfoundation.com/facts.html
Sans
Uteri, an online group with one very big goal: to develop a worldwide
network of women to discuss hysterectomy, the challenges it creates & to
help women facing hysterectomy.
The Gerson Institute:
In 1975 I used Macrobiotics to heal my cancer, today I would use the Gerson
Method.
Dr. Richard Schulze: Natural Healing Publications 1-877
Teach Me (832-2463)
The Edgar Cayce Companion by Edgar Cayce and B. Ernest Frejer (A.R.E. Press, 1995)
*Published Article in Natural Health
Magazine
Nov/Dec Issue, 1997, More Hot Chocolate for the Mystical Soul by Arielle Ford. 2000,
Inner Self On-Line Magazine, and translated into Arabic for a women's
holistic healing magazine in Kuwait.
