Our Fling with Cancer
It was on a road trip that my husband, Rocco, discovered the lump on his left shoulder. We had a surgeon friend look at it. “It’s probably nothing but you’d better get it checked out.”
Several months later, we finally got the diagnosis. Follicular lymphoma with an enlarged lymph node next to the clavicle. I’ll never forget the Friday afternoon that the doctor called us with the test results. “Your cancer has spread – you’re in stage 4. And so you don’t qualify for our treatment plan.”
That was a pretty dark weekend. I remember God impressing me with Isaiah 41:10. Fear thou not, for I am with thee; Be not afraid for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee. I will help thee. I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.
It’s a slow-growing cancer – but 15 years can go by very quickly. There were treatment plans but no cures. There were clinical trials but none within driving distance. The doctor we finally selected advised us to wait before starting treatment.
In the meantime, what? We were already eating healthy. That summer we both went on a modified raw diet plan. We both lost a few pounds but the lymph node grew.
Green smoothies. Salads. Raw vegetables. Beans. The lymph node kept growing.
That winter we did a prayer and anointing service with our church elders. The lymph node didn’t instantly disappear, but it was about that time that strawberries started coming available. I got in the habit of buying them, especially when they went on sale. And we started eating them almost every morning.
And it was also about that time that Rocco discovered some amazing research on strawberries and esophageal cancer. Patients with precancerous changes in the esophagus were treated with freeze-dried strawberries – the equivalent of over a pound a day of fresh berries. After the study, 80% of those on the high dose strawberry treatment reversed their disease. And half of the treated subjects walked away completely disease free.
Now, what Rocco had was completely different from esophageal cancer. But why not try it? We were already eating strawberries after all.
One morning while Rocco was putting his shirt on, I noticed something. “Wait. Is there any chance that that lymph node is getting smaller?” Yes, he had noticed it too. A few months later and the swelling was completely gone.
Does Rocco still have lymphoma? Probably. It would take thousands of dollars to repeat the scans. But it’s been 5 years and the swelling is still gone. The blood tests are normal. We thank God for answered prayer. And yes, we still eat strawberries for breakfast!
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Chen, T., Yan, F., Qian, J., Guo, M., Zhang, H., Tang, X., … Wang, X. (2012). Randomized phase II trial of lyophilized strawberries in patients with dysplastic precancerous lesions of the esophagus. Cancer Prevention Research (Philadelphia, Pa.), 5(1), 41–50. http://doi.org/10.1158/1940-6207.CAPR-11-0469