DiseaseFreedom – STAGE 4 TO CANCER FREE! Having having won her fight with Cancer, Leisa Dargis shares her knowledge of holistic and natural cures.
This Site is devoted to sharing the knowledge that I have gained in hopes that it will give you the courage to go into the battle with “disease” including cancer, with a positive attitude. knowing that you can beat it and Live Life!
Excitation built as we readied for our much anticipated escape out of the country. In retrospect, my sensitivity and intuitive nature was only preceded by denial. As I bent to lift a final piece of luggage I felt a “ping” in the center of my back. The gravity of the condition was ignored. Intuitively I knew that this was not a simple passing ache or pain. This was different, it was scary.
So scary in fact, that my silence was only solidified. Under no terms, long or short, was I prepared for the nightmare before us. Let alone, admit that at the age of forty-three, mother of 3 sons, loving them and loving life, that there was a potential, of my being served with an expiration date. An expiration date suggesting that I would be sharing the upcoming Christmas with the living, but there would not be another.
Ignoring intuition and trying to convince myself that I had only pulled a muscle, I remained in denial until the pain was unbearable. Sitting was impossible and standing became more and more difficult. I was spending most of my precious time lying in bed. After several weeks, the pain steadily progressing, I was not able to stand long enough to even prepare a simple dinner. I had to lie down. Despite my short lived battle with denial, a night came when I was unable I had to lie down.
Unable to complete a walk to the bathroom. I made it only as far as the counter inside of the bathroom doorway. Unable to move I slid down to the floor and called a friend for help. I was grateful for having my phone but had not left the front door unlocked. How was she going to get in, to be my savior? I had to slide across the floor, trying to ignore an excruciating pain radiating through my body. Once the door was unlocked I remained at the doorway until her arrival. I could no longer deny my dire situation. I had to make a dreaded trip to the hospital. But I could not move myself nor could my friend. I had to be transported by ambulance. A sling was created out of a bed sheet and slid under me so I could be lifted and placed onto the gurney. The seriousness of my predicament was undeniable; I was in shock, what was happening to me? I am in deep shit!
Once at the hospital, I was transferred to a hospital bed and was told I would have to wait for the doctor before any medication would be dispensed for the pain. When the doctor arrived, after what seemed like an eternity, I explained everything that had transpired up until my arrival in the emergency room. He ordered a pain killer and a muscle relaxer to be administered intravenously. I was told this would relieve the pain. It did not! He ordered an x-ray but the technician was not able to get an x-ray since she was unable to move me without muscle spasms radiating through my body. I was told to go home and a MRI would be ordered. How could I be sent home when I was in such excruciating pain? It took 20 minutes with the help of a nurse just to get off the hospital bed and into a wheelchair, tears rolling down my face the whole time. The doctor seemed to think I was there just for the pain medication. On my discharge papers he had diagnosed me with a strained muscle in my lower back. He did not listen; the pain was in the center of my back.
The following day, I called to set up a time for the MRI. I explained to them that the pain was in the center of the back not in the lower back. They were not able to scan the mid back unless there was a prescription for that area. After several frustrating calls, I had a new prescription for the mid back (thoracic).
I knew something was terribly wrong the day that I had the MRI scan. The technician was polite but not overly warm when I arrived. I was wheeled in by wheelchair and could barely transfer to the bench of the scanner. In contrast after the scan, he was ever so nice, even lifting me off of the bench and back into the wheelchair. Once I was placed back in the car, I cried. I told my mom I could tell something was wrong, very wrong.
August 25th, 2009, a day I will never forget, my primary care physician called to let me know he had the MRI results and I needed to come into the office now. When I got there I was immediately escorted into a room. Wow, no waiting for 2 hours in the waiting room. He came in and put up the images from the MRI.
“I am sorry to tell you but you have a mass in your left lung, about the size of a golf ball, and it has metastasized to your spine. Your T-8 vertebrae has collapsed. It can only be cancer” he explained."
This was the beginning of many scans – CAT scans, PET Scans, MRI’s and a biopsy of the spine. I had lung cancer that not only spread to the spine but to my brain as well, in other words STAGE 4 LUNG CANCER!
I was told I was lucky that I am small otherwise when the T-8 vertebrae collapsed, I would have most likely been paralyzed. Hey, there is something positive. I was placed in a full tortoise shell brace to prevent further movement of the collapsed vertebrae and prevent my being paralyzed. It wasn’t working, the vertebrae continued to move pushing into my spinal cord. My neurologist contacted a colleague at John Hopkins and asked if he would perform back surgery to replace my vertebrae and put 2 rods in to support my spine. While awaiting his reply I went through 3 Cyberknife treatments (pinpoint direct radiation) to the spine and 1 to the brain. Immediately following the last treatment, as in the same day, I had an emergency Kyphoplasty. I had to have this procedure performed because the vertebrae continued to move and was pressing further into my spinal cord. If the spinal cord had been severed I would have been paralyzed. This would have occurred within 2 weeks if preventative measures not been taken. Post procedure, while in recovery, it was explained that the surgeon from John Hopkins refused to do the operation due to there being a 12 month recovery period and I only had 18 months to live. There was my expiration date or a death sentence.
My Pulmonologist (lung doctor) was the next of many specialists I would visit. I wanted the tumor in my lung removed by CyberKnife. He would not perform the procedure due to it not being medically necessary. It would not cause blindness, like the brain tumor, or paralysis as would the tumor in the spine. It was assumed that I would not live to benefit from the procedure because the cancer was already traveling through my bloodstream. It was suggested that I enjoy what I have left of my life and do chemo and radiation, which would extend my life by about 5 months, with a good quality. I refused! Chemotherapy destroys a person’s immune system due to the immune system having many fast growing cells. Chemotherapy also kills fast-growing cells in the stomach and colon, making it……..
