That's my beautiful granddaughter Deija and her sign over my head. And that shiny object is my head after chemotherapy. I've been granted a reprieve from further chemo for the nonce, and I'm using it to see what happens when I use only the non-toxic therapies that are considered "alternative" by mainstream medicine.
Contributions to my becoming absolutely completely 100% cancer free can be made by writing a check to the Kate Waterbury Wellness Fund c/o Selco Community Credit Union, P.O. Box 7487, Eugene, Oregon, 97401.
As soon after my first chemotherapy as I had recovered sufficiently to go anywhere I got myself to the nutritional counselor recommended by my sweet wonderful Eugene friends. Besides the enzyme therapy I sought, my NTP has been treating me with bioactive frequencies that help my body detox. I learned that the chemicals in the chemotherapy IV are only actively doing what they do for x number of hours. After that, my body is sick and detoxing from the therapy.
Its important to note that I learned this characteristic of my treatment from my medical doctor. My doctor is very helpful, and responsive to my questions and concerns. The key, in terms of patient advocacy, is knowing what questions to ask!
So I am cooperating with the toxic therapy, which produced dramatic results the first time, noticeable results the second time, and less noticeable the third time. I let it do its thing, even helping it along with positive attitude, and healing imagery. I have tapes and dvd's. Good stuff. My friends have been wonderful.
Besides tapes, books, dvd's and ideas, my Eugene "team" has been here for me every treatment, bringing me soup, organic vegetables to juice, and other wonderful home cooked foods. They've brought friendship, hand-holding, distraction from my feeling punk, an arm to lean on when I was weak. They've sprung me from my room when I began to vegetate in my low energy miasma, and taken me places--out to eat, the movies, shows, "coffee"--more likely a juice bar.
The therapies that I began using while still receiving mainstream treatment include:
Proteolytic Enzymes
BioActive Frequency Treatments
Good Nutrition, Anti-Cancer Diet
Anti-Cancer Nutritional Supplements
Acupuncture
Digestive Enzymes
Guided Imagery
Meditation, Relaxation
Fun
Gentle Exercise
[And I'm planning to up that last one to Dance!]
What you know, if you've faced any health challenges at all, is that insurance will cover the mainstream therapies, pharmaceuticals if you're lucky, and several things that your medical doctor might recommend.
My healing activities, therapists, and supplements, are not covered by my insurance--and my income is very low. My life depends on doing everything I know how to do to continue my healing and to live cancer free. Much I can do on my own with little expense. A few important mainstays like my enzyme therapy and nutritional supplements, and the professionals who are guiding me in using these, are not without considerable cost. During the first month of my treatment I spent several hundred dollars on supportive therapy and I will continue to spend more than I can afford for a long time.
A friend of mine, taking a more pragmatic approach than I could to my situation, has strongly encouraged me to ask for help. Asking for help was one of the very first lessons--it was new and a challenge, but asking my friends and family for help and receiving their loving help and support has been beautiful. Asking for financial help is taking it to an uncomfortable level for me, but here I am, with my hat in my hand...upturned to receive your dollar gifts.
Kate Waterbury Wellness Fund
Selco Community Credit Union
P.O. Box 7487
Eugene, OR 97401
Please write your check payable to the Kate Waterbury Wellness Fund. The lovely people at Selco will know what to do with it. Thank you. I gratefully accept any little thing you can send. If you know of grander donors looking for someone to help, hey, give them that simple little address above, or tell me how to contact them. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
"Health Wealth and Beauty." Where I grew up, Kadoka, was even flatter, and less green. In Kadoka there was a place where we played that was around a small muddy sometimes dry cow dam at the edge of a corn field abutting our back yard. We called it "The Trees". The town park also had about four trees, in a line. Old gnarled, gray, been there since pioneers, which come to think of it when I was a kid wasn't so far in the past. And there was another place, really wet, a swamp with an island and muskrats, off beyond the school, an anomaly in a place where trees were planted and nurtured as wind breaks along farmers fields, and where every Arbor day school let out for a tree planting ceremony. It is so amazingly different now. Families, mine included, planted trees in their yards, little whippets, and watered them faithfully. Now, fifty years later, its a different town. No longer transparent and windswept. Windy still, but the trees make such a difference! There are still places you can see through the town from one side to the other, but it used to be wherever you stood, now its maybe a particular intersection. [Pretty Quiet Around Here]
Here's a photo taken near our cabin.
Sylvan Lake is also close to the cabin.
Here she is again, wearing a dress that she sewed for festival. Wendy's a seamstress.
And yet again, this time with her brother, my son, Rock, and his youngest, Mitchell Rock, in Kadoka. Rock will be visiting South Dakota this summer too. Celebrate! Cousins and grandkids, siblings, alla that!!!
