Tuesday 30 March 2010

overwhelmed

I have to say it's an understatement that I am totally overwhelmed with all the donations that are flooding in. People I don't even know are sending in money. What a community I have around me and what amazing friends I have. I can't really put into words my appreciation for the generosity of everyone. How do I thank everyone? I am not sure yet. All I know is that coming here to the Center for the Study of Natural Oncology is the best move we have made. We are learning a lot right now and slowly putting together a protocol. I am confidant I will beat this. It's not impossible. More details on how I will do this to follow. MAN!, Dee and I miss our son Dillon but we get to talk to him everyday on Skype. Thank you Skype for existing as we get lots of cyber kisses from overseas that makes me cry.
-nat

Overview incase your not up to date

This is the email I sent to my friends and family last week to update everyone on what was going on with me. If you are unfamiliar with what has happened in the last year I will quickly give an overview.

July 2008 I noticed a lump in my breast. Docs said not to worry as I was breast feeding and it didn't look cancerous under ultra-sound. They said come back if it hasn't gone away after I was done breast feeding. Well 9 months later I stopped and the lump grew very fast. It took a month to diagnose it and the doctors all thought that if it was cancer it would be mild. Ha! July 09 two days before my son's 2nd birthday I was told I had angiosarcoma. Well hemangiosarcoma to be exact. Big big tumour in my breast. I knew it had to go. This is a VERY rare cancer so not a whole lot of info out there on it. .01% of cancers in the world are this. It is caused by vinyl choloride and other enviromental toxins. I just happened to be working with vinyl fabric for the last hmmmm 8 years or so plus I did screen printing with plastisol inks with bad ventilation. Not a coincedence.

After a cat scan they found more tumours in my left breast. Right, both breasts had to go as this is a aggressive cancer and one that likes to come back and spread. I had the operation in late July. No other cancer was anywhere else that they could see. I was offered chemo which i declined as a lot of literature said chemo was not effective and I wasn't into the idea of poisioning myself in hopes my cancer died before I did. Radiation was another option but my chest wall was too square and my oncologist said they would get a lot of my lungs. We decided to watch and wait.

My husband and me got educated very fast on anti-cancer diets. We read and read and were overwhelmed with info. We decided I should try the Budwig diet. I did this and tracked my cancer with the HCG test done by Dr. Navarro. I thought everything was going ok as I felt great and no lumps were reappearing. Then in Jan 2010 I started feeling a bit tired and having a few issues. Those cleared up and then I got a cold in Feb which lasted all month and I notice a new possible lump. I went to the doctors who ordered another cat scan which was done in March. Well this is what I wrote two weeks ago.....

Dear friends and family who I haven't talked to already,
I found out last Monday that my cancer (angiosarcoma) has spread to my spleen and my liver. I have an enlarged spleen from the multiple tumours and many in my liver as well. I also have two now on my chest wall. I was told by my surgeons that there was nothing more they can do for me and told me to contact oncology to talk about chemo. They said this is not curable. That's what they say but I have never really believed doctors much. I am not a statistic, I am an individual. Many people have beat the odds and I intend on doing the same. I am still in good health with only a few bits of pains now and again and a bit of tiredness. Chemo will not cure me and it will not necessarily extend my life either (quality of life is more important to me) as this cancer is a weird bugger and not much of what conventional doctors can offer will help me.

The plan of action is this. We are flying to San Diego to meet up with The Center for the Study of Natural Oncology (www.natural-oncology.org) Wednesday. Dee and I are having a 5 day intensive program with a specialist to discuss my cancer, make a plan of action, do blood tests, look at my diet, detox, talk about treatment options and get them organised and a whole load of other things. They are a non-profit organisation (though this is not free!) and they really know their stuff. The plan is to stop the tumours blood supply therefore stopping the cancer spreading, then to organise treatments that will support and boost my immune system all without making me sick. They believe they can help me and achieve this. It will be a lot of work and not be too cheap either as it will all be out of pocket for us but hea it's only money. This is my life and I will do what it takes to raise Dillon with my best friend Dee. I have to be there to see Dillon grow up.

We will also be talking to the sarcoma unit at the Royal Marsden in London as well when we get back. They are all just being to slow for us. We are not against using a combination of natural/allopathic treatments as long as what we do actually works without killing me.

We could use your support, well wishing, healing thoughts and charitable donations or ideas on how to raise some money to help pay for drugs, supplements, travel costs and treatments. Maggie and Deanna will probably be helping out with that on the USA side. More info will be forthcoming. I will give everyone an update soon after we get back April 6th.

Donations!

Hi, this is Sarah U. I'm a friend of Natalie Cox, and helping out a bit to set up this here bloggity blogg! Natalie is battling a rare and aggressive form of cancer called Angiosarcoma, and needs all the love and support of her friends and community. Let's help raise some funds for her treatment, so she can use her energy to focus on her family and health -- to donate directly to the cause, just send a paypal donation to midnighttosix@btinternet.com.

I kept trying to make a direct link to her paypal page, but blogger is being a real jerk about it! If I can figure out a direct link, I'll post it soon.

GO TEAM NATALIE! Please, feel free to post and re-post this site wherever you can!! We love you Nat.