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| Keith & I August 27, 2021 |
Hi!! My name is Ali Sabino and this is my story of how I found out I had colon cancer, how/why I declined conventional medical treatment (chemotherapy) and decided to heal my body holistically. I'll be breaking this down into many sections but this first post will give some background. I hope you'll follow along with me as I tell my story and share with you my healing journey.
It all started the early morning of July 11, 2023 (ironically my 50th birthday) when I was admitted into the hospital after an emergency CT scan showed an apple core lesion in my descending colon. I had 2 emergency surgeries one on July 12th and the second on July 14th, where I underwent a Robot Assisted Sigmoid Colectomy and 7 inches of my colon was removed along with a tumor the size of a peach. What I didn't know at the time was how great God is and that He really is a God of miracles.
My amazing surgeon, for privacy purposes we'll call her Dr. X was able to remove the tumor and reconnect my intestines without an Ileostomy or a Colostomy bag, praise Jesus. This was miracle number 1. After 10 days in the hospital, on July 20, 2023 I was finally sent home to finish my recovery.
On July 27, 2023 I received the phone call that rocked my word. Dr. X called with the pathology report....it confirmed what I think I already knew.....I had cancer. She told us what she knew; the tumor was successfully removed, it was well differentiated and the margins were clean....whatever that all means. She also told us that during a surgery like this it's required that the surgeon take 12 lymph nodes to send for pathology. She took 34, this was miracle number 2....even though one of those lymph nodes came back positive for cancer. If she didn't take 34 would she have missed that 1? That's the 10 million dollar question that only God can answer.
The next few days were emotional and filled with uncertainty. I scheduled an appointment with a new PCP (which I ended up hating but found one I love....another miracle) and insurance approved my Oncology referral and I had my first appointment at Optum Care Cancer Center set for August 3, 2023 and I would be meeting with my Oncologist, we'll call him Dr. Z for privacy purposes.
On August 3rd, Keith and I arrived at the oncology center nervous and unsure of what to expect. It seemed to be a normal consultation. Dr. Z was nice but stoic. He went over my pathology report and reconfirmed the cancer diagnosis, Adenocarcinoma - Stage 3B Colon Cancer. He let us know the preferred treatment regimen is FOLFOX 6 (fluorouracil (5FU) + leucovorin + oxaliplatin) and consisted of 12 treatments every 2 weeks. Each treatment would take approximately 3 hours and I would come home with a pump for 46 hours, which meant I would need to get a port catheter inserted before I could start treatment. It was all overwhelming and surreal.
Getting a cancer diagnosis is shattering, my mind was unable to focus on anything. Plus, I was still recovering from surgery so I wasn't in the best shape. I felt like I was just doing what I was told to do....what I was expected to do. So I went to my cancer education class, I got the port catheter put in and I scheduled my first round for chemotherapy for August 21st.
I knew chemo wasn't going to be a walk in the park. I was young, healthy and in decent physical shape so I thought I had that on my side. My attitude was good and I had God holding me in the palm of His hands (there will be more about my relationship with God in a separate post). My first round was horrible, it's a level of insane side effects that no-one could possibly grasp unless they've had chemotherapy; nausea, headache, fatigue like you could never ever imagine, muscle cramps so intense I could barely walk, insomnia (yes, even with the intense fatigue), zero appetite, whole body weakness, did I mention the headache....it was insane.
I had my second round on September 11, this happened to be mine and Keith's 24th wedding anniversary. Yep, first my birthday and then our anniversary. This round was the same as the first. I knew the treatments would only continue to get worse since it is cumulative treatment. Shortly after my second round I told Keith that I didn't think I wanted to continue with conventional treatment and that I wanted to try to beat this holistically…he was ecstatic!
On September 15th Keith and I came across Chris Beat Cancer (www.chrisbeatcancer.com) and dove right in. Chris also had Stage 3 Colon Cancer and beat it with a completely raw whole food, plant based organic diet. He has an entire series put together broken down into separate modules that after watching his first one (free) we bought the rest. It was so enlightening!! There was so much information available and tons of testimonials to back up and support this method of healing. I was READY to take back control of my healing and fight for my life because after all it is my life.
On September 22 we had an appointment with Dr. Z and we were armed with several questions to ask him about my treatment, questions we didn't know to ask in our consultation. Here are just a few: 1) Is this treatment Curative or Palliative? (answer) it's 50/50, 2) Does this treatment kill the cancer stem cell? (answer): No, 3) If it were you, your wife or child would you take this treatment? (answer): long pause, maybe. We told him we wanted to stop treatment. He told us to take 2 weeks to think about it and then come back to him with my decision. I asked him if I decided to go the holistic route would he still support me with office visits, ordering bloodwork and scans for me and he agreed to stay on as my oncologist (Praise God)! Leaving his office I felt so much relief. I knew I had already made my decision to go holistic but I was so encouraged by his support.
On October 1, 2023 I started my 100% Raw Whole Food Plant Based Vegan life saving mission.
This is how my journey started! I hope you'll check back for more updates and information. I have already learned SO much valuable information that I can't wait to share with you.
Much love and many blessing,
Ali
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