Posted by Mary Russo Holm
For those who don’t know my sister Debbie, she is a beautiful daughter, sister, friend, wife, and mother of three. She has a wonderful husband named Shawn and three gorgeous children; Shawn Jr. (4 yrs.), Logan (22 months) and Noah (9 months). Debbie was diagnosed with stage III breast cancer in January of this year (2008) at the age of 29 while she was 5 months pregnant with her youngest son, Noah. At the time, the doctors encouraged her to abort her pregnancy and receive immediate treatment, including a mastectomy and aggressive treatment with radiation and chemotherapy. Through many tears, anger, prayer, second opinions and spiritual advice, she decided to proceed with a doctor who knew how to treat pregnant women with cancer and deliver her baby. Noah was born only 6 weeks early on April 14, 2008 and is a strong, healthy boy.
Debbie underwent a bilateral (both breasts) mastectomy just over a week after delivering Noah, followed by radiation treatment and then more aggressive chemotherapy that made her body weak. A PT scan following these many weeks of treatment revealed that the cancer had spread to her lungs. She then opted to try an experimental chemotherapy treatment offered in California since none of the therapies endured have succeeded in stopping or even slowing down the growth of the cancer. These weeks of traveling and huge expense to her family did not pay off either.
After trying all that conventional treatments had offered she decided to go for "alternative" treatments and see an acupuncturist, this too beared no positive fruit as her last PT scan revealed the cancer was now in both lungs, a rib bone, under her sternum and in her throat.
A friend of the family had shared a story with us about her step mother who was cured of bone cancer by a procedure called bioablation (where they direct radio waves directly into the tumor and break it up and destroy it for good) and how she went to the North Carolina Institute of Technology. Debbie has since visited there where they take Thermal Images of the body to see "hot" spots that indicate issues with the body. This perfectly safe and perfectly painless procedure (with no loss of dignity) can detect a cancer 10 years earlier than the conventional method of "detecting" cancer by mammography... (had we only known this sooner!) So, long story short, Debbie is currently in Equador where they can practice freedom of medicine and she is receiving treatments that have worked on people in the same dire situations with cancer to start the healing process! YEAH!... Please pray for Debbie and these people the next two weeks!
Even while carrying this great cross with which the Lord has entrusted Debbie, it should be said that she is an unwavering pillar of great faith. She has thought and fought from the very beginning with an attitude of victory over this cancer and has continued to love and encourage her family and friends. She is a true inspiration as a woman, wife, mother, and friend.
Please remember her and her family in your prayers to our Lord for her complete healing so that she may live to see her children and her grandchildren grow. May God Bless YOU and YOUR FAMILY!
For those who don’t know my sister Debbie, she is a beautiful daughter, sister, friend, wife, and mother of three. She has a wonderful husband named Shawn and three gorgeous children; Shawn Jr. (4 yrs.), Logan (22 months) and Noah (9 months). Debbie was diagnosed with stage III breast cancer in January of this year (2008) at the age of 29 while she was 5 months pregnant with her youngest son, Noah. At the time, the doctors encouraged her to abort her pregnancy and receive immediate treatment, including a mastectomy and aggressive treatment with radiation and chemotherapy. Through many tears, anger, prayer, second opinions and spiritual advice, she decided to proceed with a doctor who knew how to treat pregnant women with cancer and deliver her baby. Noah was born only 6 weeks early on April 14, 2008 and is a strong, healthy boy.
Debbie underwent a bilateral (both breasts) mastectomy just over a week after delivering Noah, followed by radiation treatment and then more aggressive chemotherapy that made her body weak. A PT scan following these many weeks of treatment revealed that the cancer had spread to her lungs. She then opted to try an experimental chemotherapy treatment offered in California since none of the therapies endured have succeeded in stopping or even slowing down the growth of the cancer. These weeks of traveling and huge expense to her family did not pay off either.
After trying all that conventional treatments had offered she decided to go for "alternative" treatments and see an acupuncturist, this too beared no positive fruit as her last PT scan revealed the cancer was now in both lungs, a rib bone, under her sternum and in her throat.
A friend of the family had shared a story with us about her step mother who was cured of bone cancer by a procedure called bioablation (where they direct radio waves directly into the tumor and break it up and destroy it for good) and how she went to the North Carolina Institute of Technology. Debbie has since visited there where they take Thermal Images of the body to see "hot" spots that indicate issues with the body. This perfectly safe and perfectly painless procedure (with no loss of dignity) can detect a cancer 10 years earlier than the conventional method of "detecting" cancer by mammography... (had we only known this sooner!) So, long story short, Debbie is currently in Equador where they can practice freedom of medicine and she is receiving treatments that have worked on people in the same dire situations with cancer to start the healing process! YEAH!... Please pray for Debbie and these people the next two weeks!
Even while carrying this great cross with which the Lord has entrusted Debbie, it should be said that she is an unwavering pillar of great faith. She has thought and fought from the very beginning with an attitude of victory over this cancer and has continued to love and encourage her family and friends. She is a true inspiration as a woman, wife, mother, and friend.
Please remember her and her family in your prayers to our Lord for her complete healing so that she may live to see her children and her grandchildren grow. May God Bless YOU and YOUR FAMILY!
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