About Us
First Six Months
My seven-year-old daughter, Kayla was diagnosed with leukemia on January 4th, 2008. Prior to diagnosis we had some traumatic incidents going to several emergency rooms for weird symptoms. Kayla became so pale her skin looked translucent. Bruises lasted for weeks and stayed dark, which was odd. By the time the leukemia was found her kidneys were already under stress as the cancer was throughout her blood system. A doctor told us that without treatment she would have died within eight weeks. How’s that for an introduction to cancer?
The first six months were horrible. Side effects showed up within days of starting treatment. Kayla had a broken leg the day before diagnosis. Apparently the leukemia cells packed up in her bone marrow were stealing her calcium and magnesium causing bone weakness. She did not want to eat or drink due to mouth sores. After a spinal the doctors thought her back was broken. She could not sit up, lie flat, or do anything from the severe back pain. On top of this the morphine prescription was written wrong so that we were giving her too low of a dose. Five weeks into treatment her second leg was broken during physical therapy. During this time I was lifting weights every night in my garage because I had a four foot tall daughter that I now had to lift constantly. From broken legs to severe nerve pain in her feet she was in an wheel chair for about nine months. To say that we were going through incredible turmoil is the understatement of the century.
A New Mission
Due to all of the added drama it became clear that if I did not become proactive it was a very real possibility that the treatment, not the cancer could kill my daughter. I made the decision that I would go through any lengths to find answers- come on, ten million people in the US are going through treatment, there had to be answers out there. No matter what, I would find them. On top of this I was forced to face the real possibility that my daughter could die anyway, so I would concentrate on quality of life for her. Even while very sick she could still experience joy, love and life. Thus my mission became very real and my pursuit of this objective was worked on all the time.
Each victory was further incentive to work more. One particular victory, early in our cancer adventure had to do with the mouth sores. If Kayla would not eat or drink while these were in her mouth, we had a serious problem. Our doctors offered two solutions, a medicated mouthwash and a feeding tube if she lost too much weight. Kayla hated the mouthwash and in my opinion a feeding tube only presented more possibilities for infections and complications therefore it was not an option. After two months of searching a supplement was found that prevented the mouth sores from forming. This was after we were guaranteed that the sores would happen on a weekly basis due to increased chemo dosages. By the time the sores went away in a week, she would be due for her next treatment, causing the sores to return. We were looking at a year of this intense treatment. The supplement that was found and implemented cost us $12.00 and stopped the sores completely!
When the sores stopped happening I knew that I had to promote this information. Even though I am not a computer technician, knew nothing about websites, had not even written anything in my life, I had to figure out all of these things and promote this knowledge via the internet. Thus a new career began while Kayla was on her treatment.
Stacking The Cards In Your Favor
Look, I am not a doctor, nor medically trained, but I do believe this site and the information contained in it can help improve your quality of life while you are going through cancer treatment. In a way, it is a benefit that I am not medically trained. Doctors know of many alternatives that work – liability issues, insurance and bureaucracy prohibit a doctor from offering these things to you. Your signature on permission forms only provide legal protection if you are following a strict protocol without any outside interventions. Doctors go through many years of training which include high amounts of debt to attain. They are not going to risk their career for a simple remedy that could work. To help you gain approval of remedies that I recommend my articles include medical study quotes for your doctor, without these they will not approve of their use.
I also believe that taking every action to improve your diet, your mental outlook, creating joyful activities, are all steps that stack the cards in your favor. How I came to this conclusion was actually based on a conversation with a doctor who told me that cancer treatments are risky. They know that chemo/radiation is effective against cancer but they also know of the inherent harm that these treatments cause the body, no one can predict individual toxicity in the patient, which could present serious complications. Since he posed this as a gamble I realized that I could stack the cards by doing everything possible to improve Kayla’s life through nutrition, positive thinking, activities, learning and anything else that I could think of. Stacking the cards in our favor was the main focus through the following thirty months of treatment. Kayla finished on May 11th, 2010, another huge milestone. We still stack the cards in our favor and I hope that you will too.
Best Wishes,
Debbie Witter