Now, I know what all of you “non-believers’ may think of doing.

But don’t.

Don’t skip this post, don’t write it off as “Jesus freak” ramblings.

Read it with an open mind and heart.

As I’ve stated before, I was the poster child for Christmas/Easter and sit in the back of the church club. I went to Sunday school, and even went to Bible Study, but never “got it”.

I’m still getting it. I think our relationship is always evolving with Jesus.

It started with me crying out in the oncologist’s office. “Oh, Jesus!” When you call out to Him, He listens.

One night, I was in a dark place. I couldn’t breathe, I was lashing out at everyone. I was in my bathroom, I had just hung up on my parents, and fell to the floor, sobbing at the thought of dying and leaving my children and husband.

I remember crying out, “Heal me Jesus, Please, heal me Jesus.”

Then?

I went blind.

I literally couldn’t see.

My parents had rushed over, and helped me stand up and move to the bed. (The children were downstairs with Rob).  I  also wasn’t breathing, as I was frozen in fear.

I remember my mom over me telling me to breathe.

I started to breathe, my sight came back, and we all just laid on the bed and hugged.

Me, my mom, and my dad.

I cry now thinking about it.

I believe that night, Jesus healed me.

I  have been surrounded by people of faith. I’ve been anointed with oil three times. The first time, my friend Thud and his wife Emily came over. As soon as he walked in, he began telling me all about the story of Joshua. As we walked, we noticed the cup I had been drinking my Chaga tea out of had the Joshua 1:9 phrase on the rim.

“Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified. Do not be discouraged. For the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

Then? My brother Rob sent me a picture of a medallion he wore over his police vest.

On the medallion? Joshua 1:9.

Three times on the night I was anointed, I  heard the Joshua 1:9 verse.

The second time was with a family from my church. The father had also been healed from stage four cancer. He is an elder in my church, and he, his wife, and their son prayed over me as they anointed my head with oil. It was beautiful.

The third time was in my classroom. A woman I work with is very spiritual and anointed me during my lunch break. I work with several spiritual women, and I’ve been prayed over in offices and the hallway. It may be a public school, but I’ve felt Jesus at work.

I’ve listened to Joel Osteen, Steven Furtick, Max Lucado, T.D. Jakes. Joel Osteen’s mother, Dodie, had been diagnosed with metastatic liver cancer back in 1981 and is alive to this day, cancer free. All of these people have given sermons that have somehow touched my heart. Some may say to watch out for false preachers. I say if someone can bring you closer to Jesus, there is nothing false about that.

I was raised Lutheran, married a Catholic, but have become a Christian.

Some people are what I call “religion snobs”. If you aren’t what they are, you’re doing it wrong.

I  say, if you believe Jesus died for your sins, and if you’re loving people no matter what and forgiving others, you’re a good Christian. If  you are a different religion, I am willing to listen to what you believe, and to learn from you. If I believe we are all made by God, aren’t we all brothers and sisters?

There was a day this past summer that was so beautiful for me. I had just left a healing experience, and had felt Jesus and heard the God whisper. I had been saying, “I am healed”, but heard in response, “I’ve already healed you, ask for something bigger.” I then said, “I want to see my grandchildren grow up.” I heard, “You can see that from heaven.” I then said, “I am holding my grandchildren in my arms here on earth.” I started to repeat that over and over, and suddenly it switched.

It came to me to start to say, “I am ready and willing to do your will. Thy will be done.”

My sister-in-law Sandy had driven me, as we drove home I was telling her the story. Suddenly, as we drove past a peach tree orchard, I saw three nuns.

I looked at Sandy, she turned the car around, and said, “Go.”

I got out of the car and walked up the fence. The head nun came over and asked how she could help me.

I started to cry, and told her I  had been healed by Jesus from stage four cancer, and was having trouble believing in the miracle that had happened.

She held my hands through the fence, and said something about how God knows every bird that is in the sky, his eye is on the sparrow, he holds each one in his hand, and that we are like the birds, being held in his tender hands. To believe that He has performed the miracle I prayed for and was desperate to believe I had received.

Then we prayed the Lord’s Prayer together.

Well, she prayed, I sobbed.

It was one of the most beautiful moments of my spiritual life.

I  also heard about the miracle at Fatima several times. It is also called “The Miracle of the Sun”. It allegedly occurred on October 13 above a large crowd that had gathered in Portugal in response to a prophecy made by three shepherd children. The children had said the Virgin Mary would appear and perform miracles. Reports are that the sun zig zagged in the sky, careened towards earth, or emitted brilliant colors. The story came up several times during the past year, and on October 13th of this year, I found out that there would be a Fatima procession in my town. Wouldn’t you know, on that very day, a teacher I work with happened to give me a rosary she had gotten in Portugal at Fatima. I went with my children, Rob met us on the way, and we prayed. It was solemn and felt right.

I’ve made friends with a spiritual woman, Eileen, who writes the most beautiful blog about her faith. She wrote a book, Breathing Underwater, all about her journey while navigating her daughter’s health issues. I’ve met her in person and she has a light and peace about her that is full of grace.

I’ve been prayed for in churches all over the world. I’ve had pictures sent to me of candles lit in Lebanon, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, England, Hawaii, Australia, South Africa, New York. My Aunt Jackie and Uncle Kenny are very involved in their church, and I    know that Emmanuel Lutheran has been praying as hard as my own church, Our redeemer Lutheran Church.

I’ve reconnected with two people from high school. One was a boy I cheered for when he played football and basketball. He was always so kind, and is now the minister at a college. He has eased my fears and answered my questions with kindness and compassion, all that you would ask from a spiritual leader. The other was a girl who ran in a different circle than I did, but is now married to a pastor in a church near me. I went  to thank her in person on Christmas Eve, and I felt such a connection to this woman, who is now my sister in Christ.

I  declared I would be healed by Easter. On Easter Sunday I went into church and my sister in law told me I looked different. I said it was because I was healed. I believed Jesus died for my sins, and he was healing me.

My PET scan was forty days after Easter. It is believed that on the fortieth day after His resurrection, Jesus took His disciples to the Mount of Olives, where they watched him ascend into Heaven. I believe that weekend was the weekend when I got the physical proof that the cancer was gone, and that Jesus had taken it up to Heaven.

This past fall, my appendix perforated. I ended up in the Burn Unit in the hospital, because of had to be kept isolated due to the fact I had been on chemo. They wouldn’t operate as my white blood cell count was low, so they hooked me up to an IV and there I stayed for days. I  couldn’t believe once again I was being tested. Thud and Emily came by and told me how gold is put into the fire, the impurities rise to the surface, and the gold comes out even more pure. Maybe I was in a time of fire, in the burn unit. It was decided I would have the appendix surgically removed once my strength was regained.

In the meantime, I went to see two energy workers. They both said there would be an issue during the surgery, but I would be ok. One woman said the Holy Spirit was with me always, and the other said I am directly connected to God. I actually felt full of what can only be explained as all consuming love when the energy healer from France worked over me. I later said it felt like Jesus was in me. It was an indescribable feeling.

The surgery came, and lo and behold, when I woke up, the surgeon said there was a little issue with my colon, and my intestine need to be cauterized. The pathology came back not only as healthy, but totally healed. Even my oncologist was amazed that there showed no signs of appendicitis.

Miracles and healing.

There’s so much more, but this is a blog, not a novel.

All I can say is that I wish for everyone to come to know and love Jesus as I have. He has been my saving grace, my friend, my savior, my King.

In Jesus’s name, amen.

xoxo

Keri

As I have mentioned before, I decided to hit all of the nine radical remission factors.

One was herbs and supplements.

In the book, Radical Remission by Kelly A. Turner, Ph.D, she has a whole chapter dedicated to this piece of the remission puzzle. As luck would have it, one of my former student’s mother knew Annie Appleseed, and also knew how to get in touch with a well known and reputable Chinese Herbalist.

Being a teacher has put some amazing children and moms in my life, that’s for sure.

At first, Rob and I were very hesitant. Rob didn’t want me to contact this herbalist.

But after many mornings holding me in the shower as I sobbed about the “weeks, months, maybe a year or two” prognosis the first oncologist gave me,  he said…

“Call the herbalist”.

So I did.

I  am not going to publish his name. Others do, and that is their right and decision.

I’m going to explain why I  choose not to write it or say it out loud.

When I called the number, a man answered and asked in broken English, “Who gave you this number?” He seemed hurried, annoyed even, until I told him I had stage four with bone metastasis. He replied, “Bone metastasis? that’s my specialty!”

He then told me he would meet me in one week, to not eat a lot because he would assess my energy, and to bring cash or checks.

He also told me to meet him in a parking lot.

I  then called my friend and asked if this was for real, and I felt like this was going to be like a scene from a bad drug deal movie.

She reassured me that it was going to be fine, and gave me the phone number of Annie Appleseed.

I  spoke to Ann and she told me not only about how honest this man was, how helpful he has been, and how it would all work, she also told me about the Budwig protocol she eats, her conference and her foundation.

One week later Rob and I found ourselves in a parking lot by a dumpster calling him to come meet us. He appeared, got into the car, and said, “Drive.”

I kid you not.

We went to a public place, he looked over my records, and took some notes. Then he held my wrists and took my pulse using three fingers. He knew that I had been put on an anti-depressant without me telling him, and he said my life force was being suppressed, and that I would to heal while on them. I agreed, and told him I would get off of them. He told me to find joy in life, not drugs. I never felt comfortable about going on them in the first place, and I weaned myself off easily.

He looked at my tongue, then asked if I was warm or cold. Apparently, traditional Chinese medicine believes that all of the energies in the body must be balanced to each other in order for there to be good health. the Yin must be balanced with the Yan.Your body needs both, neither is good or bad. If one is stronger than the other, there must be a balance achieved for good health. he asked me what I  ate, and gave me a whole list of foods I  should and should not be eating. He also told me that “Life is for living”, and to enjoy the occasional red wine, (not white, as that is too “cold” for me).

Eventually, he said the words we were told he says to those he agrees to help.

“I will help you.”

Rob and I cried in this public place.

I’ll never forget his kindness when he said, “No cry, Keri. you be OK. My herbs very powerful, not poison…powerful. You be OK….Give me your credit card.”

So we did.

We took a leap of faith on a stranger we met in a parking lot and gave him cash and a credit card and prayed his herbs would be powerful.

We believe they were.

I  take the packets three times a day, and my blood work is always pretty good. My side effects have been minimal. He said he is also helping my bones stay strong.

I  believe him.

I believe Jesus put that little boy in my class the year before, so that his mother could put this man in my life.

So why the secrecy? Why the “Dr. Snuffleufugus” name?

I don’t care that his name has been published, and is on websites.

I  care about me, and the people I have since sent to him, as there are many.

He is a man who meets people in secret, and doesn’t have an office.

There is a website that is keeping track of all of the holistic doctors who are mysteriously dying, or disappearing. I  do not want this man to ever be on that list.

I want this man to live a long, long, long life.

I gave him the name “Dr. Snuffleufugus” because on Sesame Street, Big Bird had a friend no one ever saw but him. Big Bird met him in an alleyway, and this kind, quiet, unassuming friend brought joy to Big Bird.

Joy is important.

“But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law”-Galatians 5:22-23

We must all find joy in life.

A wise Chinese man told me that once.

May we all find the joy we seek in life, in others, and in Christ.

In Jesus’s name, amen.

xoxo

Keri

When I was diagnosed, I did what everyone told me not to do.

I googled “Stage four breast cancer survival rates”.

A little piece of advice?

Don’t google, “Stage four survival rates” for ANYTHING.

Two reasons.

One reason is that the internet cannot keep up with all of the new advancements.

Another reason is you need to keep your mindset as positive as you can, and other people’s stories are not YOUR story.

My friend Maggie who introduced me to Annie Appleseed gave me a book, Radical Remission. The very same day, Rob’s client Jan gave him the very same book.

That, my friends, is called a “God wink”.

I got the message loud and clear, and Rob and I both started reading.

Friends, this book?

THIS book?

It gave me hope.

Hope beyond anything I dreamed.

It is written by a woman who studied over a thousand cases of radical remission, people who have defied a serious or even terminal cancer diagnosis with a complete reversal of the disease.  Kelly turner, Ph.D., wrote a book that became my lifeline.

She states that there are nine key factors that people exhibited who had experienced a radical remission:

-Radically changing your diet. CHECK! I  cut out sugar, alcohol, bread, dairy, meat and went all organic.

-Taking control of your health. CHECK! Rob and I became a team. We hired and fired oncologists. We researched best practices. We took the reins and ran with it.

-Following your intuition. CHECK! When I  didn’t feel hope at the first two oncologist offices, I ran. When I met my current oncologist, I just knew she was the one. Same with the diet, juicing, herbs etc. If it felt right, I  did it.

-Using herbs and supplements. CHECK! I    met one of the people written about in the book and have been using his herbs ever since. I also added supplements to my protocol to add to the healing process.

-Increase positive emotions. CHECK! I danced almost every day in my kindergarten classroom. I found joy in life. I    chose to not focus on the google statistics, but on the Godly promise. (Mark 11:24, Therefore I  tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.)

-Embracing social support. CHECK! My Facebook page was an enormous source of comfort and encouragement. My friends sold rubber bracelets with the words “laugh, dance, hug”, a local Saf T Swim had a fundraiser along with our former swim club, Islander Aquatics, Girl Scout Troops left gifts, Kait’s Angels gave us a memorable Christmas moment, and my friends threw me one heck of a benefit. (THAT is a whole other blog post!)

-Deepening your spiritual connection. CHECK! I have what I call a “Secret God Squad”. I call on my friend’s Thud, Emily, Claire and Corey when I am in spiritual need. I go to church and pray and am prayed for every Sunday. I asked everyone to put me on every prayer list out there. I have had candles lit for me in England, Australia, Ireland, South Africa, Germany, Lebanon, France, New York City, churches all over America. I have felt Jesus in my heart and body. Check! Check! Check! AMEN!

-Having strong reasons for living. CHECK! Rob, my three children, my family, my friends, my dog, my life.

*At a recent conference, I believe she has spoken of exercise, as well as energy work. CHECK! I’ve had energy work done with reflexology and reiki, as well as seen two energy  workers. I am lacking on the exercise, and that is my goal for this year. I    have a rebounder to improve my lymphatic drainage system, as well as a rowing machine. We are looking into infrared saunas too.

This book is a must have for anyone who has heard the word “cancer”.

Add to that the documentary HEAL. Paula at The Giving Room had a showing one night last month. I    sat there breathless. It was MY story. It is everything I have researched and done this past year all wrapped into one big ball of hope. One man? Healed his SPINE through thought alone. HIS SPINE, PEOPLE!!!! I    sat there eon the floor of the sacred healing space next to Rob and Paula and cried, nodded my head, at times was all like Oprah, “YASSSSS!”

Here is the thing.

If you think that something is impossible, you will never get it. Because you don’t believe.

Kind of like that Santa saying. “If you don’t believe, you don’t receive.”

Same with Jesus too.

I took it a step farther and not only believe it could happen, but after watching the movies “The Secret” and “The Science of Miracles”, I    acted as though it had already happened.

I went around saying “I am cured”.

The power of “I  AM…” statements cannot be denied.

Eventually it changed to “I am healed.” For a few reasons.

One was the word “cured” is a hot button in stage four. Many say there will never be a cure and can get quite nasty about it, as I    found out when a local news website wrote an article about me. (I  prayed for the nasty commenters and sent them love and light…and healed even more.)

The other reason was because in the Bible, Jesus never “cured” people…he “healed”.

Healing from cancer is so much more than physical. You need to do some serious healing in all aspects of your life.  The cancer came because something wasn’t going right in your life, which manifested in your body. As hokey as it sounds, it can be a great teacher if you are open to the lessons.

Some would say, “Fight! Kill it! F*ck cancer!”

I decided to be all “love and light”.

I would lay in bed, sending it love, imagining white light and cells going to the tumors. I    would hold my hand over the tumors and think, “Thank you for the lessons you have taught me. I’m all good. You can go now”, then visualize the tumors slowly fading and breaking apart.

I visualized the PET scan coming back clean and clear. I was careful with my words. I    didn’t say, “I  want the cancer gone”, because that would be speaking it into existence. I    would say, “I am healed, healthy and full of light and love”.

I’ll be honest.

When the PET scan came back five months after I was told I was stage four de novo (de novo is from the get go), I was nervous.

I  was alone in the house when the results were loaded on the patient portal. I    had some secret nurse friends that I sent the results to and we all cried.

There was no sign of cancer.

Yes, there were dead tumors, “cancer carcasses”, but no cancer.

I sent it to my oncologist, and on a holiday weekend, and she said to celebrate, as it looked like I had a “complete remission”.

She may not have said “radical remission”, but I’ll take it.

My dad had six primary cancers, and is still here.

I call him the “Original Radical Remission Man”.

We’ve always been surprised he hasn’t been studied.

They may say there are cancer genes, but I’ve got radical remission in my blood.

In Jesus’s name. amen.

xoxo

Keri

There are several camps in the “Cancer World”.

One believes that everything the doctor says is to be taken as gospel.

Got a pill you want me to take? GULP!

Got a shot you want me to have? OUCH!

Doctors are never to be questioned, and whatever they say, the patient will do.

Another camp throws all of that out the window.

Pills and shots? NEVER!

Chemo and radiation? POISON!

Herbs and fruits and vegetables! Eat ALL the organic!

Another camp says people are only healed by one thing.

Jesus? AMEN!

Now, when a doctor is sitting across from you telling you that you have stage four cancer, and no matter where you go, the protocol will all be the same because you’ve skipped all the other stages and went right to Stage Four, (Kind of like Monopoly when you pass Go, but not nearly as fun), you take ALL the shots and pills at that moment.

Give me all you’ve got.

You give in to the soul crushing fear you’ve been served on a platter, pull down your pants and get shots in the ass, roll up your sleeves and get shots in the arms, and then gag as you swallow the pills that have been prescribed.

Then you go home, cry it out, and decide what to do next.

Which camp do you join?

You never know until you’re told to choose a side.

I am lucky that I  have a husband who has researched and supported me and talked through everything.

We decided to make our own camp.

We call it the “Let’s do a little bit of everything with a whole lot of faith.”

Yup.

Jesus is my camp counselor.

He leads me to everything, I pray on it, and do whatever my gut tells me to do.

In a way I am lucky to have gotten the diagnosis now. Ibrance is a new targeted drug. Some women only are on it a short time, but others? I am in a private support group and a woman has been on it for five years, and was part of the initial study.  I take it every morning for twenty one days, then have seven days off. I’m on the highest dose you can get, and have minimal side effects compared to others. That’s the thing about cancer and medicine, every cancer and every body is different. I’m on this drug indefinitely. People are always confused when they hear I’m still taking medications.

Stage four means it’s out the gate.

The ship has sailed.

The barn door is open.

The cancer cells are floating around in the main body, no longer contained.

The stem cells of the cancer cells are like a drunken cowboy, riding around the body, looking to lasso some new friends to join the party. The oncology world says that eventually the body will adjust to the current protocol, and the shifty cancer cells will morph and become immune to the drugs, then start to grow again elsewhere. When that happens, it’s time to switch treatments.

I say that won’t happen to me, because all of the other natural stuff I’m doing is starving the cowboy. He is alone, in the desert, gasping for sugar and stress and sleep deprivation, but I’m saying, “Sorry, partner. There’s a new sheriff in town. Have you met my camp counselor, Jesus Christ?”

I  also take another pill, an estrogen blocker, as estrogen fed the cancer. I  imagine it as the soup nazi pill, like the guy from Seinfeld. “Hey Cancer, no hormones for you!”

I  am now on a three month schedule for two injections, Xgeva and Zolodex.

Xgeva is for the bones, to help strengthen them. It has a whole host of side effects, jaw necrosis being one of them. I’ve cut it back to once every three months, because I had some jaw pain, and my herbalist also told me he doesn’t want me to take it. For now, I compromise and straddle between Eastern and Western medicine. The nurse pinches my belly and sticks the needle in. I breathe and hold Rob’s hand and visualize Chinese herbs making my bones super strong.

The other injection is the big one, the one with the coils and spring loaded trigger. For a girl who is a needlephobe, seeing the ginormous needle with coils can be enough to make me want to run out of the room…every single time. To me,  it looks like a harpoon whale spear. The nurse again pinches whatever belly fat she can grab hold of, we count, and she inserts the harpoon. Then she pulls the trigger and releases the implant.

Then?

I catch my breath, usually cry, and stomp my feet in pain and disbelief that I am even in the chair getting these shots while Rob strokes my head.

Repeat every three months.

One time I had a nurse tell me he worked in the trauma unit and this shot was the biggest needle he has ever seen.

That made me feel badass, not gonna lie.

After the shots, I always pose by the butterfly quilt at the cancer center.  Butterflies are a sign to me of the Holy Spirit, and I  feel close to Jesus when I  stand there.

I  am grateful to those who are working hard to find the cure to cancer. I do wish that there wasn’t so much money to be made by pharmacological companies, and that there would be more studies on how nutrition and faith and herbs and all sorts of other therapies can work synergistically. Alas, you can’t patent faith, hope and organic food, so no money is to be made.

Stage four gets so little funding, because so many women die quickly.

That is changing.

I  am making sure of it.

I  plan on being the longest living stage four thriver ever, and am looking for others to join me.

Will it be because of the medicine? The diet? the herbs? The mindset? The faith?

I’m saying it’s because of it all, led by my camp counselor, Jesus Christ.

Coolest Counselor ever.

May we all soon find the cure for cancer for everyone,  especially children, so that no one has to have the ginormous needles and pills and medicine and side effects ever again.

In Jesus’s name, amen.

xoxo

Keri

The same child that brought me a mushroom, also brought me some juices.

Actually, her mom did.

I used to work with this woman’s mother, and she always said she wanted me to have her granddaughter in my class. She passed away, and her presence was missed every day when I would bring my kindergarten to get their lunch.

A year or two went by from the last time I had seen this woman and lo and behold, the granddaughter she always said she wished I  would have ended up on my roster.

I  am thankful that this little girl had a mom who not only sent me mushrooms, but also brought me a whole cooler full of juices.

To get you to fully understand how this was a huge step for me…

Ketchup was the only vegetable I ate.

True story.

I took a deep breath and tried a juice. It had the name “Black Dragon”, and I imagined the dragon entering my body and sending the cancer cells scattering. It was actually pretty good, and I thought to myself, ” I can do this!”

I had been researching and saw that juicing is something that many people do, and I  read a lot of success stories. It’s pretty impossible to eat the amount of vegetables and fruits needed to flood your system, and juicing is a quick and easy way to get it all in there. It was worth a try.

Little did I know how much those juices would bring to my life.

I went to “The Giving Room”, and walked in feeling intimidated. Like I was a fraud. Who was I to go into this healthy place? I didn’t even know the difference between Kale and Spinach.

I  took a deep breath, walked in, and  met Andie, who was a bubbly, kind, and as knowledgable a person one would dream of meeting when walking into a juicing place. I    felt so good after going, I went back again.

And again.

And again.

I finally met Paula, who is one of the owners.

If you want to meet someone who is a true angel, compassionate beyond measure, and a light to just be around…go see Paula.

She has become more than my juice guru. She has become one of my life teachers.

Some have Oprah.

I have Paula.

The Giving Room also has yoga classes. The first one I attended had someone playing cello in the corner, everyone breathing in unison, it ended with poetry and the healing energy in the air was palatable.

Sometimes I go to the Giving Room just to feel the energy.

The women and men who work there are full of information, kindness, and are people you want to be around. Andrea, Laura, Jesslin, Kyle, Sam, Emily…they all make juices that fill your body with goodness and healing.

As a teacher, I’ve read the book, The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein, more times than I    can count. Its a story of love, and giving to others.

I’ve always love the spirit of the giving tree.

Now I love the spirit n the Giving Room even more.

If you are starting this journey, or just want to get healthy, find your “Giving Room”. If you don’t have one near you, get yourself a juicer and make your kitchen your very own Giving Room.

A place where you can fill your body with all the organic goodness that God gave us on this big, beautiful Earth.

May we all be as giving as Paula and the staff.

In Jesus’s name, amen.

xoxox

Keri

PS. This is the poem, The Journey, by Mary Oliver, that Paula read at my very first yoga class. She read this poem at the end of class, with a cello playing softly in the corner, everyone breathing in unison, and me crying softly for the journey I was about to take. It was perfect and beautiful.

We’ve all heard about Johnny Appleseed, the man with the tin pot on his head who planted apple seeds all over the country. He did this knowing he would never see the fruits of his labor, literally, but he planted anyway.

He had a real name, John Chapman.

But people tend to remember the other name, and his story is told in classrooms all across America in September as the children go back to school and learn about the color red, make applesauce, and see if apples sink or float.

I’ve told his stories countless times in my classroom, and one boy in particular? I am so grateful he was in my class to hear the story.

You see, this boy’s mom?

She knew someone else who shares the last name, “Appleseed”.

Annie Appleseed.

She has a real name too, Ann Fonfa.

She doesn’t plant apple seeds though.

She plants seeds of hope.

My dear friend Maggie put me in touch with Ann soon after I  was diagnosed. Ann faced a similar diagnosis many years ago. Through a blend of western and Eastern therapies, and a whole lot of nutrition, she healed. Her story has even been written about in the book, Radical Remission, and she was featured in the documentary, The Truth About Cancer. She turned adversity into advocacy. She took all that she learned about holistic and alternative treatments, nutrition, and exercise and created the Annie Appleseed Project. Through her website and Facebook page, she continues to educate and advocate cancer patients. She has a conference every year in March in West Palm Beach, Florida.

I  went to that conference last year and learned so much. She had doctors from all over the world speaking about new treatments, alternative therapies, speakers on nutrition, healers who showed us how to move and do healing dances, a  Chinese herbalist, meditation, and assorted vendors. It was a whirlwind of information. It was worth every penny to go and sit in that conference room surrounded by other people who believed in hope.

That’s what Annie Appleseed plants…

seeds of hope.

http://www.annieappleseedproject.org

Check out her website, got to her conference, donate to her cause.

I  will always be grateful that Ann shared her story with others, and through a boy in my kindergarten class, I  heard about her story and had a seed of hope planted in my heart.

An apple a day keeps the doctor away.

In Jesus’s name, amen.

xoxo

Keri

I never liked mushrooms.

“Plain pizza please!”

After I  was diagnosed,  a little girl in my class gave me a strange looking object. It looked a little like a rock, but soft. She exclaimed it was a mushroom, and her mom wanted me to have it.

That was an interesting parent-teacher conversation.

“Thank you for the mushroom, but I don’t smoke”.

Little did I  know how much this mushroom would change my life. The mother put me in touch with one of the owners of the local Chaga mushroom company, Chaga Island. I  looked up how to make chaga tea in a crockpot, and it was as easy as it looked.

Chaga has a ton of benefits. It has a high ORAC score, which stands for “Oxygen Radical Absorbent Capacity”.  The higher the ORAC score, the better the ability to protect the body from disease.It is an amazing antioxidant, is low in calories, very high in fiber and free of fat, sugar and carbohydrates.

According to the Memorial Sloan Cancer Center, they have done studies where Chaga can inhibit cancer progression. It can stimulate the immune system, has anti-viral abilities, is an inflammation reducer, and can improve physical endurance.

When I    went to the Annie Appleseed Conference, there was a speaker there who was a mushroom expert. He saved the Chaga discussion for last, and called it the strongest mushroom.

That’s good enough for me!

Some people take it in pill form, but I’m more of a purist. I get my chunks from Chaga Island, throw three or four in a crock pot, and fill it with high PH water. I  turn the pot to low or simmer, and let the mushrooms work their magic. The water will eventually turn to a maple syrup like color. I keep the pot on at all times and continue to add water as I  take water out.

“But Keri…how does it taste?”

I  like it.

It really doesn’t have much of a taste at all. Put aside all of your preconceived notions of what a mushroom tea would taste like and just take my word for it. You can add lemon, cinnamon, mint, or honey. You can drink it warm or cold. I know the ladies at Chaga Island have told me that warm is best, and three cups a day when in a medical crisis is good for you. *Always check with your medical professional if you have any questions, and do not take Chaga for two weeks before surgery since it may increase bleeding risk.

I made a video that was shared on my Facebook page and has been viewed several thousand times. If I can figure out how to share a video here…(and have a good hair day)…I may try to share it here.

Hop on board the “Chaga Train” with me and see how you feel.

Chaga choo choooo!

(Thank God for classroom moms that love their child’s teacher so much they send in mushrooms!)

In Jesus’s name, amen.

xoxo

Keri

Welcome to my very first blog post. I’m not sure what I’m doing, how it’s going to go, or what it’s going to look like. Essentially, I’m “going in blind”, as they say.

I  don’t need to see the big plan to believe that somehow it will get done, because I  have faith it will happen.

That’s the thing about faith.

“For we walk by faith, not by sight.” -2 Corinthians 5:7

I’ve been walking in faith for over a year in what has become a journey of fear, courage, hope, despair, joy, grief, forgiveness, and above all…love.

When one hears the words, “Stage four cancer”, the feeling you have that floods your body is indescribable. Some people hear those words and believe that their life is ending.

I heard those words and decided that would not be my story.

In fact, my life began.

I  have been writing every day since I was told there was cancer in my body on my little private Facebook page. First it became a way to control the information that I  knew would get out about me. I  am a teacher in the biggest little town there is, and my children go to school in the same district in which I teach. The last thing I wanted was for the rumor mill spreading half truths and having those half truths keep my children up at night.

I wrote to keep track of all of the new information that I was learning. I wanted a record for me to look back on and see what I’ve been doing. I also (morbidly) wanted my children to one day look at my writing and see that their mom did everything she could to live.

I  remember saying, “That’s not my story”, when the first oncologist I saw told me I had weeks, months, maybe a year or two left to live. I went on a mission to find as many stage four breast cancer survivors who have beaten the odds and are still alive five, ten, twenty, thirty, forty years after the stage four diagnosis. They were hard to find, but I  found some.

And in the process, I’ve become the woman I  was looking for.

In five months, after being told I had tumors in my breast, lymph nodes, and metastatic spread in my sacrum, I was told I had a complete remission.

The miracle I prayed for happened.

It didn’t happen overnight, and it wasn’t easy. I  followed a mix of Western and Eastern Medicine. A new targeted therapy that has only been approved for about three years, pills, injections, all along with a whole lot of faith, discipline, forgiveness, learning, new friendships, dancing, hugging, laughing, radical changes, and love.

Some may say it was the medicine.

Some may say it was the diet.

Some may say it was the Chinese herbs.

Some may say it was the mindset.

Me? I say it was Jesus. Here is where I  may lose some of you, and that is ok. (I really hope I don’t).

I had never been a “religious” or “spiritual” person per say. I was your typical Christmas/Easter, sit in the back of the church kind of girl. I believed in Jesus, and God, and had a bible. But I never really “got it”. The whole trinity and the apple analogy, the Bible was overwhelming to read, and I had been tuned off of it when I heard people using it as a tool of hate and fear.

I’ve now learned that the Bible is the greatest love story ever told, and it’s all about love and forgiveness.

Beautiful.

The day I was told the cancer had spread into my sacrum, I was stage four, and would have to do chemo after chemo until they ran out and I had no options left…

I remember specifically crying out…”Oh, Jesus!”

He heard my cry.

That’s when I started to get what I  call “whispers”, or “God winks”. Things started happening, things in threes, miracles, unexplained occurrences. I believe God has put everything and everyone in place for me in my life. I followed my heart, my gut, my instinct, my Jesus.

I  don’t know why some people get healed, and others don’t. I don’t know why children get cancer. It’s not for me to know. When it is my time, and I get to Heaven, I’ll hold onto Jesus and ask him for the answers to those questions.

But I never asked, “Why Me?”

I knew.

I  knew that my diet, my running around and not taking care of myself, my anger and inability to forgive…that had all attributed to the cancer. (That and some crappy genes).

But, I knew with Jesus’s help, modern medicine, and a whole bunch of alternative treatments and ideas, I could heal.

And maybe, by being blessed with the calling to teach, I could help teach others to heal their lives and bodies and souls as they watched me heal mine.

During this time, if I had a nickel for every time someone said, “You should really write a book”, I would be rich. I  have no idea how to even begin to think about a book process, but writing a little bit every day?

Now that….

I’ve done that every single day for the past year.

I  am thinking of writing my daily morning post here, and adding my old posts as I can. Those posts show the journey I have been on, the people I  have met, the food I  have eaten, the forgiveness I have been given, and the healing as it happened. I’m not doing this for money, or for a second job. Being a wife, mom, and teacher are enough for me. Please forgive me if there are typos, grammatical errors, and if it seems jumbled. Many times my fingers fly across the keyboard and I don’t even know what I am writing until I am done.

And maybe…

When someone says, “That’s not my story” while shaking and not breathing and their whole body has gone cold while sitting in an oncologist’s office after being told they have only so long left to live while visions of their children and husband and friends and family fill their head…

They will find my story…

and find hope.

In Jesus’s name, amen.

xoxo

Keri