While the other chemos were not as severe, I continue to be challenged by the treatment and I was horribly unwell on it. But I persevered and completed 8 months of it. At that stage I hoped it was the end of it. Unfortunately, at a follow up appointment 6 months later I was told that it was visible again. So, we moved onto a large surgery to scrap out my insides and internal chemo wash during it, followed by another 6 months of chemo. It did not take long before we had that conversation again, after three months it was visible again.
At this point we did not know where to turn, the oncology team concluded that Chemo does not work and because I have other underlying health conditions, I was not eligible for Clinical Trials and t in short, they did not have many in the box options. This sent me headfirst in to the world of exploring my own possible treatments. Lucky for me this is when Grace came across our path.
I could not be more grateful for Grace having come into my life, she was able to bring it all together, was willing to look me holistically and see me as the unique individual that I am. This resulted in several significant outcomes.
Possible paths for treatment: these came through her arming all of us with knowledge about me, importantly information on treatment effectiveness, what should be focused on and what should be left on the shelf. No surprise that we found that chemotherapy should have been left on the shelf. I try not to dwell on the hell I went through when I could I have known at the outset it was never going to work. Today we still have options at hand depending on what may come next.
Grace supports me to craft communication that I can use with my medical team. This has been invaluable because I have had involvement with many medical disciplines as well as complementary. Grace helped me to figure out what I needed to do and what complementary medicines I needed to take.
Identifying what was driving severe inflammation of the bowel, Ulcerative Colitis for over 30 years. Grace’s curiosity and tenacity meant she was not going to leave this one alone. This was because inflammation is so intricately linked to cancer and because each of the medical discipline abdicated, assigning the cause to the other discipline. We knew that if we did not sort this one the repercussions were endless. Sort it she did, there were many layers and she patiently peeled them back getting to the root cause and beautifully took me with her.
Her science-based knowledge, broad experience and compassion has given me hope. With her support I am sure that no matter what I can get through anything.
So, would I recommend Grace to anyone that is looking to navigate the complexity of cancer treatment? The answer – a whole hearted yes!
